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Show Home of The Mormon Miracle Pageant 1990 Dates: July 12, 13,14 and 17 thru 21 Manti LDS Temple MANTI, UTAH 84642, THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1990 ormon Miracle Pageant opens tonigh Large crowds National Anthem, prayer open each performance anticipated As dusk descends tonight on Temple Hill, the colors will be advanced, the National Anthem sung, a prayer offered, and so will begin the Mormon Miracle Pageants 24th season. the Manti Temple sound is hushed as the ground the Mormon Miracle Pageants opening exercises each night set the tone for the performance. Those opening exercises include a prayer, a vocal rendition of the National Anthem and the presentation of the nations and the states flags. The prayer tonight will be offered by Gerald E. Melchin and a male quartet will singThe Star Spangled Banner. Over The opening performance tonight has been preceded by three nights of rehearsals on Temple Hill with the directors seeking to perfect this seasons edition of a pageant that has been viewed by perhaps two million. Other performances will follow Friday and Saturday and The prayer on July 13 will be given by Dallin Oaks and Boys E. Goble will sing the national anthem. On July 14, Ross P. Findlay will offer the prayerand AnnRasmussen will be the vocalist. again July The pageant will again retell the Mormon story of faith and perseverance, trial and tribulation, persecution and 17-2- 1. renewal, in a series of panoramic scenes. For all performances the Manti unit of the Utah National Guard will provide the color guard and Eagle Scouts James Armstrong, Darren Dyrengand David Dyreng will advance the The theme itself is old, but the telling will have new elements: in costuming, stage settings and characters. Lee Thurston and Lee R. Barton will be back to alternate as Brigham Young. Ned Madsen will again play George Washington and Richard Olsen, General Mormon. But there will also be many new faces in the cast, among them the romantic leads, Robert and Mary Henshaw, played this year on alternate nights by Paul Allred and Maria Titze; and John Willmore and Joyce Cluff. And others, too, because the cast each year depends upon young people for its reinforcements. Rehearsals flags. Costuming is major effort The Mormon Miracle Pageant is more than theme, although the themes it develops in dramatic vignettes are surely its basic element The development of those themes, however, is richly enhanced by other elements: the music, the dancing, the lighting, the sound effects and the have been underway for about three weeks: rehearsals of the crowd scenes, Book of Mormon scenes, the costumes. The costuming, in particular, dancing, the pioneer movement westward, the violence of mob action, the tragedy and the triumph. Altogether around 300 are in the cast and another 300 in phases of production like costuming, scenery, sound, lighting, publicity, seating, parking, traffic control and other supporting services. "The pageant is a cooperative effort, general manager R. Morgan Dyreng observed. In a way it involves the entire Sanpete community." Judging by the experience of past years, tonights audience will number several thousand, with attendance for the weekend performances mounting to 20 or even 30 thousand. " There will be folding chair foot Steven the for of Clint, KJar the at Nauvoo back; family, 10,000 Family, portrayed by seating otters and ; front Hill room and for prayer Shaun, up Wesley Carol, Steve, Stephanie, Temple ample ' other thousands on the grass. And there will be ample parking within easy walking Motorists traveling to Manti and paving. Again, motorists distance of the pageant site. traffic and to view the Mormon Miracle can expect Around the perimeter of the will some the month delays during working grounds, the Ephraim Utah Pageant this is which hours two encounter hours, daylight separate and food will Stake operate pop stands. The Manti Utah Stake construction projects if they Monday through Friday. US-8The Traffic through both of the will serve barbecued turkey and choose to travel on for scheduled is July pageant construction zones will be roast beef dinners at its 4 and July maintained, but motorists should recreation halls prior to each nine-mile One project area is a expect slower traffic movement performance, and youth groups between and some delays. will cater breakfasts in the Stake section of US-8- 9 Center and the City Park on the Fairview and Thistle which is There are alternate routes being reconstructed. Motorists mornings except Sundays available, however, if travelers should expect to encounter would like to avoid the following performances. sections of unpaved road with construction zones. Traveling Pageant programs will be only gravel surface, from the north, the project north sold at the entrances to the traffic and some delays during of Fairview can be avoided by Temple grounds. the working hours. south ofNephi, then taking Last years attendance for US-8- 9 on second The project through Fountain Green the eight performances was US-8in located the Gunnison at is Motorists traveling to estimated at 135,000. The peak US-8SR-2and of and from can avoid the the south attendance occurred in 1988, junction five towards miles east runs around work construction 147,000, with the Manti LDS The involves Gunnison the project by taking Mayfield Sterling. Temples centennial observance some minor widening, earthwork loop on an added attraction. - h represents a major, months-lon- g effort Colleen Nielsen is costume chairman and her committee includes more than 20 other women who design and sew, repair and refurbish, fit and finish the 500 or more costumes that appear in the pageant each year. The goal each year is to provide new costumes for several scenes new costumes to replace costumes that have perhaps become bedraggled through the - - of thanksgiving with the Nauvoo Temple in the background, in a scene from the Mormon Miracle Pageant, opening tonight. Roads to Manti under construction one-wa- y 9. 17-2- 12-1- 1. - one-wa- y - SR-13- 2 9. 8 9 SR-13- 7. years. For this years production, the committee has sewed about 50 new costumes some for the New England scenes, some for the principal roles. We want the costumes for each 6cene to be appropriate, attractive and authentic, Mrs. Nielsen says. And that means, because much of the pageant is historical, that research is required to assure that the costuming is true to the period. Susan Memmott Allred, of the Utah Opera Co., serves as a consultant in assuring the authenticity of period costumes. For several evenings, as an illustration of the care that goes into costuming, Vergie Kjar and Charleene Nance have spent hours repairing the Plains Indian war bonnet that appears in one of the pageants most moving and poetic scenes. In that scene an Indian chieftain played this year by Kyle and Rex Christensen -raises his arms to Heaven and, in an authentic Indian prayer, calls upon the Great Spirit to preserve this land." Funds for the purchase of Vergle KJar repairs authentic Indian scene. headdress for Indian Chief (Continued on Page H) |