me and shawn

Me with the super-duper nice Shawn Bradley.
All 7' 6" of him.

All I can say is . . . Holy Tallness!

My daughter is a . . .

SCHOOL TEACHER!!!



We spent all day on Friday setting up Brooke's 3rd grade classroom. It has a jungle theme and is A.DOR.A.BLE!

This girl was born to be a teacher. We saw it in her when she was 18-months-old. And now finally, 20 years later, here she is, ready to be a great influence in many children's lives.

Her classroom is ready, her lesson plans are in place, and school starts tomorrow!


And for some reason, I'm feeling . . . old.

Next - rehearsals!

So . . . . we were cast into our parts on Friday night. Early Saturday morning, we started rehearsals which we did almost non-stop for the next week. It was hot. No, it was scorching. It was humid. Waaaay humid. We were outside ALL DAY LONG, every single day. It was tiring. Very, VERY tiring. My legs were killing me from all the lunges and, yes, undulations. By the end of each day were we were sticky, stinky, in pain, and ready to slip into a coma. We didn't get back to our hotel each night until mid-night and we were lucky to be in bed by 1 a.m. Then it was back at the hill by 8:15 a.m. to start it All. Over. Again.

But we loved it. Absolutely loved it. Every minute of it. It's difficult to describe, but despite the extreme conditions, we were on Cloud 9. I couldn't quite figure it out, until one day I was thinking about how hard this all was but at the same time we were all so happy. Then it hit me. When we are in the service of our Heavenly Father, we are sustained. More so than ever. We can endure hard things. This was indeed hard. But it was okay. WE were okay. In fact, we were more than okay. We couldn't think of anywhere else we'd rather be and we dreaded it it coming to an end.

Amazing, but true.

Our rehearsals were held both on the stage and out in "the bowl" which was the grassy area in front of the stage. At this point, the audience chairs weren't out yet, but soon there would be 9000 green chairs filling the bowl!

Front view of the stage, which is set on the side of the Hill Cumorah. Several rehearsals are going on here. (Extra brownie points to anyone who can pick out John. He's there, I promise!)

And here is the view looking into the bowl from the stage.

John with his script in early rehearsals for his scene as Alma. "King Noah" is sitting in his pretentious throne.

A few days later . . . this is where Alma pleads with King Noah to spare Abinadi's life. King Noah responds to Alma by saying, "I see I have a poisonous snake among my priests! You are no longer one of my priests! Away with you!" He then he knocks off John's hat and then the fun really begins for John as he leaps down the stairs and runs all over the stage while being pursued by the other priests, crashing through crowds of people.

John loved it. I swear they wrote this part with him in mind.



This is Jason. He portrayed Christ in the pageant. There were 2 young men who played Christ - one was the "Vision Savior" (Matthew) who appeared in Nephi's vision, and the other was the "Descention Savior" (Jason) who came to the Americas after His resurrection. Even though Matthew and Jason don't really look anything alike, once they were in costume I couldn't tell who was who. They were each amazing in their portrayal of the Savior.




A very moving part of the pageant. The Savior has just descended and is walking amongst the Nephites. He is touching the hands of the children, holding them, healing a sick child. It was a very emotional scene. Here a child touches Him on the cheek.



Jason (portraying Christ) walking among the Nephite children.



Right before Jason portrays Christ ascending back to the Father, he comes to this place on the stage where a few of us "New World Women" and a handful of children gather around his feet. Jason will come and stand on that black plate while we kneel around him. (Brooke is in the striped shirt.)



At this point, Jason (when in costume he is dressed in brilliant white with a wig and a beard) holds out his arms and says, "And now I go unto the Father." The "lift" then raised him up as we raised our arms towards him. I got a little too close to Jason a couple of times and he whacked me in the head as he lifted his arms out. (If you ever read this Jason, I AM SORRY! That was totally my fault! However, I am sure that no one in the audience noticed.) The lights then went out and in the pitch black we had about 5 seconds to get all of us AND the children completely off the stage. That was intense and I think we got caught on stage every. single. performance.
(Adam is in the orange shirt.)



The stage is made out of very hard, VERY SHARP fiberglass. To kneel on this is like kneeling on about 50 razorblades standing on end. You just don't do it. So, to make it a little less, um, painful, they have layed down red rubber matting. We always marveled at the beautiful patterns it left on our knees. Perfect little hexagons!
For the performances, I actually wore knee pads which gave me a whole new lease on life.



Our "New World" group - Matthew (who portrayed the Vision Savior), Andie, me (behind the camera), and those adorable children! During the descention scene, we sat on these stairs while Jason made his way down to our stage. Then we would run and gather around his feet.




The Nephite dancers in rehearsal. The girls had on part of their costumes at this point so they could get used to dancing in the skirts. These kids amazed me! It takes a lot of energy (and youth!) to be a Nephite dancer.



Haylie rehearsing the Harvest Dance in "the bowl."
See the white spray paint on the grass? They had painted an exact footprint of the stage on the grass for rehearsals, since we couldn't all fit on the stage at the same time. It was called "Cyber Stage." :)



Night time rehearsals. We had to get used to doing this all in the dark so some of our rehearsals were late at night.
John's scene as Alma. The man who is really white at the top (with the spotlight on him) is King Noah. John is to the left of him in the "mushroom" hat. John had to wear the hat in rehearsals so that King Noah could practice knocking it off John's head.
This picture was taken right before "the accident." When King Noah went to knock John's hat off, he missed the hat and jabbed John right in the eye! Dang.



Abinadi, with his hands in chains, preaching to Alma.


We rehearsed only 4 days before we performed in front of an audience. FOUR DAYS! It was a miracle that we could pull it off. And pull it off we did! There most surely was divine help. That was the only way it was possible to put together such an enormous production in such a short amount of time.

pageant auditions

A lot of people think that in order to get accepted to the Hill Cumorah Pageant you have to "try-out" first. Au contraire! The reality is, you get accepted first and then try out. Seems a little backwards, I know. However, the pageant presidency (there is a president and two counselors; 5-year callings issued by the church) go off inspiration on whom they should accept to the pageant. Then their hope is that once you arrive at the hill in July and audition for various parts, all sorts of hidden talents will be uncovered! Case in point: who knew that I, Maryanne, could shimmy, lunge, and undulate?! And do all three At. The. Same. Time!

Yes, many hidden talents, uncovered.

Check-in was on Friday. At 8 p.m. they started auditioning, and by 10 p.m. casting was finished and every single person had at least one part! It took a mere 2 hours to cast all 650 of us!

I know what you are thinking, "Holy cow, what a miracle."

Any of the women who wanted a chance at a dancing part were put out in "the bowl" which is the large grassy area in front of the Hill Cumorah. Haylie, Brooke, and I all tried out. There were at least 200 of us! There we were taught a funky little dance by an amazing choreographer named Lisa. Then we danced. And danced. And danced. It was hot. It was hard. Several directors walked around as we danced. They watched. And watched. And watched. Talk about intimidating! Then, they would pull women out as they were chosen for various dancing (or movement) parts.

Haylie showing off her sweet dancing skills during the audition.

Hot, sweaty and tired.
Finally, after almost 2 exhausting hours of dancing, she had her parts:
Harvest Dancer, Unbeliever Torch Bearer, and New World Multitude Woman

John's audition for Alma, which he got. And, BTW, he was AWESOME! As most people on the planet now know, Brooke and I were both chosen to be Ceremonial Dancers, which we soon found out was "code" for Harlot. I know, I've heard it all now...."Oh, I see you were type-cast"......"Like mother, like daughter"....."Are these your true colors shining through?"....etc. All I can say is Brooke and I had a BLAST being harlots. Bring it on . . . shimmies, undulations and all!