After years of reporting on the Hill Cumorah Pageant, I jumped at the opportunity to be a guest cast member for a morning. The pageant, which opens its annual run of free performances tonight, tells the story of the church history. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year to the Manchester hillside on which church founder Joseph Smith is said to have discovered golden plates in the 1820s detailing what became the Book of Mormon. The experience of taking part in the pageant offered insight into the hard work and dedication members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to make the event a success — and it was a hoot. In the women’s costume room, I was quickly transformed into a resident of Jerusalem, circa 600 B.C. My costume of soft, natural fibers, included a vertically striped (thank you, ladies) skirt and shirt, a beige drape with a tan and blue headband, and my own long-flowing tresses, rather than one of the many wigs sitting on Styrofoam heads waiting to be styled. Those in charge said my 2007 Wal-Mart leather sandals were “perfect” — ancient-looking and safe enough to run up and down the multi-level set. The pageant, based on the Bible and the Book of Mormon, tells the story of the Mormon religion as a faith with roots in the Old World that was established in America about 600 years before Christ. According to the Mormon Church, Jesus appeared to people on this side of the Atlantic after his resu ...
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After years of reporting on the Hill Cumorah Pageant, I jumped at the opportunity to be a guest cast member for a morning. The pageant, which opens its annual run of free performances tonight, tells the story of the church history. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year to the Manchester hillside on which church founder Joseph Smith is said to have discovered golden plates in the 1820s detailing what became the Book of Mormon. The experience of taking part in the pageant offered insight into the hard work and dedication members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to make the event a success — and it was a hoot. In the women’s costume room, I was quickly transformed into a resident of Jerusalem, circa 600 B.C. My costume of soft, natural fibers, included a vertically striped (thank you, ladies) skirt and shirt, a beige drape with a tan and blue headband, and my own long-flowing tresses, rather than one of the many wigs sitting on Styrofoam heads waiting to be styled. Those in charge said my 2007 Wal-Mart leather sandals were “perfect” — ancient-looking and safe enough to run up and down the multi-level set. The pageant, based on the Bible and the Book of Mormon, tells the story of the Mormon religion as a faith with roots in the Old World that was established in America about 600 years before Christ. According to the Mormon Church, Jesus appeared to people on this side of the Atlantic after his resu ...