Families depict the Mormon story in Hill Cumorah Pageant
MANCHESTER — A week of 13-hour rehearsal days is drawing to a close for the Hill Cumorah Pageant cast of 739.
Friday marks opening night for the annual production, which features scenes from the Book of Mormon and the Bible and draws tens of thousands of people to the northern edge of Ontario County every summer. This year’s pageant boasts its largest cast in 10 years.
Between 1,600 and 2,000 people from across the country — and the world — apply to be in the cast every year, said spokeswoman Toi Clawson. Less than half typically make the cut. Family units make up the majority of the cast; 42 percent of this year’s cast is younger than 18, Clawson said.
Cast members arrive at the Hill Cumorah site one week before opening night. Rehearsals begin at 9 a.m. each day and go until 10 p.m., with breaks for lunch and dinner.
For Connie and Peter Fraser and their friends Mark and Tammy Mancuso, home base this past week has been a green tent with a picnic table inside. Many cast members set up similar daytime campsites, where they eat and relax between activities.
The Frasers, of Greece, are converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though they didn’t join at the same time. Peter Fraser became a Mormon 30 years ago. Connie Fraser was raised Catholic but says she always felt there was something missing when it came to her faith.
Connie Fraser’s conversion came eight years ago, after her stepson urged her to watch a video about Mormonism. Two missionaries delivered the video in person and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. Fraser read the holy book and prayed. She found the church’s views on preexistence and the afterlife answered questions she’d been struggling with her whole life.
This is the Frasers’ first time acting in the pageant. They didn’t apply for roles until now because they’re raising their 7-year-old grandson, Owen King, and they didn’t want to do the pageant until Owen was old enough to remember it. They’ve come to see the pageant as a family several times.
Connie Fraser, who is in several crowd scenes, says acting out the stories brings a new dimension to her faith.
“Actually being part of it, it makes it that much more personal,” she said.
Hill Cumorah is the site where, in 1827, Joseph Smith is said to have received the gold plates that were later translated into the Book of Mormon. The Hill Cumorah Pageant began in 1937 and has been performed every year since then, except for two years during World War II.
Each night of the pageant, 7,000 seats are set up on the field adjacent to the hill. Up to 2,000 audience members can set up blankets and lawn chairs around the perimeter.
Busloads of visitors show up for the seven performances. Last year, more than 34,000 people saw the pageant, Clawson said. Audience members have the chance to purchase hot dogs, sausages, burgers, barbecue chicken dinners and other food and beverages from R&L Concessions, a group consisting of three area Rotary groups and one local Lions club.
Closing night of the pageant will be a family reunion of sorts for Yvonne Whitmore and her clan.
Whitmore is the widow of former Kodak chairman and chief executive officer Kay Whitmore, who died in 2004. She has six children; two of her daughters are in the pageant with her this year and a third daughter is helping out in the wig shop. Sixteen of her 31 grandchildren are in the production as well.
The rest of her kids and grandkids are expected to arrive in town for the last night of the show, July 18, Whitmore said.
Whitmore’s daughter Cindy Lund of McLean, Va., is playing Joseph Smith’s wife, Emma.
“I don’t get to say anything,” she said, smiling. “I get to stand there and look like Emma.”
She’ll wear a petticoat and a long dress with long sleeves and a high neck, a bonnet and a shawl. Someone will curl her hair.
Whitmore, who did the pageant with her family in the 1970s, was persuaded to do it this year by her daughters.
Daughter Michele Clark of Medina, Orleans County, was in the pageant last summer, and her kids were eager for a repeat experience.
“My kids really love it,” said Clark.
During rehearsal week, most of the Whitmore cousins hang out together between sessions with their cast teams.
Missing from the gaggle is 17-year-old Blaine Jensen of Brighton, one of Whitmore’s grandsons. Jensen is on the work crew, a group of 26 young men who devote a month to pageant set-up, maintenance and take-down. The crew arrives at the Hill Cumorah two weeks before opening night and stays for a week afterward.
The all-male crew members study scripture every morning. They’re supposed to treat the month as a “pre-mission experience,” Clawson said, meaning they cannot date, and they must always be with a buddy. Young Mormon men typically spend two years as a missionary when they turn 19, Clawson said.
Jensen helped build the 10-level, 1,400-square-foot stage the week before the cast arrived, and he’s helping out with special effects during performances. He’ll be responsible for setting a couple of fires and launching some water cannons.
“So far, this has definitely been worth it,” he said.
STVEALE@DemocratandChronicle.com
If you go
What: Hill Cumorah Pageant, “America’s Witness for Christ.”
When: Friday-Saturday, and July 14-18, beginning at 9:15 p.m.
Where: Hill Cumorah, 603 State Route 21 between the villages of Palmyra and Manchester.
Admission: Free.
Background
Pageant-goers may notice a billboard truck and groups of non-Mormon Christian missionaries bordering the grounds of Hill Cumorah before and after each show.
Some of these missionaries hand out pamphlets and direct the public to a Web site that elaborates on their concerns with the Mormon faith. Others use bullhorns or signs to get their message across.
In the past, the protesters have numbered in the dozens, said pageant spokeswoman Toi Clawson.
Tom Jones, president of Florida-based Christian Research and Counsel, says his group of largely out-of-state volunteers comes to the pageant because they believe Mormons at the pageant are spreading incorrect information about the Mormon faith to non-Mormon audience members.
Clawson says some full-time Mormon missionaries will be at this year’s pageant. Cast members will also mingle with the audience before each performance to talk about the pageant, the history of Hill Cumorah, and the Book of Mormon. Anyone who wants more information is invited to visit an on-site information booth or fill out a comment card with their address, Clawson said.
