“Mormon Pageant Family Casts: Performing, Proselyting, and Playing Together”
Megan Sanborn Jones
Brigham Young University
Today, the Mormon Church is the largest producer of pageants in USAmerica, with seven pageants running throughout the year at various Mormon heritage sites. These performances are based on the historical pageant model of the early 20th century, using large casts to stage episodic historical moments through song, dance, and spectacle. The casts are predominantly made up of volunteers, who are encouraged to participate as families. As a result, dozens of families from across the country spend time each summer performing together in Mormon pageants. They live in dorms, tents, or RVs, spend their days rehearsing then vacationing and their evenings performing.
As with earlier pageants, contemporary Mormon pageants have a dual educational purpose: to instruct the audience in history, but more importantly to affirm the participants of their place in that history. Family casts at Mormon pageants are encouraged to “share the gospel message with audience members and other visitors” while also “strengthen[ing] their testimonies of the gospel through rehearsal and performance” www.nauvoopageant.com). This paper will examine Mormon family casts as primary spect-actors of pageants to tease out the complex intersection of faith and community formation that occurs when these families “play” together on and off the stage.
Filed under Playful Destination, Working Sessions 1. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
