Day #3 of the Pageant is complete! I am shattered! But, oh what a day it was.
It started off with waking up at 0730 and getting ready to head to the Preston Stake Centre for a special sacrament meeting with the four Chorley words and The British Pageant choir, core cast and creative team combined. What a beautiful 1.5 hour meeting this was. The singing of the hymns sounded glorious - 500 voices strong and the spirit was in abundance from the moment we all joined together and sang the first note of Come, Come Ye Saints with unanimous gusto. We also heard some short remarks from the stake presidency.
Afterwards we all got changed and we got to work! (Ohhh, 'on the sabbath' I hear you say - haha but it's all for a brilliant purpose and it's the work of the Lord so it's fine). The choir spent the full day from 1030 to 2130 recording their beautiful vocals on top of the melodious orchestral tracks from Salt Lake City whilst us as a core cast rehearsed and began to block the show on stage in the Pageant Theatre. We then had the opportunity to visit the choir in the Chorley ward building's chapel and this turned out to be an incredible and enriching experience for each of us.
The sound that this untrained but completely adequate and prepared choir produced hit each of us core cast members in the most glorious way possible. We performed some short scenes for them whilst they filled in the gaps with their singing and we soon realised how much we were lifting one another and there was not a dry eye in the Chapel as Matt McKenzie (who portrays Arthur Ashton) performed the opening scene over the orchestral track.
We love you choir and as the core cast, we join together and show our gratitude to your hard work and effort and sacrifices as your music truly lifts the show to the spiritual level it is necessary to be at. And the fact you guys only took a 1.5hour break at the most is commendable and humbling for me personally. Thank you.
I feel as though what we achieved today as participants in the Pageant (choir, core cast, creative team) is a true vision of the impact this is going to have on everyone involved and everyone coming to see it.
I personally feel that I am drawing closer and closer to all the core cast members (made up of around 29) every single minute of the day. They are all individually exemplary to me in their own unique way. I love each of them. And more especially the other four youth narrators who join together on the stage to not only share the story with the audience but also bear witness of Christ by being and revealing our true selves and not just the character we are playing. I love the other youth narrators.
But as a whole I feel as though the core cast has become a family and being at The British Pageant truly feels like living, beathing, loving and learning...... in Zion.
I can not wait to be joined by the family cast on Wednesday which will bring our cast to around 200! Wow wow wow.
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Keep up with my daily blogs here for the next three weeks (pictures and videos included).
Hello Ben. I met you several years ago when I visited England/Scotland. I met your parents at the Preston Temple accommodation center and they kindly invited me to stay with them when I went to Airdrie. I'm a Hunter--only very distantly related I imagine, though I did have ancestors in Airdrie--but my connection to your family was immediate. I loved you all! The girls were away and I took over their room for a few days, but I remember the 'little boys' with much fondness. (yes, I know you weren't as little as the others!) I worked at the Nauvoo Pageant last summer, helping with the children of the supporting cast. Alexandra, whose last name I have forgotten, was the director and I believe she is directing your pageant. She was amazing. I'm so happy that you get to use your talents this way. I was there for 2 weeks and saw many miracles happen. The core cast was instrumental in those miracles. Good luck and best wishes--Pam Hunter Braden--your sort of long lost American aunt!!
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