Deborah Gertz Husar says cast members believe they've been called by God to share their talents during the Nauvoo Pageant on her blog, "Region Ramblings."
By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
NAUVOO, Ill. -- Emily Castleton brought her family from Provo, Utah, to Nauvoo for the summer, but it's no vacation.
It's a chance for the voice teacher from Brigham Young University to live the story of her faith, portraying Emma Smith, the wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, for the first time in the Nauvoo Pageant.
"She's my hero," Castleton said. "She was a woman's woman. She exemplified all the qualities of what a great woman truly is."
The pageant -- which opened Tuesday night and continues Tuesday through Saturday nights through Aug. 1 -- tells the story of the people who settled along the Mississippi River in 1839 and built Nauvoo.
A core cast of 20 actors with live speaking parts, half new to Nauvoo this year and half veterans of the outdoor stage, is joined by five separate family casts who volunteer for two-week stints with the production.
For Castleton and other cast members, the pageant is much more than a chance to be on stage.
"Here is a place where we can feel something that everyone wants to feel, a place where they are loved and a place where God is. That is the desire of every person who works on this pageant, not just to put on a show," Castleton said.
Jeff Dickamore, who plays Joseph Smith, said the pageant stays true to the history of the people who drained the swamp and built one of the largest cities in Illinois at the time. More important, it stays true to the work done by Smith.
"He taught us about God, his son Jesus Christ and in doing so, taught us about himself," Dickamore said. "All the time that's gone into this, all the efforts are for one purpose for us to have the opportunity to share with you."
Dickamore, an European studies major at BYU who has finished his classes and needs to complete his honors thesis, played Smith last year and came back for a second season.
He loved spending his summers as a guide on the Colorado River, but he felt called to audition for the pageant last year, unexpectedly being handed the role of Smith.
"I'll keep coming back as long as circumstances let me and they take me," he said. "I knew that I had more to offer, more to give and more to learn."
Mary Jane Wadley is one of three core cast members who has been on stage since this pageant began in 2005.
"The Lord keeps bringing me back. Even my husband says when are you going to stop doing this," said Wadley, who lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and works at BYU as a cutter/draper in the costume department.
Rehearsals for the core cast began the week of June 15 in Salt Lake City, then resumed June 23 in Nauvoo.
Core cast members -- including Wadley's nephew and his family -- perform in the pageant and vignettes presented throughout the day in Nauvoo. Wadley plays Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of Joseph Smith, in the "Letters of Emma and Joseph" vignette.
In character, Wadley talks of her son "a more devoted, affectionate child you never saw, generous to a fault ... a kind brother, loving father and husband" and of the loving bond between Joseph and Emma throughout the troubled early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Lucy Mack Smith, who lived in Nauvoo and whose home has been restored, "was a wonderful lady. She wrote a biography of Prophet Joseph Smith, and it is a wealth of information about him," Wadley said. "She herself is such a faith-filled woman."
Wadley learns from Lucy Mack Smith, just as Castleton learns by playing Emma Smith in the pageant that offers a rich experience for families on stage and in the audience.
"One great thing I've learned from being here is how to be a better mother, not to be so worried about other's expectations, just to love," Castleton said. "It is the most important thing."
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379
