The Hill Cummorah Pageant: The Book of Mormon Onstage

It has been many years since I have been to upstate New York. In fact, I rarely cross the Pennsylvania border and most of the times I have done so, I have gone in a more southerly direction. But twice I have gone to Palymyra, New York during the last week of June of the first week of August. For a Mormon, the town of Palmyra, New York holds a place in their history as it is where the first Mormon prophet Joseph Smith had his first vision and it was in this hill that he would find the mysterious golden plates that would later become the book of Mormon.

The trip to Hill Cummorah took about five hours in the family car, and the two times I had been to the location it was to see a pageant put on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints every year. It may not be a Broadway show, but the script is done by an award winning writer. If a Mormon feels guilty about not reading the Book of Mormon, I recommend they find a taping of the pageant instead. If a person who never read the texts sits through the pageant, that person gets a good idea of the Book of Mormon storyline.

Having left the church now, I may find it slightly nauseating or if I went would pointedly read the anti-Mormon literature that was distributed across the seat to the horror of the many people attending the event - most of whom are from Utah or some other Western state, but even if I had never heard of Joseph Smith, I would have been impressed by what the Mormon church accomplishes in putting this outdoor play on every year.

The logistics alone seem to be insurmountable and if memory serves, many of the people taking part are volunteers. The church maintains a visitor's center and a walking trail that people showing up to the state can visit to pass the time while waiting for it to get dark so the Hill Cummorah pageant can start. The one thing you can be sure of is that the vast majority of the people there other than being Mormon are also friendly people, even if Utah Mormons sometimes seem a little weird to those who live in the areas that Utah Mormons refer to as the "mission field." For those who still waiting, the cast will often go around in the costumes that they wear. Sometimes it is possible to talk to them, sometimes it is not.

The Roman type garb worn by the soldiers in the play may seem a little out of place for events that supposedly took place in the Ancient Americas, but even if you are not a Mormon and have no interest in the plot itself, the special effects achieved to put on the Hill Cummorah pageant are impressive. If you plan on spending a while in the area this time of year, a nearby town also puts on a Mark Twain festival to coincide with the pageant put on by the Mormon Church. As the show on Hill Cummorah is a one night affair, a visitor can readily attend both.