| Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 318 pages) |
| Contents |
The past is never dead -- Reanimating American new pageantry -- Performing near the dead : pageant stages and holy ground -- Performing the dead : actors from both sides of the veil -- Performing with the dead : feeling the spirit of holy ghosts -- Conclusion : a great time to be alive |
| Summary |
In Contemporary Mormon Pageantry, theater scholar Megan Sanborn Jones looks at Mormon pageants, outdoor theatrical productions that celebrate church theology, reenact church history, and bring to life stories from the Book of Mormon. She examines four annual pageants in the United States-the Hill Cumorah Pageant in upstate New York, the Manti Pageant in Utah, the Nauvoo Pageant in Illinois, and the Mesa Easter Pageant in Arizona. The nature and extravagance of the pageants vary by location, with some live orchestras, dancing, and hundreds of costumed performers, mostly local church members. Based on deep historical research and enhanced by the author's interviews with pageant producers and cast members as well as the author's own experiences as a participant-observer, the book reveals the strategies by which these pageants resurrect the Mormon past on stage. Jones analyzes the place of the productions within the American theatrical landscape and draws connections between the Latter-day Saints theology of the redemption of the dead and Mormon pageantry in the three related sites of sacred space, participation, and spectatorship. Using a combination of religious and performance theory, Jones demonstrates that Mormon pageantry is a rich and complex site of engagement between theater, theology, and praxis that explores the saving power of performance |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on August 30, 2018) |
| Subject |
Pageants -- United States
|
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Pageants -- Religious aspects -- Latter Day Saint churches
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American drama -- Latter Day Saint authors -- History and criticism
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Religious drama, American -- History and criticism
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PERFORMING ARTS -- Reference.
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PERFORMING ARTS -- General.
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Pageants -- Religious aspects -- Latter Day Saint churches
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Pageants
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Religious drama, American
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United States
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2018036670 |
| ISBN |
9780472124237 |
|
0472124234 |
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