Following are excerpts from an article found at: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/34552-Donny-Osmond-Sheds-Dreamcoat-To-Star-in-Mormon-Pageant-July-11-19 It was fun to have one of our "most famous Mormons" participate in pageant, and I remember the crowds being extra large that year!
"After selling out houses across the United States and Canada starring in the tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Donny Osmond has left the show in Toronto to join the cast of an upstate New York outdoor religious pageant, playing a prophet of the Mormon faith. He’s appearing as a prophet in the 60th annual Hill Cumorah Pageant, America's Witness To Christ, July11-12 and 15-19 (1997) in Palmyra, NY (near Rochester).
" “The whole family’s in the pageant,” said Osmond. “It’s something Debbie and I wanted to do with the family for a long time. I’ve seen the pageant a couple of times and was really quite moved by the spirituality of what I experienced. I wanted to be a part of it. It's not a career move, but a wonderful opportunity for a vacation with the family.” Osmond said that as much as he loves what he does, “being a father always comes before anything else. I especially wanted the summer off to spend time with Don, who’s 18 and graduated from high school in May. He’ll be heading to college soon, so this may be my last opportunity for quality time with him. He’s going to study theatre, but he’s more interested in the technical aspects. He’ll have to do a little theatre to understand how that all works. His appearance in the pageant is his stage debut.”
"At a rehearsal Wednesday, July 9, the pageant which stresses realism backed by equal amounts of spectacle, the actors among the cast of 630 took Osmond at his word when he asked them -- much to the chagrin of overall production director Jerry Argetsinger -- not to hold back in a scene where they attack Samuel with spears"
“I was standing high atop this wall and I told everyone below, 'I want to make this look real!’ They threw the spears on cue and right at me! I ran like the dickens. Thankfully, I had on shoes with leather soles or I would have slipped. But, oh, man, one of the spears hit my right heel. If not for that shoe, I’d be in serious trouble right now. I mean, these are not prop spears. They are the real thing. With sharp points! ... Of their experience working together, Osmond said, “This has already been fulfilling. So many great things have happened to us here as a family and it’s terrific that we could go through them together.”
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