Pageant on the mount

FORT SILL, Okla., March 10, 2016 -- As Easter approaches, the Holy City is in full pageant mode as it prepares for the 90th annual performance of "The Prince of Peace." Someone mentioned it when I first began this column, and I made a note to see it when Easter came around. I'd been to the Holy City which sprawls across 66 acres in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, but wasn't sure how a performance was going to work in the setting.

I met Alan Corrales, who has been the director of the pageant for the past 13 years. He began participating in the play when he was in the third grade and this year marks his 49th pageant.

As Corrales took charge and began to run his dress rehearsal I looked around wondering where to go. Where was the stage? Is this the kind of show where I physically walk from scene to scene? Luckily there were shepherds and palace guards nearby to explain it all to me.

The audience sits on a hill nearby and watches the show from a distance. Since the performance is at night, lights illuminate the location where a scene is taking place and then turn off when the scene is complete, while in another area the lights turn on signaling the next scene. A narrator guides the audiences, and characters add dialogue. Microphones help amplify the sound which is transmitted through speakers to the audience. It's quite the production.

It makes sense the audience would sit on a hill, as the Holy City website boasts that one year 225,000 visitors filled "audience hill" for the sunrise performance. With that many people there wouldn't be enough seats for everyone except on a mountainside. The thought of thousands of people sitting hillside conjured up images of someone feeding them all with two fish and five loaves. These days I bet people just stop by Burger King on their way.

The cast wore costumes designed to appear as though they were from biblical times. There were Roman guards on horseback, trumpeters, religious officials, wise men -- all wearing what I would guess looked like what people would have worn during that time. Being up close I wasn't able to see the whole picture the way those on audience hill, but I bet the view completely transports you to another time.

The pageant recruited children as young as newborns to as old as high school-aged as well as groups of adult men and women. Men seem to be in high demand as some women played male roles (quite the contrast from Shakespearean times when men would play women roles).

Volunteers come from all over Oklahoma to participate in the pageant and represent a variety of religious faiths. Many of them performed in the show in years past, but just as many were participating for the first time.

Wandering between sets I was excited for the actors, the sound technicians, the backstage hands, everyone, a part of this production's long history. With one more evening rehearsal (and a backup rehearsal if needed), the show is ready to go. Costumes will be done, lines memorized, animals prepped and the Holy City ready to find room for travelers coming from afar.

It will be neat to see how the show transforms beneath the Oklahoma stars. It's even exciting just writing about it. Perhaps next year I'll join the group. I'll just add that to my bucket list.

Admission is free thanks to the support of donors and volunteers. The pageant has two performances, March 19 and March 26, both at 8:30 p.m. As of print time, the weather is supposed to be nice and dry for the show (although I might bring a blanket just in case the ground is still damp). For more information visit www.theholycitylawton.com/.