Hill Cumorah Pageant Gets New Look for 1988

“America’s Witness for Christ,” the outdoor pageant that has been staged on the western slope of Hill Cumorah near Palmyra, New York, for more than half a century, will have a new look this summer.

This year’s production will feature a new script, new musical score, new staging, and a new director.

The pageant, which has been viewed by millions of visitors over the years, is scheduled for July 22, 23, and 26–30, with each show beginning at 9:00 P.M. The public is invited, and there is no charge for admission. The show includes a cast of six hundred, who donate their time and talents.

Charles L. Metten, professor of theater, speech, and cinema at Brigham Young University, has been named director of the pageant. He will be assisted by Rodger Sorenson, chairman of the drama department at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, and Gerald Argetsinger, Rochester, New York, who is a teacher of theater at the National Institute for the Deaf.

A pageant entitled “Truth from the Earth” was staged at the hill in 1936, and in 1937, “America’s Witness for Christ” made its debut. Its director for more than four decades was Harold I. Hansen. Other directors have included Jack Sederholm and Lund Johnson.