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Book pays homage to Mesa Temple’s Easter pageants

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor

As excitement begins to build over next month’s return of the Easter Pageant to the Mesa Arizona Temple after a three-year hiatus, a newly published book offers a detailed look at its evolution across eight decades. For nearly three years, writers Jill Adair, a Mesa resident and the Temple’s communications director, and Cecily Condie, a former Mesa resident and editor-owner of Inglestone Publishing, combed through hundreds of photos, interviewed scores of people and burrowed through microfilm to produce an homage to a production that draws over 100,000 people over the course of its multi-day presentation. Adair and Condie teamed up with Gilbert book designer Leslie Thompson to produce “The Mesa Easter Pageant – 80 Years of Sharing the Story of Jesus the Christ,” a 280-page hardcover book that details both the pageant’s history and its community impact and historical significance. From a humble Easter sunrise service, it has evolved into a work that depicts the life of Jesus Christ with a cast of more than 400 people and another 400 other volunteers. The free pageant this year features a revised script, a new soundtrack specially recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and a massive stage with new props. It will be presented at 8 p.m. April 6-9 and 12-16, on the north lawn of the Mesa Arizona Temple, 101 South Lesueur. No tickets are needed. As Adair and Condie show, the colorful spectacle started in 1938 as a Easter sunrise service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held on the Mesa Arizona Tempe lawn. seePAGEANTS page 15

Co-authors Jill Adair, left and Cecily Condie, center, credit book designer Leslie Thompson, right, with the engaging look of their book, “The Mesa Easter Pageant - 80 Years of Sharing the Story of Jesus the Christ.” (Special to the Tribune)

Mesa hails hero who saved 2 kids from fire

TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

City officials formally recognized a local resident whose actions Feb. 18 helped save two children from a burning apartment. Jonathon Baez was formally recognized for his action in the fire in the 1900 block of E. Hampton Ave. by Mayor John Giles, Councilmember Mark Freeman, Councilmember David Luna, Assistant City Manager John Pombier, Fire Chief Mary Cameli and Police Chief Ken Cost for what they called Baez’s “extraordinary efforts and selfless acts of bravery.” The children, ages 2 and 6, suffered only minor injuries as the result of Baez’s quick action, authorities said. They had been trapped in the secondfloor apartment in a back bedroom and Baez climbed into it after a Mesa police officer threw rocks at it to break it. Baez “got inside the bedroom by pulling out the frame of the window where he found the children inside,” according to a Fire Department report. “The citizen handed them out of the window to the officers. The officers stayed with the children while Fire personnel treated them for their injuries. Two of the officer’s rode with the children until they reached the hospital and were turned over to medical personnel. Four of the officers were treated at the hospital and released. “According to all who were there, if it wasn’t for the citizen who assisted, the outcome of this incident may have been different,” the report continued. “He saw the fire from a distance, jumped a wall to the apartment complex, and ran towards the fire to help. They all agreed that he went above and beyond to assist in getting these children to safety. He put his life on the line for these children.”

Its popularity has grown so much that 9,600 folding chairs will be set up for each of the nine performances next month. For a show that has grown in size and stature over time, you’d think its history would be well-established. But Adair and Condie discovered multiple gaps in the collective memory of pageant and church leaders and decided a meticulously documented history was in order. They interviewed more than 50 principals in past pageants – such as directors, men who played Jesus, pageant presidents, crew members and costume designers – and sifted through a variety of documents to achieve that goal. “We also had hundreds of photos,” said. Adair, whose husband, Scott, took many of the photos over the years. “We said we could do 10 volumes, so we included as much as we could, particularly the photos, to make it more than just a historical book.” Added Condie: “To take 80 years of history and boil it down would be a challenge under any circumstances. But in this case, you add the hundreds of individual stories from a cast of nearly 500 and a crew of almost that many every year and you start to see the magnitude of what it would take to put it together.” The two women struggled to decide on the best way to present all the information they had acquired, finally opting for a chronological approach. Among the interviews – which will be donated as oral histories along with a profusion of all kinds of memorabilia to the Mesa Public Library and the Church Historical Museum in Salt Lake City – is a chat with the oldest person they could find with a connection to the pageant. He is Grant Gunnell of Mesa, who sang at the sunrise service when he was a senior at Mesa High School in 1944. Through a painstaking review of microfilmed editions of the Mesa Tribune for 80 years – “We found at least something published about the event from every year,” Adair said – the two women also clear up The book is filled with photos from eight decades of Easter pageants at the Mesa Arizona Temple. (Special to the Tribune)

some historical ambiguities and misconceptions about the pageant. They found that the pageant has been held every year between 1938 and 2018 except for 1975 – the year the Mesa Temple held an extended open house prior to its rededication after its first major renovation – and became an evening event in 1977. Prior to embarking on their project, Adair said she and Condie discovered in conversations with former pageant leaders that they didn’t know answers to some basic questions. “Cecily and I would look at each other and say, ‘Someone should document the history of the pageant before it’s lost,’” Adair recalled. “As we uncovered the vast number of articles written in the Tribune and other newspapers, found personal mementoes and letters, and then interviewed individuals who had made contributions over the years, we were able to collect and to verify facts and to even sort out some of the mistaken ideas about the pageant that had been passed down over the years,” Condie said, adding: “The result is not only a clear history of the growth of the annual Easter celebration, it is also a chronicle of what the event has meant to those who have participated and attended and, also, how it has impacted the community as a whole over the past 80 years.” “From the time I first worked as the communications director,” Adair said, “I wondered about the beginnings of the pageant and was inspired by the stories I heard of people sharing their talents and time to be involved in this event. From my earliest involvement with the pageant, I have been impressed with the way that people sacrifice and donate their time and resources to join in sharing the story of Jesus Christ in this way. It’s a unique and very beautiful and touching experience for the cast and crew and one that causes the audience to reflect on the meaning of Easter and of Christ’s mission and life as well.” Both women, mothers of now-adult children, have been in past pageants, as have some of their immediate family. They are happy with the outcome of their labor, crediting book designer Thompson with making the book “visually beautiful with her careful placement of photos, text and decorative touches,” Adair said. “It was one of our goals to make the book beautiful because the pageant is so visually beautiful and we wanted to represent that with our book,” Adair added. Condie, the author of a children’s book titled “If I Made A Bug,” feels the book “will mean a lot to those who want to reminisce about their own pageant experience, but, also to anyone who wants to know more about Mesa’s history or about the sharing of the story of Jesus the Christ in this way.“ The book is published by Condie’s Inglestone Publishing and available at inglestonepublishing.com and amazon.com. More information about it is at mesaeasterpageantbook.com.