Sherrie Williams

It takes hundreds of people to cross the t’s and dot the i’s for today’s SonRise Resurrection Pageant at Southern Adventist University.

Angel costumes are sprayed with flame retardant, camels come from across the state, props are pulled from under stairs and spare closets, meals and refreshments are prepared for hundreds and duct tape is unwound to fix everything that needs patching.

Nearly 9,000 people are likely to walk through the grounds of the college campus and adjacent Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church as the last days of Jesus Christ are recounted by more than 500 costumed cast members.

“There is no way it would happen if we didn’t have people backing us up,” said Sherrie Williams, the church’s director of communications. “One of our mottos is ‘Make a tradition of participation.’ We tell our people that if you are not behind this, it’s not going to happen.”

Plans for each year’s pageant begin nearly a half year in advance.

Because Easter is early in the calendar year in 2008, auditions for the larger speaking roles were held before last Thanksgiving, Mrs. Williams said. Rehearsals began after Christmas.

Each scene within the walk-through has its own director, who must coordinate rehearsal times with actors in the scene and the directors of the other scenes in which characters might appear, she said.

After Christmas, pageant coordinators begin to recruit church members and families to portray crowd members amid the bustling Jerusalem marketplace.

There is never an exact count of crowd members and shopkeepers, according to Mrs. Williams, because those cast members create their own costumes and sometimes bring their extended families to be part of the milieu.

“There’s a place for everybody, no matter what your age,” she said. “We always have people from babies to gray hairs.”

Mrs. Williams, who is in charge of props and costumes for the pageant, said the costumes are numbered and inventoried but must be checked again before they are given out because some are rented during the year.

Last year, she said, armor was added to the soldier costumes, and this year leather accents will make the look even more authentic.

Two weeks before SonRise, two tractor-trailer trucks are disgorged of their contents and scaffolding begins to be erected across the SAU campus. On the Sunday before the event, cast members do a complete walk-through of the event, Mrs. Williams said.

By the day before the event, all the major sets are in place, and on the night before SonRise the actors are given their costumes.

“It’s like ants on a hill erecting things,” said volunteer Chuck Robertson.

Jerusalem marketplace cast members pick up their props the morning of the event, well before the first 8:45 a.m. walk-through, and pack them up afterward.

This year, the Last Supper set will be all new. It was not completed until earlier this week, Mrs. Williams said.

“(The designer) has had plans on it for several years,” she said, “but he’s a teacher and hasn’t had time to do it. Basically, all of them are volunteers. It’s a matter of working it into their schedules.”

Several years ago, Mrs. Williams said, the new Resurrection scene was partially created around Christmas. All Styrofoam, the old one had been nicked over the years and looked warn.

“It was time to retire it,” she said.

Although the pageant’s animal suppliers have a standing request to appear annually, someone checks with them a month or a month and a half out to make sure of their availability, Mrs. Williams said.

The menagerie on the SAU lawn usually includes camels, ponies and sheep but often has included llamas, chickens and ducks.

The camel people, Mrs. Williams said, leave from near Jackson, Tenn., early in the morning on the day of SonRise and return that night.

The sheep owner, she said, only requests a little help with wrangling the sheep.

Along the way, volunteers licensed in pyrotechnics make certain the resurrection scene is safe, the safety of the flying equipment for the same scene is ensured and videographers and photographers are entreated to capture the scene on the day of the event.

“There’s always somewhere people can be involved,” Mrs. Williams said.

BY THE NUMBERS

8,736 — Largest number of people to witness the pageant.

400 — Approximate number of costumes the church has.

300-400 — Southern Adventist University student cast members in each year’s pageant.

300 — Approximate number of behind-the-scenes volunteers.

200 — Approximate number of College Seventh-day Adventist Church cast members in each year’s pageant.

17 — Billboards advertising the event in February.

13 — Years the pageant has been held.

6 — Numbers of actors who will portray Jesus today.