Faith, the Musical

Faith, the Musical opens tonight in Salt Lake City.

Handcart Pioneers - from LDS Gospel Art Kit

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Cheltenham, England Stake in 2007, a musical was written based on the true story of Latter-day Saints from the British Isles who left Ledbury, England and traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in 1856.

The show is being presented in the Little Theater in the Conference Center, Salt Lake City, Utah.  It will run from August 4th through the 13th.

I'm blogging about this because my beautiful sister-in-law, Kirsti, and my middle nephew, Anders, who is currently ready to start his senior year of high school, are both in the production.  The musical is being co-produced by the South Jordan, Utah and the Cheltenham, England Stakes of the Church. 

Anders plays the clarinet on stage

Faith, is based on the pioneer diaries of the Oakey family who became part of the ill-fated Willie and Martin Handcart companies.  They started in the same area of England where the Cheltenham Stake is now located, and ended up not far from where the South Jordan, Utah Stake is now found.

These pioneers started out from England late (May 4) in the season, and lost precious and critical weeks hastily assembling carts and being outfitted for the journey ahead.  The fact that the carts were poorly built also contributed to the catastrophe, and slowed the Saints down.  Although they were counseled to spend the winter in Nebraska, the greater part of the group decided to forge on to Salt Lake. 

Kirsti plays the violin

When the companies reached Fort Laramie, Wyoming in October, there were no provisions for them as was expected.  So, they cut back on food rations, hoping that their supplies would last them until they could receive help from Utah.  To lighten their loads, the Martin Company cut their luggage allowance down to 10 pounds and discarded clothing and blankets - a decision that would cost many their lives.

On October 19th a blizzard struck as the Willie Company camped along the Sweetwater River approaching the Continental Divide. 

The Willie Company ran into a rescue party on October 20th, however, on the 23rd they faced the most difficult section of the trail - the ascent up Rocky Ridge.  The climb took place during a howling snowstorm through knee-deep snow.  That night 13 of the emigrants died.

The Martin Company was at the time about 110 miles further east.  After they crossed the North Platte River (near Casper, Wyoming), the blizzard struck.  Suffering from frost-bite and hypothermia, 56 members of the Martin company died before help could reach them.  The survivors finally met up with the main rescue party three days later.

When the Willie Company arrived in Salt Lake City on November 9th, 68 members of the company had lost their lives.  The Martin Company arrived in Salt Lake on November 30th.  At least 145 members of that company had lost their lives.  In addition, members of both companies suffered the loss of fingers, toes, and limbs to severe frostbite.

As they arrived in Utah, they were taken in by the local residents, who generously opened their homes to the emigrants and cared for them over the rest of the winter.  Eventually, these survivors would go on to Latter-day Saint settlements throughout Utah, Idaho and Arizona.

Survivor Francis Webster was quoted as having said, "Was I sorry that I chose to come by hand cart?  No.  Neither then nor any minute of my life since.  The price we paid to become acquiainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Hand Cart Company." (quote taken from Wikipedia, Mormon Handcart Pioneers)

Faith, the Musical pays tribute to those faithful men, women and children who made that perilous journey and obeyed the call to 'Come to Zion'. 

Part of the cast of this musical comes from Cheltenham Stake.  They arrived from England last weekend and presented a fireside on Sunday night.  One attendee writes: "I was blown away ...these folks from England are incredible, Broadway-caliber singers. And the score that Brother Marcum from England has written is fantastic. They sang about eight songs for us last night. It was quite moving."