Michelle Hoffman / Scroll
Mary and Joseph look to the new baby, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

Performances portray teachings, life of Christ

Anissa Zamudio ZAM03003@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Savior of the World opened Nov. 15 to a sold- out audience in the Eliza R. Snow Auditorium. BYU-Idaho has brought this production to campus in an enormous undertaking combining the time and talents of departments all over campus. With more than 400 cast and ensemble members from the community and campus and a sold out audience every night for its 18 performances, Savior of the World is expected to reach over 9,000 people.

Roger Merrill, director of the production and a professor in the Theatre Department, felt the undertaking of this performance was inspired. Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum on the Twelve Apostles, highly recommended Savior of the World should be performed at BYU-Idaho. While Elder Hales conversed more with then Interim President Wilkes, he concluded that an inspired request had been made.

“I think Elder Hales was inspired to have us do it here to increase the spirituality and testimony of the Savior,” Merrill said.

However, it is not the mere statistics of what was involved in bringing Savior of the World to campus; Merrill believes Savior of the World’s primary role to strengthen and uplift the testimonies of those involved from performers to audience members about the teachings of Christ and the lives of those who knew him.

“[Mary Magdalene’s] experience is much like the experience we have with the Atonement, with so much sadness and mourning and going through different kinds of trials that everybody experiences and then having your realization that Christ is alive,” said Mandy Sorenson, a senior from Farmington, Utah, who portrayed Mary Magdalene.

Through song and music choir numbers and actors were instructed by Merrill not merely to act but to bear their testimonies. Many cast and audience members could not hold back the tears of the testimony they felt.

“It made it [the life of the Savior] more real; we read about it in the scriptures, but we don’t get to see it. It touched me a lot and strengthened my testimony a lot,” said tearful Rebecca Evans, a senior from Shelby Township, Mich.

“I couldn’t even make it through my scene. I was lucky to get a word out,” Sorenson said.

“I think it helps to bring the Spirit here; it helps to strengthen us and to make us want to be better people to be like Christ, and I think [we] need things like this to inspire us,” Evans said.