What it's like to see 'Ramona' pageant for the first time

A cannon shot called out and we laggers rushed to our seats. "Ramona" had actually begun.

We were in the outdoor amphitheater near Hemet known as the Ramona Bowl. Concrete bleachers are set into one hillside. The stage - - a hacienda, a shrine, a garden, a shack, various trails - - sprawled across the stretch in front of us and up the two rocky hills on the other side.

Over the next 3 hours, neighborhood actors would enact a sentimental story of Old California: domestic issues at a rancho from the Spanish colonial days, a kindly going to priest, a love triangle, mother-daughter drama and catastrophe sparked by prejudice against Native Americans.

Action ranged throughout a panorama bigger than any indoor stage. Stars can appear suddenly: walking up a path from the left, riding horses below the top of a hill, pulling a cart from a trail behind the house to the right.

There are lovers to cheer, villains to boo, live music and dancing to see.

( Also, products in the gift store to buy.).

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( Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG )" width =" 4000" data-sizes="auto "data-src ="/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 620 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1" data-srcset ="/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 620 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1 620w,/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 780 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1 780w,/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 810 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1 810w,/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 1280 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1 1280w,/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 04/IDB-L-ALLEN- COL-0428-2. jpg?fit = 1860 % 2C9999px & ssl = 1 1860w" > The audience sees the "Ramona" pageant on opening day, April 22, at the Ramona Bowl.( Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG).

This is the 100th year of the pageant, which with just a couple of exceptions has actually been performed yearly in the San Jacinto Valley considering that 1923. It's touted as the longest-running outside play
in America. Isn't that something? Here at the century mark, yours truly was
attending his first "Ramona." What can I inform you? The very first 99 years I had other plans. RELATED: 5 things to know about 'Ramona' as it turns 100. However this year it was necessary to me to be there opening day, which was April

22. Performances continue each Saturday and Sunday through May 7. I needed to lastly see this play that has actually - stood the test of time - a complete century of it, in fact - and that serves as a passport to an earlier age

. I drove east. Previous Moreno Valley and the Skechers warehouse that seems to stretch for miles, the landscape opens up with green fields, wildflowers, rolling hills, dairies, Mystic Lake and, closer to town, streets called for Alessandro and Ramona, the play's star-crossed enthusiasts.

Raising to the Ramona Bowl from the tiered car park constructed anticipation. Vendors offered arts and crafts, the regional Kiwanis Club tended a barbecue cigarette smoker, folklorico dancers twirled and cast members in costume socialized.

In the present shop, you could purchase t-shirts, pins, paper fans and other items, many with the 100th anniversary logo design. In the museum, a brought back Milford Zornes fresco from the 1940s covers one wall, and the story of "Ramona" and its existence here is told through exhibits and by docents.

Jerry Peebles talks to visitors about the history of "Ramona" amidst displays about the pageant and its source product in the museum at the Ramona Bowl. Peebles acted in the pageant as a kid in 1962 and has actually stayed included ever since. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG).
" Ramona" is adjusted from the 1884 Helen Hunt Jackson novel and set soon after California's 1850 statehood. Some of the story was inspired by real-life events in Riverside County. Jackson had actually previously written a nonfiction book taking the side of Native Americans and, as Jerry Peebles, director of the Ramona Museum, told me: "No one read it.".

Amid the screens about Jackson, her unique and the play's long history, Peebles continued: "She said, ‘‘ Maybe if I compose an unique, a romance, people will read it.'".

The play wasn't performed in 1933 due to the Depression, from 1942-1945 due to World War II or in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, Peebles stated. That indicates this centennial year is the 93rd season.

This news cheered me up. I 'd just missed "Ramona" for 92 years, not 99.

As "Ramona" begins, the temperature is 85 degrees, the sun at our backs. Dancing and music open the acts or work as interludes. That may be why it's described as a pageant.

The cast numbers 320, consisting of big groups in walk-on parts with kids.

Cowboy extras ride down the hill throughout a rehearsal April 8 for the "Ramona" pageant. The whole landscape becomes part of the outside stage. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG).
I began to notice why a lot of volunteer actors may return every year, or remain involved in numerous capacities for a half-century or more, like Peebles. Or why an audience of residents might return every year for the exact same story to see friends and neighbors amongst the cast.

When a bad man on horseback used an alerting to Ramona and prospective concubine Felipe before riding off, saying threateningly that he 'd be seeing them once again, a girl behind me confided to her parents: "He's very great, in fact.".

Actors use portable microphones, their voices ringing out loudly and clearly no matter the range. The natural phase being so broad, you can be unsure who is speaking or where they are before recognizing, oh, it's that character there. I needed to wonder how anyone had actually heard anything in the pre-microphone days.

A helicopter zipped at one point, just as you might see at the Hollywood Bowl. A cell phone in the audience rang from time to time. Once a bird hopped down the middle of a course, its dark kind sticking out versus the dirt. The lady in front of me pointed and said to her buddy, "Quail.".

The play held my attention, primarily. "We are lost in between 2 worlds," Ramona tells Alessandro, who manages to prevent laughing.

There's Ramona's despiteful adoptive mom, who is like a soap opera matriarch. However their blowout scene together is the play's remarkable high point.

The 100th season of "Ramona" starts on April 22 at the Ramona Bowl. Participation was nearly 2,000, considered a strong start for the anniversary. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG).
In a method you would not miss out on much if you were to leave at intermission. The second act is a scattershot thing in which the climax is practically a shrug and the ending is oddly cheerful. It's as if, after a cold-blooded killing, everything works out for the very best.

Could "Ramona" be improved? Should it be? I do not know.

It's definitely not the draw it as soon as was. The stands hold 5,443 nowadays and were two-thirds empty. But by recent standards, I'm informed, the opening-day audience of nearly 2,000 was thought about great.

I 'd argue that the piece of charming hokum that is "Ramona" is something everyone should experience a minimum of as soon as.

It's a time machine, one that not only carries you to Southern California's Spanish-fantasy past however to a 1920s routine that has been enacted (almost) every year for a century with few changes.

Like a French dip at Philippe's, a ballgame at Dodger Stadium or a flight up Angels Flight, seeing "Ramona" is a method to plug in to a tradition that seems like a rock of stability in a rough world.

Hail to 100 years of "Ramona." If I had a cannon, I 'd fire it off.

David Allen composes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, a less-beloved custom. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.