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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | APRIL 2024 19 By Annette Hillis, Resident "Ramona," California's Official Outdoor Play and America's longest continuously running drama, will be celebrating its 101st year when it opens in the Ramona Bowl Amphitheater in Hemet this Spring. While many Hemet residents are familiar with the production and have been in attendance to one or more of its spectacular showings, some are new to the Valley and have never experienced its grandeur. The Ramona Outdoor Play is billed as "much more than a love story," and is written in the same vein as storied star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. Set in California in the 1850s and based on the cultural climate of the time, the fictional story follows the romance of Ramona, a half Native American and half Scottish woman, and Alessandro, a Native American sheep shearer. The play recounts the plight that took place in Southern California over the treatment of Native Americans and their interactions with the landowners and settlers of the time. Helen Hunt Jackson, the author of the novel, was one of America's most popular women writers of her day. She was one of the first to advocate for Indian rights, as they were being forced into reservations, and as disease and death took their toll. Residents of Hemet and San Jacinto are all too familiar with the fact that actors in the Pageant are largely drawn from its population, as are volunteers that help to bring the play to fruition. The Rock Indians, for example, who stunningly scatter the hillside of the amphitheater, are sourced from local schools, as are the Children of the Rancho. The leads, however, have come from a variety of places. Some are professional actors. A few of the most notable people to play the leads are Raquel Welch, Anne Archer, Victor Jory, and Jean Inness. Dennis Anderson has been the Pageant's Artistic Director since 1995. He says that the way he keeps the play and his passion for it fresh is by the fact that there are always new performers each year. There are also slight tweaks and improvements that are made with each production. "The love story of Ramona and Alessandro has not changed, but the most significant adaptations over the past 30 years have been to cast more Native American actors in the lead roles of Ramona and Alessandro and to expand the Native American dance sequences to include members of the local Luiseno and Cahuilla tribes." Anderson shares that one of the most exciting announcements concerning the Pageant is that an in-depth documentary of Ramona has been filming for the past year and will most likely be released this fall. Emmy nominated film maker, Jason Sklaver, will produce and direct it. Interviews with many of the descendants of the individuals, who were the basis of Hunt's novel, will be included. One thing is clear in Anderson's mind regarding how this play has been able to continue for over a century. "The one aspect of the production that has been essential for the past hundred years is the devotion of the "unsung" volunteers. This is seen in the service of generations of families who have kept the cowboy trails in repair, who have sewn new costumes, and those who have maintained the landscaping of over 20 acres of performance." If there is ever a question of "how do you keep the play going over all these years," this is the answer. THE MONA PAGEANT

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