UWP Lecturers RAMONA opens this weekend

[John Ganim]

RAMONA, the pageant of Southern California, and especially the Inland 
Empire, opens this weekend. It is staged outdoors, at the Ramona 
Bowl, in Hemet, by local residents. It's a unique experience, if 
you've never seen it. Stagings have become more culturally sensitive 
over the years, but don't expect too much in that regard.

http://www.ramonabowl.com/flash.html

Info from Website:


The Ramona Outdoor Play, formerly known as (and still commonly 
called) The Ramona Pageant is an outdoor 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Play_(theatre)>play staged 
annually at 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Hemet,_California>Hemet, 
California since 1923. The script is adapted from the novel 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Ramona>Ramona by 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson>Helen Hunt 
Jackson. It is held over three consecutive weekends in April and May 
in the Ramona Bowl, a natural 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Amphitheater>amphitheater in the 
foothills above Hemet in 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Riverside_County,_California>Riverside 
County. The pageant features a four hundred member cast, made up 
largely of area residents, and is described as the largest and 
longest-running outdoor play in the United States.

The Ramona Pageant is the official outdoor play of the State of 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/California>California.


Ramona, a <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Novel>novel written by 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson>Helen Hunt 
Jackson is the story of a 
part-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Scottish_people>Scottish and 
part-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States>Native 
American orphan girl growing up and getting married in 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Southern_California>Southern 
California, suffering 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Racial_discrimination>racial 
discrimination and hardship. Originally 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Serial_(literature)>serialized in 
the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//w/index.php?title=Christian_Union_(newspaper)&action=edit&redlink=1>Christian 
Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. Overall, 
it has had more than 300 printings, been made into four 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Ramona_(film)>film versions, and 
has been performed as an 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/The_Ramona_Pageant>outdoor play 
annually since 1923. The impact the novel had on the culture and 
image of Southern California was enormous. Its romanticization of 
Mexican colonial life gave the region a unique cultural identity and 
its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines to the 
region, bringing in countless tourists who wanted to see the 
locations in the novel. These legends became so ingrained in the 
culture of Southern California that they were often mistaken for 
realities. In later years many who visited "Ramona's birthplace" in 
San Diego or the annual "Ramona Pageant" at Hemet (eighty miles north 
of San Diego) were surprised and disappointed if they chanced to 
learn that Ramona was a (fictional) novel rather than a biography. 
Crucially, the novel gave Southern California and the whole of the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Southwestern_United_States>Southwest 
its own unique cultural identity. The architecture of the missions 
had recently gained national exposure and local restoration projects 
were just beginning. Railroad lines to Southern California were just 
opening and combined with the emotions stirred by the novel, it was a 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Perfect_storm>perfect storm of 
circumstances to suddenly thrust the region into the national 
spotlight. One result from this was the sudden popularity of 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Mission_Revival_Style_architecture>Mission 
Revival Style architecture from about 1890 to 1915, which still 
survives in a reduced form today.




John M. Ganim
Professor of English
Department of English
University of California, Riverside
900 University Avenue
Riverside CA 92521
TEL (951) 827-1540
FAX (951) 827-3967
ON CAMPUS PHONE 21540
EMAIL John.Ganim at UCR.EDU
http://www.english.ucr.edu/people/faculty/ganim/index.html
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=0230602452
<http://us.macmillan.com/culturaldiversityinthebritishmiddleages>http://us.macmillan.com/culturaldiversityinthebritishmiddleages






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