TABLEAUX VIVANTS
Art comes to life in Laguna Beach at the Pageant of the Masters
Laguna Beach is particularly proud of two things: its legacy as a haven for painters and their work and its quirky SoCal beach town vibe. The Pageant of the Masters manages to honor both.
For more than eight decades, the annual show has been the centerpiece of Laguna’s summertime extravaganza, Festival of the Arts. In a 2,600-seat natural amphitheater, the Irvine Bowl, an army of volunteer set builders, costumers and makeup artists helps prepare and stage “living” works of art — people who pose as elements of famous paintings and sculptures.
This year’s pageant celebrates two major anniversaries, the pageant’s 85th and the Laguna Art Museum, another revered local institution, which is marking its centennial.
“The director of the Laguna Art Museum came to me and said, ‘We’re going to have our 100th anniversary. Wouldn’t it be great to create some tribute to the local artists?’ Of course I said yes,” said pageant director Diane Challis Davy. “The founding of the museum led directly to the first art festivals in Laguna and then later the pageant. Without it, the pageant wouldn’t be here.”
Laguna’s summer-long Festival of the Arts got its start in 1932, when local artists teamed up to display their work. The following year, the artists staged a public event to add some sizzle. A parade of local volunteers dressed as characters from famous works of art — Whistler’s Mother, Mona Lisa and Atlas, among others — marched along the Coast Highway to the festival grounds. Later, they posed inside a tiny set, holding their poses as tableaux vivants, or “living pictures.” Together, the parade and show were titled “The Spirit of the Masters Pageant.”
The pageant, which assumed its present name in 1935, has grown to become a big deal. “We have between 400 and 500 volunteers,” Davy said. “There’s an annual casting call in January. We usually recruit about 1,200 people, and that makes up our casting pool. We need to fill about 150 roles in each cast.”
To make things easier for the cast members, two teams — a blue and a green cast — are formed. “They alternate weeks throughout the summer,” Davy said.
Except for Leonardo da Vinci’s show-closing “Last Supper,” there are no enduring traditions about what art gets presented, Davy said. “We try new things every year.”
A live orchestra accompanies the 90-minute show, and it has a golden-voiced narrator: Richard Doyle, a founding member of South Coast Repertory’s acting troupe. He follows in some giant footsteps – the late Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger, was the pageant’s narrator for 20 years.
Sound wacky? Of course – that’s part of the fun. But as I discovered, participants and audiences take it very seriously.
A few years ago, I arranged to participate in “The Last Supper” — the finale of the evening and a Pageant of the Masters tradition almost every year since 1936. I was playing one of the minor disciples (I can’t remember his name).
Before the gig, I didn’t give much thought to what went into it. How hard could it be to pose like a mannequin for 90 seconds or so? But after spending hours getting costumed, wigged, carefully made up and placed into exact
‘Living pictures’ highlight Laguna’s Festival of the Arts
position, then waiting through the narration and orchestral buildup for my moment, I got some butterflies. They only increased as I stood before dazzling theatrical lights, moths dancing around my head. The audience clapped, then watched silently and reverently as I tried very hard to stay at least Jell-O still.
And I wished, in that moment that seemed to last forever, that someone had warned me not to drink too much coffee before the show.
IF YOU GO
The Pageant of the Masters runs from July 5 through Sept. 1 in Laguna Beach. This year’s festival celebrates the centennial of the Laguna Art Museum and the artists who started it all, including Edgar Alwin Payne, muralist and founder of the Laguna Beach Art Association; William Wendt, sometimes called the dean of Southern California artists; and Anna Althea Hills, painter and founder of the Laguna Art Museum. The pioneers’ works, as well as several famous paintings and sculptures that have appeared through the years at the festival, will be part of the 2018 show, which is themed “Under the Sun.” Find details at www.foapom.com.