The Pageant goes Greek

Barbara Diamond

Hunks in headdresses and makeup are nothing new in Laguna Beach.

The Pageant of the Masters has produced “living pictures,” with

live models portraying works of art, for more than 70 years at the

Festival of Arts, but the Olympics put them on the international

stage.

“I thought it was brilliant,” pageant director Dee Challis Davy

said. “It was on the grandest scale I have ever seen.”

Local approval was not needed for the show in Greece -- Laguna

doesn’t have a lock on them.

“We often get calls for advice, but not in this case,” Challis

Davy said. “It was great to see what you can do with all the money in

the world.”

Some locals may be surprised to learn that living pictures have a

much longer history than the Laguna pageant -- produced annually by

the Festival of Arts.

Google has 4,500 references in English to “Tableaux Vivants,”

which we translate into living pictures. Challis Davy recently talked

to a Pomona College professor who is doing his thesis on the history

of the tableaux.

Even those in the know were taken aback by the tableaux in the

Athens extravaganza during the opening ceremonies.

“I was really surprised,” festival marketing and public relations

assistant Cindy Perdue said.

The ceremonies featured among other attractions, a parade of

stalwart young men portraying classic sculptures and a live model

stepping into a rigid costume copied from Parthenon statues.

“It was sort of like the builder scene here,” Challis Davy said.

The builder scene is one of the most popular segments of the local

production. The audience watches as appropriately-costumed models are

mounted or harnessed against life-sized, painted, background scenes.

When the scene is set, the magic of stage lighting blends the models

into the painting.

Living pictures are life imitating art.

“It was interesting to see makeup and headdresses [in the Olympic

ceremony] similar to ours,” Challis Davy said. “The statue of

Aphrodite was straight out of my art books.”

Ironically, the opening ceremonies were held less than a week

after the Festival of Arts voted overwhelmingly never, never, ever to

franchise or clone the pageant -- an issue that divided the festival

board into rival camps and toppled the first-ever executive director.

Ninety-four percent of the members voted in favor of the by-laws

change to ban franchising.

“We will never attempt to dampen others who might want to present

their version of one of the oldest art forms, but we sure aren’t

going to help them,” festival board President Anita Mangels said.

“Our technology is what makes our pageant so outstanding and unique.”

Tableaux are a tradition in the theater and have been around for

centuries in religion.

“Every live nativity scene is an example,” Challis Davy said.

Nativity scenes and representations of other biblical events go

back 1,000 years in Europe. They were presented in cathedrals and

village parishes for the benefit of folks who could not read.

When living pictures moved outdoors, the topics expanded from

religion into mythology, history, art literature and politics,

according to research by festival marketing and public relations

director Sharbie Higuchi. Special events, such as a visit by a king,

were heralded by pageants, some with as many as 30 costumed displays.

Outdoor tableaux were mounted on wagons and hauled through the

street and around public squares. Spectators mostly stood along the

route, much as they do at parades today,

In the days of the Laguna pageant forerunner, models paraded on

Coast Highway, drumming up audiences for the performances.

Not all of the European pageants were on firm footing. In Florence

and Amsterdam, barges floating on rivers or in harbors provided

stages.

By 1842, pageants had crossed the pond to the United States. When

Charles Dickens visited New York City, he was honored with a

presentation of “frozen” scenes from some of his books.

Oberammergau, a Bavarian village, has been presenting a passion

play since 1680 “The Passion of Christ,” which takes almost eight

hours to complete, is divided into episodes, each episode proceeded

by a tableaux.

It is no easy task to find 124 amateur actors to fill the speaking

parts, and hundreds more for nonspeaking roles, according to the

Encyclopedia of Britannica.

Just ask the pageant staff, which drafts about 500 models every

year, not to mention volunteer back-stage crews.

“People who think they want to put on a pageant, back off when

they realize that everyone is a volunteer in our show,” Mangels said.

Laguna’s first living pictures were presented under the title of

“Spirit of the Masters Pageant” in 1933. The first “Pageant of the

Master” was produced in 1935.

With only two exceptions since 1936, the show has closed with a

recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” In 1973, Titian’s

version was substituted and in 1999, the pageant ended with Salvador

Dali’s “The Sacrament of the Last Supper.”

The Pageant of the Maters is presented at dark, nightly through

Aug. 28 in Irvine Bowl Park, 650 Laguna Canyon Road. Tickets are $15

to $80, depending on seat location and the night of the week. For

more information, visit https://www.lagunafestivalof

arts.com or call (949) 494-1145 or 1-800-487-3378.