Pageant of the Masters

Last weekend a friend of mine scored some free tickets to Pageant of the Masters down in Laguna Beach and invited me along. I've always thought of this as one of the quintessential OC events that everyone should experience if they live down here during the summers. I've always wanted to go, but I think I always realized that too late in the season when all the tickets end up getting sold out.

Prior to the show the spectators get to walk around an outdoor display of art from local artists. I'm no connossieur, but from what I did see a lot of it was very impressive. Unfortunately, I had some trouble with parking and showed up with little time before the beginning of the show so I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked.

The audience is seated in an outdoor amphitheater placed against the setting of Laguna canyon, less than a mile away from the beach. It's an awesome setting. Is there anyone who dislikes summer nights on the beach? The theater has a main stage with a couple of different spots for additional pieces while the big pieces get set up on the main stage. A live orchestra plays while a narrator talks about the various pieces, the artists, and then the art periods as well. It provides a good art lesson, but I was mostly surprised at how entertaining and witty the narration itself ended up being. The art on display covers a lot of famous work done by Dali, Da Vinci, Gauguin, Monet, Rodin, and many others. I wasn't familiar with many of the works, but I still recognized a good handful of what was on display.

If you don't know, the show itself is basically a living display of various works of art. It is much cooler than it actually sounds, even if it sounds pretty neat to begin with. The detail and likenesses that they are able to portray are really amazing. We had seats in the back, but I felt like I was still able to get a good view of the displays. It would have been nice to have binoculars just to be able to appreciate the depth that a painting, which is two-dimensional, take on the additional dimension. It's crazy to think about the detail that goes into getting costumes and doing make up that so perfectly matches the artist's conception in the original work. My favorite part of the whole thing was probably right before the first intermission when they did a series of movie posters from the 40s and 50s, or whenever it was because they had some surprises and dumb jokes involved.

The show goes for about two hours. Parking is horrendous. Go early to see the art on display beforehand, but also to take in the live music and other attractions that they have available. As I walked around that night and looked at all the different people in attendance, I couldn't help but think about how high society having a taste for art is. It's kind of ironic just because while those appreciating the art so often are sipping on wine and wearing nice clothes, artists themselves usually have such a struggle making ends meet. The producers of art get so little of the monetary benefit that the consumers of art have available.

Being from down here, I forget just how renowned Laguna Beach is for all the homegrown art available. While selling security systems a couple of years ago, I ran into Ruth Mayer who happens to be a grand master (whatever that is), but she was commissioned to do a painting of Pope John Paul II, if that's any indication of how big she is. But it's crazy to think how many of those people are around here. Anyway, check it out if you have a chance. You can get cheap tickets for $20, and if you bring binoculars, it should be just as good as sitting up front since you're not watching a moving display anyway.

UPDATE: If you're interested, check out some of Ruth Mayer's work here.