A time machine, digital effects, actors and a nod to H.G. Wells are the elements of the opening scene to the Pageant of the Masters.
The introduction sets up a theme that covers the full arc of the famed Laguna Beach tableaux vivants – or living pictures show – in which two characters travel through time exploring art and science.
The Pageant of the Masters was first developed in the 1930s to combine music, storytelling and theatrical illusions to celebrate artistic interpretation and history. It has since become a Laguna Beach tradition drawing visitors from around the world. This year’s show, which opens Sunday, July 7, and runs through Aug. 31, marks the pageant’s 86th year.
“It will be more satisfying for the audience,” said Diana Challis Day, who this year puts on her 24th show. “It’s a different feel after 23 years.”
The show, titled “The Time Machine,” takes audiences around the globe and into the past, present and future in search of art and stories. It includes tributes to breakthroughs in art and science and incorporates a journey through a series of clues and instructions from the notebook of a famous artist.
Highlights include an homage to American sculptor Malvina Hoffman for her groundbreaking anthropological exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History in 1933 and the 1913 Armory Show in New York which marked the dawn of modernism in America.
Other recreations – all done with actors posed to create living pictures – include Johannes Vermeer’s “The Music Lesson” (circa 1662-64), Georges Seurat’s “Les Poseuses” (circa 1886-88), Charles Albert Walhain’s “Portrait of Countess De La Maitre in Equestrian Dress (1910), Robert Delaunay’s “The City of Paris” (circa 1910-21), Salvador Dalí’s “The Nobility of Time” (1984) and Norman Rockwell’s “The Final Impossibility” (1969).
In all, there are 39 art pieces portrayed.
While the first scene references H.G. Wells’ 1895 novela “The Time Machine,” the show quickly travels to the 1960 movie of the same name, then to “Dr. Who” and on to time traveler Marty McFly from 1985’s “Back to the Future.”
“We’re being very ambitious this year,” Challis Davy said Friday, July 5, with just one more dress rehearsal planned that night. “I’m holding my breath that all the technical elements will perform as expected.”
The production includes video, sound effects, theatrical smoke, inflatables, black lights, lasers and a soundbar.
“At the turn of the century, we added a lot of technology,” she said, reflecting back on her own time travel since 1980 when she began as assistant director. “Google searches have changed the accessibility to research. We have a whole lot more in the toolbox now than in the 1990s, where we were still using slide projectors. When we introduced a flying saucer in 2001, it was a big ‘wow factor.’”
Challis Davy is also spending more time on the show’s sound, working with a whole group of composers, rather than just a single person. She now functions as music director collaborating with Dan Duling, the pageant’s scriptwriter to make sure the music works for each piece.
Challis Davy said Google has made looking for artwork a thousand times easier than in earlier years when she combed through art books at local libraries. Now, she can visit museums virtually and purchase sound effects from her computer.
“We can get a prop the next day,” she said. “We can get almost anything delivered.”
In creating this year’s theme, Challis Davy said she looked at current trends of interest. Her inspiration came from video games, “Game of Thrones,” Steampunk and a general interest in fantasy and science fiction.
Her favorite scene is the final piece and pageant highlight: Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
The living representation of the painting debuted as the pageant’s finale in 1936. Since then, the tableau of Jesus and his disciples sharing a final meal has concluded the pageant in all but three of its 85 years. This year is the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance master’s death.
“I’m excited to get the feedback,” Challis Davy said. “Because it’s super dramatic.”
If you go
Where: Festival of Arts, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
When: 8:30 p.m. July 7 to Aug. 31
Cost: $15 to $240
Information: 800-487-3378 or PageantTickets.com
