Back tracking; Pageant of the Masters

While DH and I were staying with our cousin and her partner in Huntington Beach, we were able to experience something completely new, and rather wonderful. It is an event called Pageant of the Masters which is held in conjunction with a huge Art Show and this all takes place in Laguna Beach. The pageant takes a theme in art and then recreates works of art by using people making up a diorama of a particular painting or sculpture.

We left for Laguna early as we were going to have a meal at a well known and popular restaurant there called the Lumberyard. 

                 ( second photo by A. Parks)

After dinner we walked through the streets to the venue which was an open air theatre.

The theme for this year was ' The Pursuit of Happiness' 

We filed inside and found our seats...

          ( photo by A. Parks )

And we waited for the show to start...

               ( photo by A. Parks)

When the curtains opened on what looked like a giant copy of the first painting I was impressed. It was a painting called ' the Country School' painted by Winslow Homer in 1871. And then the children in the painting suddenly stepped out of the 'painting' and ran around playing happily...well then I was spellbound!!!!! An image of that painting was outside the front of the Arts Centre where we had taken photos before we went in. ( I took the photo regardless of that unknown lady posing happily there.)

A wonderful orchestra also accompanied each presentation; some of the music appeared to have been composed especially for some of the Masters items. 

 All in all there were 44 works of art that featured; the media ranged from oil, lithographs, bronzes, marble to some Norman Rockwell works from the Saturday Evening Post. Now of course photography was not allowed...not in the theatre or outside where the Fine Art Works were on show and for sale. 

These works in the Art Show part of the event, included paintings, sculptures, glasswork etc...all beautiful and quite expensive. But if you would like to see some images on the website, here are some links...

http://www.foapom.com/pageant-of-the-masters/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pageant_of_the_Masters

It was a wonderful night and such a different theatre experience. The work that would have gone into the preparation and production of the show would have been quite intensive. But so well worth it!