Review: 2025 Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters
- Shannyn Page
- Jul 7
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 16
This summer’s Festival of Arts annual “Pageant of the Masters” has begun, casting real people into works of art in a series of tableaux vivants, or living paintings. This year’s theme is “Gold Coast: Treasures of California,” bringing to life masterpieces by such artists as Edgar Degas and Claude Monet from museums such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Laguna Art Museum.
Guest reviewer Shannyn Page, a member of the OC Theatre Guild, shares her experience attending this year’s Festival of Arts art show and pageant:
Festival of Arts offers a wonderful visual experience of various artists with their art collections during an art show prior to the pageant performance. I recommend arriving hours early to enjoy all the venue has to offer. My adult son and I needed more time to see all the art displays!
My son is interested in photography, so he enjoyed speaking with the artists, asking about their vision and photographic work. I liked looking at the jewelry and clay sculptures. The art is pricey, however. We had brought a picnic basket of cheese, crackers and wine and listened to a band perform while dining, though food is also available for purchase.
Once inside the open-air amphitheater of the Pageant of the Masters, I was delighted by the series of “live paintings” on stage. My favorite moment of the show was when they let us see how those “paintings” are set up on stage.
We watched as crew and actors set up for a tableau, getting into the painting in make-up and costumes, then adding props for the still performers. Next is adding a back layer to the set. The lights go to blackout before a big reveal with the lights going up. The entire audience gasps with audible wows. It is wonderful to see how it all pulls together.
And all the artworks are beautiful, from artists past and present whose works hang in various California’s museums, big and small. Though the “Gold Coast” theme is an excellent idea, I found the storyline running between each piece distracting. It features a young woman going from museum to museum using her iPhone to capture the locations.
Though that certainly appeals to today’s technology and how a normal person navigates the world through their smartphone, for me it cheapened the experience. I preferred when the videos were shown of the actual museums and their gardens rather than an anonymous woman skipping down the hallway of a museum or taking selfies.
A live orchestra performs background music during the pageant. However, I was not familiar with the songs, and I’d be interested to know if the score was written for this performance. It’s not that I needed familiarity with the music, I just didn’t find it as rich as the actual paintings, and the classical sound contrasted with the modern young woman with the iPhone. Perhaps some band instruments like an electric guitar should have been added.
As we were leaving the venue, a video projection showed production credits like after a movie. It’s amazing to see how many people — mostly volunteers — put on the Pageant every single day and night, including costume dressers, make-up artists, performers, crew members, musicians, house staff and creative staff.
Though the show has many financial supporters, ticket prices are unfortunately still high. I would like to see opportunities for all members of the community to be able to experience such a wondrous performance.
Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters continues through Aug. 29. For tickets and information, visit the festival’s website at Foapom.com.
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