Tableaux Vivants

The art form is known as tableaux vivants, or living pictures, and it originated in Europe over a thousand years ago. It was often staged to welcome a visiting dignitary. For 75 years The Pageant of the Masters in Laguna has offered spectacular reenactments of tableaux vivant of famous painters. Like an idiot, I have never gone, until this past weekend. Staged in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater under the stars my wife and I were mesmerized from beginning to end.

I didn't know what exactly to expect, just how much like a painting would it look, but the first tableaux came and went before I realized I was not looking at a picture of the artwork. The effect is stunning. Take for example, the Renoir above. The women are actors and for the minute or two the piece is lit, they do not move. Like I said, stunning.

The Pageant does not limit itself to paintings, they do tableaux vivants of statues, figurines, chess sets, furniture (King Tut's burial throne) and buildings. It is one amazing vista after another accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra, an interesting narration and inspired production.

They set up one of the pieces in front of the audience, so we could see how the effect is achieved. Also, from time to time the stage would be in partial light as a set would be rolled into place and you could see the performers moving into place. The stage would go black and when the fully lit piece was illuminated again the magical effect was in full force.

The theme for this year was a Young at Heart and featured works by Winslow Homer, Maxfield Parrish, Edvard Erkison, Pierre Renoir, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Francisco de Goya, Edward Hopper, Marc Chagall, N.C. Wyeth and Leonardo da Vinci, the last piece being da Vinci's Last Supper.

We were there on a Sunday night and the pageant was sold out, and not the kind of sold out where there are no more tickets, the kind of sold out where there is not an empty seat to be found. The Pageant of the Masters runs through August 31st nightly at 8:30, but tickets are only available for August 20th and beyond and then they are very, very limited. Still, it would be worth you while to get whatever tickets you can. Simply amazing!