Julie Feingold still can’t believe she landed the part of a young damsel standing on the step of a carriage awaiting a kiss in Gerolamo Induno’s 1877 painting “The Perfect Match: A Kiss on the Hand.”
Feingold, 14, is among a cast of 450 volunteers who this summer will re-create artworks in life size in the Pageant of the Master’s 83rd show of living pictures, or tableaux vivantes – this year themed “Partners.”
“I never thought last year I’d be doing this now,” she said, beaming. “Not a lot of people my age even know about this.”
Despite her pride in being cast, she’s kept her role a secret from her friends because she doesn’t want them to think she’s doing something boring. If they don’t understand the process, the cool costumes and technology, Feingold thinks her friends might not get how much of a “get” it is to have her part.
“I’d like to Instagram what I look like, but we’re not allowed to do that,” she said. “I think if more people my age could see what the process and the show were like, more would want to come.”
Making an 83-year-old show relevant for a world caught up in the fast-paced noise of life is the challenge for pageant director Diane Challis Davy and scriptwriter Dan Duling. Twenty-two years ago, Challis Davy developed the idea of bringing pop culture into the show and having themes. But over the years, even that wasn’t enough to keep expand the audience.
So Challis Davy and Duling have brought in other components – creating more of a variety show. This year the addition of videos, groups of dancers and surprises will help turn 90 minutes of art under the stars at the Irvine Bowl on the Festival of Arts grounds into an unforgettable performance, said Challis Davy. The show’s pace has sped up; the music had changed.
This year, six composers have written parts. An MGM poster replica of La Fontaine des Mers in the movie “An American in Paris” was this year’s greatest challenge, said San Clemente resident, Richard Hill, technical director for the show. It’s different because the pageant’s replicas are generally inspired by original pieces. Here the fountain is reconstructed to look like a hazy image on a movie poster.
“There’s an effect we’ve never done before,” Hill said. “It will be very surprising.”
Challis Davy came up with this year’s theme while she did research for the 2012 show, “The Genius.” She discovered a portrait of the Lavoisiers, an influential husband and wife doing scientific research in 18th century France. Their union was a partnership of science and art. Challis Davy wanted to explore their relationship more. Thus, this year’s theme, “Partners,” stories of compelling collaborations that led to the creation of unforgettable art.
The pageant includes artwork from many nations, including France, Spain, Sweden, Italy and Mexico. Partnerships include husbands and wives, artists and models and even artists and their patrons. In the show, Challis Davy shows how partnerships can be subjects for masterpieces devoted to family, love and courtship as well as historic and scientific endeavors.
“There are so many artworks inspired by partnerships, it’s difficult to narrow them down.” she said.
The show will also recognize the power of dance in movies and end Act 1 with what’s described as a stunning number. Though Challis Davy and Dulling are constantly looking to make the show better, they also insist on staying true to its roots. It will include a tribute to the partnership of Roy and Marie Ropp, who in 1936 presented as the pageant’s finale Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” (1495-98).
The living representation of the painting left audiences so moved that word of this new event quickly spread and even generated national attention for the pageant and the festival. Since then, the tableau of Jesus and his disciples sharing a final, emotional meal has concluded the pageant, with only three exceptions in 83 years.
Each January, casting calls draw thousands of hopefuls from across Southern California. More than 1,200 tried out this year. They are selected based on height, shape and size as needed for the artwork they will represent.
The volunteers, wearing costumes, makeup and headpieces, pose in the artworks frozen for 90 seconds as a narrator provides the story and an orchestra performs. The cast is divided into two groups of 150 that rotate each week. Richard Doyle will narrate for his sixth season.
The end result – presented under the stars in the Irvine Bowl amphitheater – is a combination of theater, performance art and art history lesson. The show is on the grounds of the Festival of Arts, a juried art show taking place over the same period.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or on Twitter:@lagunaini
