My wife and I were given tickets to The Pageant of the Masters for our anniversary. Our tickets were for July 29th (yes, I know this post is a little late). In all my years growing up in Southern California I have never seen the show. I must say that it was absolutely fantastic. The orchestra and the “live person” recreation of famous works of art was a sight to be seen and heard. When I saw the first piece (a sculpture), my initial thought was “wow, they did a great job remaking that”… That was until, the lights went off around it and you saw the dark shadow of the sculpture move and for lack of a better phrase, walk away. Our seats were next to a few other sculpture recreations, and the attention to detail in the costumes was amazing. Its not everyday that you get to see a “sculpture” blink.

I really enjoyed the break down and explanation of the recreation process with the live actors. The use of fore, middle and background elements along with the placement of the actors into the scene was interesting. The forced and distorted perspective to make the images work at a large scale and yet still appear like the original paintings on stage was an effective optical trick for the audience.

If you’ve never seen the show before, I recommend going. It really is an inspirational experience that must be seen in person.  I know am already looking forward to attending The Pageant of the Masters again next year to witness another feat of creativity.