Laguna Beach’s Annual Pageant of the Masters Takes You On a Trip Through Time and Place in “The Time Machine”
The Pageant of the Masters and Festival of the Arts Entrance on Laguna Canyon Rd.
It’s a starlit summer night in beautiful Laguna Beach as I join 2600 guests seated in the outdoor amphitheater on opening night at the 86th annual Pageant of the Masters. The lights dim, the live orchestra begins to play and the baritone-voiced narrator introduces The Time Machine. As the stage curtain rises we join a steampunk-styled young man of the late 1800s, his female companion and her little dachshund, as they board a Time Machine with which the man has been tinkering, ala H.G Wells. Together, we begin a journey to navigate the past, present and future around the globe, as depicted through life-size works of art. But wait, did Napoleon surreptitiously scratch his nose in Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1860 painting Napoleon and his General Staff? Did the 1933 bronze sculpture by Malvina Hoffman of the Hawaiian Surf-Rider seem to move a little on his wave? Continue reading