Behind the Scenes at The Pageant of Our Lord ( April 1 - 3) By Deborah Paul
Behind the Scenes at The Pageant of Our Lord ( April 1 - 3)
By Deborah Paul
For the last 35 years, minus the two the vacuous pandemic years, Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Rolling Hills has been adding a special touch to the community’s Easter celebration.
The Pageant of Our Lord is a glorified (no pun intended) spin off of the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach that succinctly tells the Easter story as it pertains to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The presentation at RHCC has wowed more than 350,000 people through three decades, some coming on busses as far away as Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Much has been promoted in local newspapers and magazines about the pageant’s beauty and majesty, but very few have shown what goes on behind the scenes. This pictorial during light staging shows the hard work and dedication experienced by hundreds of volunteers -- including live models, make-up artists, back stage hands, actors, directors, costume makers, set developers, ticket takers, greeters, docents and a full-on choir and orchestra.
The Pageant of Our Lord was created by soon-to-be-semi-retired Rolling Hills Covenant Music Director and Conductor David Halverson and retired fireman and visionary set director, Rassie Harper, 94. Since then, the pageant volunteers have grown to include multi-generational families, community residents and professionals participating in various capacities.
Many times, folks who move away come back to work on the staged production. Kids of all ages pose, sing or recite, and senior adults might oversee food preparation for the production teams and wash sponges and brushes. And some will even hand out warm, wet towels to painted models to wipe their gooey-eyed faces after they come down from their paintings.
No task is too small.
Art Director Brad Hicks has been instrumental in creating new pieces for 16 years, including building life size ceramics, bronzes statues, classical paintings, and portrayals of Jesus and his followers in life size stain glass images -- as well as all stage settings.
This year, performances are scaled down to seven in three days and 12 art presentations due to working around the zig-zagging CDC guidelines.
But capturing the atmosphere behind the scenes of the Pageant is all about camaraderie, quick thinking, McGuiver-like ingenuity to make the show go on, and a time for sharing one’s faith with all ages. Sometimes a set breaks down, a costume piece goes missing or a wig comes apart.
A very important job that has reached almost ceremonial notoriety the last 35 years is “the washing of the sponges.” The job is a good example of “the first shall go last and the last shall go first” because as menial as the task sounds, it’s jokingly one of the most important in the make-up room.
Round soft sponges bought by the hundreds are used to apply the thick, professional grade makeup on the models, actors and narrators.
All through the day or night as make-up teams rotates into the make up room to dress and prepare for their specific art work and models, sponges are washed in hot soapy water, squeezed dried and re-used.
At any given time there could be dozens of people in the make up room dipping a sponge into burnt sienna for a clavicle shadow or a medium blue used to paint an eyeball on a model who has to hold three minute pose under bright studio lights. The make-up folks might go through a half dozen sponges on one face, so it’s more cost effective to wash them instead of throwing them away.
And activity doesn’t cease outside of the make-up room.
Dozens of pew seats are cleared out of the right side of sanctuary to make room for a choir loft temporarily built above the audience with the full orchestra situated directly below. When the music that accompanies the art pieces emanates out from the choir 20 feet above the audience, the effect is not only breathtaking, but memorable.
In another part of the church, a room is set up for a teams of actors and narrators who have a hefty scripts to memorize. Moments before the performance they can be spotted walking around in circles silently mumbling their lines. No one talks to them, as they are deep in the penetralia of their roles and characters.
Narrators will lead the audience from art piece to art piece and generally tie the whole production together. Actors and singers as well who gingerly step out of the paintings onto stage have thoroughly rehearsed their parts for months.
For all involved, volunteers agree, participating is a labor of love.
But working behind the scenes of the Pageant of Our Lord at Rolling Hills Covenant Church may seem like a tedious, unpaid endeavor, but unlike many Hollywood productions, there is no screaming, cursing or belittling.
Instead, when mishaps get tense, like trying to keep a loose beard from slipping off, precariously sliding down a hidden bicycle seat positioned on the cross or getting a cramp during a hard pose in ” The Last Supper,” participants pull out their strongest weapon:
They pray and all is well.
Box: Want to go? Performances are still available.
Rolling Hills Covenant Church
2222 Palos Verdes North Drive
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90275
For tickets, go to: rollinghillscovenant.com/events.
Deborah Paul has played with ink since she was able to read and write. At 19, after two years of college, she left St. Louis to fly for American Airlines, and later enjoyed a long career with Flying Tiger Lines in many capacities, including flying military and their dependents all over the world as a flight attendant. Paul returned to university in the 1990s earning a journalism degree from Cal State University Dominguez Hills and was eventually hired as a newspaper reporter for the South Bay Weekly section of the Los Angeles Times. A decade later she worked for Orange Coast Magazine as their Charitable Events editor. She also taught journalism and was advisor to the campus newspaper at CSUDH and still contributes as a regular stringer for Peninsula News on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Currently, she has self-published four-of-five children's books in her ballad series. Her poetic fictional stories are inspired by real people who have left an indelible mark on the quiet display of simple human kindness. She resides in Rancho Palos Verdes married to Jim, her husband of many adventures.
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