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June 2001 Table of Contents
Pageant of Our Lord
Artistic Masterpieces Come Alive At The Pageant Of Our Lord
By David Halverson
Producer & Music Director
The Pageant of Our Lord, a commemoration of the life, death & resurrection of Christ using live models to depict life - size re-creations of great works of art, was developed by Rolling Hills Covenant Church 16 years ago. The church, located 20 miles south of Los Angeles in the city of Rolling Hills Estates, is a member of the Evangelical Covenant Churches of America denomination. Rolling Hills Covenant Church ministers to more than 4,000 people each weekend at two Saturday evening and three Sunday morning services.
The concept for the pageant was inspired by the world-famous "Pageant of the Masters" in Laguna Beach, California. The Pageant of the Masters has been a very popular event for art lovers and has drawn an audience from around the world each summer for the past 70 years. The Laguna pageant features some wonderful secular and sacred art in life-size reproductions, unified and dramatized through narration and orchestral music.
The pageant of Our Lord is presented 18 times throughout the Easter season each year. During presentations, the recreated art is tied together by a dramatic script brought to life by actors from the church. In addition, music provided by choir and orchestra sets up and adds focus to the themes of the art. (The drama and music also allow time for changing each artwork, behind closed curtains.) Thus, art, drama, and music are combined to commemorate the story of the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior. In addition, Old Testament stories foreshadowing the life of Christ also may be depicted in the two hour (with intermission) pageant.
"The pageant is a year round project for myself as producer" says producer Dr. David Halverson. "I have visited art museums in many countries of the world searching for art that would fit the theme of the pageant and that would be feasible to re-create in life-size dimensions. It is difficult to find art that is done in a style, and has the dimensions that our pageant can use.
The pageant's art director is Rassie Harper, a retired firefighter. Harper has no formal art training, but he has great natural artistic ability and a unique talent for making things work. He can create incredible pieces of art out of cardboard, cloth, and pieces of linoleum, as well as bicycle seats and wire.
His creations are faithful to the original art in every detail except one-the people in his artworks are real. At least one live person is fitted into each piece. In "The Last Supper," for example, 13 living men are skillfully positioned into a set that has been crafted to duplicate every element of the original painting by Da Vinci.
Each year, Harper, with his assistants, creates three to four new pieces of art. To accomplish this, he works full time for eight months in a local studio.
The pageant has grown from six art pieces displayed in six presentations in 1985, to 15 art pieces displayed in 18 presentation this year. Typically, half of the art will be paintings and half will be sculptures. Also, it has worked well to reuse about half of the art (the sets) from previous years and to have half of the art new each year. This gives a good blend of continuity and freshness to the program.
There are two annual pieces that are crowd favorites and have been in the pageant every year since its beginning. These pieces are "The Last Supper," & Michelangelo's "Pieta". The pageant would not be complete without these two stunning works of art.
Because two or three new art pieces have been constructed each of the past 16 years, and most of them have been kept in storage, there are now about 35 art pieces that the pageant can rotate in each season.
Creating the art pieces
"We have made a constant effort to remain faithful to the original dimensional relationships of the artwork we reproduce, using the size of people as the determining factor" says art director Rassie Harper. Consequently, the finished art pieces used in our pageant often end up being very large. The limitations of our church's ceiling height and stage size can often determine which pieces of art can be used.
In 1993, one of the new pieces Harper re-created from an original work of art was "The Wise Men." The original was a Faberge-style decorated egg about four inches high with a Nativity set in it. Harper had to use junior high boys as models for the wise men to make the 17 foot-tall piece of art because adults would have been too large and would have required the egg to be made 25 feet high. This would not have worked because the worship center of our church has only an 18-foot ceiling!
Great care must be taken to ensure the safety of each human model, especially in some of the more spectacular scenes where positioning is awkward. One example is "Calvary" a sculpture in which Christ is suspended 15 feet above the stage floor. In this instance, the model is provided with footrests and handholds, seated on a bicycle seat, and attached to the set with safety belts. All of this protective equipment is made invisible to the audience through carefully positioned costumes and through makeup.
Makeup can make or break the performance. The makeup used for our pageant is specially formulated for the event by a lab in Hollywood. The application of makeup on the models is the work of a team of about 20 makeup artists, all supervised by Harper. The procedure of applying makeup is more like applying paint to a canvas. Makeup is used at times to change the structure of a person's face, to put muscles where they don't normally exist, or to change the line of the spine to make a person appear fatter or skinnier. All of this is done through highlighting and shading. Some models that appear in more than one re-created piece of art have had the two sides of their face made up to work in two different scenes.
Our unusual-looking models with their exaggerated makeup have elicited some interesting reactions from people at a nearby fast-food restaurant where models sometimes grab a hamburger between performances.
Despite Harper's dogged attention to detail, unexpected little surprises occasionally take place. One year, stagehands reassembled the set of "The Last Supper" only to discover mice had eaten the three loaves of bread on the table right down to the glue. And another year, the lights went up on the "Pieta," revealing Mary with tears streaming down her face.
Pageant changes lives
Some of the comments by those whose lives were dramatically impacted by the Pageant this year are:
"Breathtaking, exhilarating, almost like being there."
"This was truly a glorious experience. May God be praised."
"The Pageant was amazing! I'm speechless & awed."
"Absolutely incredible. Can't wait to bring friends next year."
"This is one of the great events of 2001!"
"The Pageant must be seen - it can't be put into words. Incredible!"
Not only has the Pageant of Our Lord influenced the lives of many thousands who have come to see it, but also it has had a life-changing impact on those who have been in the presentations.
The woman who played Mary in the "Pieta" has shared this testimony about her experience:"Five years ago, I portrayed Mary in Michelangelo's 'Pieta' for the first time. Rehearsal, makeup, lights, led to a concentrated study of the pose and finally time for [the] presentation [to begin]. I was excited and ready to stand motionless for the minutes it took the orchestra to play. The lights came up. All was still but for the music. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with emotion. How had Mary, the mother of Jesus, felt holding her crucified son in her arms? Tears flowed down my checks, sadness overcame me, and the "marble" makeup ran down my face.
"Later that year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought perhaps I would never again have the opportunity to model in the ‘Pieta.' But, the Lord has graciously given me several more years and more times to portray Mary in this fantastic work of art. He has also given me peace and a new vision through this sculpture. I have [the] wonderful comfort of knowing that my Savior has died for me."
From another model, who posed in "The Crucifixion" scene:
"I was a model for the first time last year, and it changed my life. Last year at this time, I was going through marital difficulties and business difficulties. I felt the whole world was on my shoulders, and I was looking for answers. The turning point was the first dress rehearsal. As I climbed up the painting and positioned myself and the lights and music began, I was actually there watching Jesus being crucified and learned and felt forgiveness in my heart. God's only Son died for me, and He forgave. It all changed and I finally had peace in my life, and that's because I cast all those burdens unto God and Learned to forgive."
Musical Preparations
In addition to work on the art pieces, the musicians and actors begin rehearsing and preparing the script and music are carefully chosen to tie the art pieces together. With a sense of the classics in the art, historical music largely by composers such as Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Dubois is for the most part what is selected. However, each year a contemporary piece or two is included in the repertoire if it fits a particular art piece. As a rule, all of the choir members and two-thirds of the orchestra members are members of Rolling Hills Covenant Church.
The cost of hiring some orchestra members, promotion and publicity costs, the high cost of constructing the art pieces, costumes, makeup, rented technical equipment, and music costs are all offset by the selling of tickets for the performances. "Our church financed the pageant the first year through offerings, rather than by selling tickets" says Dr. Halverson. " However, we discovered that an event like this had to be carefully budgeted, which required selling tickets. We found that members of the church and their guests were more than willing to purchase tickets knowing they would be assured of reserved seats."
For eight years, the pageant has been on budget thanks to thousands of volunteer hours given by church members and the growing attendance each year.
The church is fortunate to have a full-time technical director, Allen Kaufman, who oversees a crew of 20 to 30 local church members who work as lighting technicians, stage crew, and video crews. Technically, the program is quite involved. Lighting is especially critical to the success of the pageant.
Conclusion
The Pageant of Our Lord is a major commitment of time and resources of over 350 local church volunteers. However, there is no doubt the time and resources are well invested. Thousands of lives have been dramatically changed because of this unique and powerful presentation of the life of Jesus Christ.
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