Church Strives for the Picture of Perfection as Life Imitates Art in Easter Pageant

The concept came from the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, but the inspiration came from God, Stephanie MacKay says.

“This project was an idea the Lord gave me,” said MacKay, who is directing this year’s Easter production at the Rolling Hills Covenant Church.

Like the annual Laguna Beach pageant, the production will combine art, music and actors to tell a story--in this case, the last three years of Christ’s life and his Resurrection as told in the New Testament.

With the help of an artistic crew of 30, six religious masterpieces have been re-created. Living, absolutely still models will be fitted into the giant artworks.

“It’s really been an incredible project,” MacKay said last week as she directed the placement of a model’s hands. With complete makeup and full, flowing white robes, the model will portray Christ ascending into heaven in a painting that combines elements from Raphael’s “The Transfiguration” with Giovanni Bellini’s “Agony in the Garden.” The church artists call it “Ascension.”

The model, straddling a bicycle seat that is attached in the clouds of the 10-by-16-foot painting, was suspended 14 feet above the floor. During the actual performance, the Christ figure will be belted into place on the bicycle seat and will look out from the painting, his hands held open at his sides in a gesture of sublime consent. But in the Harbor City warehouse where the giant paintings were in the final stages of completion, scaffolding and the seat were all that kept him heaven-bound.

Combining the two paintings was required to simplify the ascension scene, MacKay said. It is the only art re-creation that combines the works of two artists.

“We’re trying to do an actual duplication of the art itself as accurately as we can,” MacKay said. “It’s been more difficult than anything we’ve ever done.”

Other re-creations include Michelangelo’s sculpture, the “Pieta”; Pierro della Francesca’s “Baptism of Christ”; Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper”; Thomas De Keyser’s “Calvary” and Titian’s “Noli Me Tangere” (Do Not Touch Me), which depicts Mary Magdalene’s meeting with Christ after the Resurrection. A narrator will tell of the events leading up to Christ’s death and Resurrection, connecting the paintings with the story. The church’s 120-voice choir and full orchestra will perform several classical religious selections, including music from Handel’s “Messiah.”

The production will cost an estimated $10,000 but will be offered free to the public. “We consider it a gift to the community,” said David Halverson, the church’s minister of music. The Covenant congregation has developed a tradition of drama ministry since it was founded 28 years ago. The church, with a congregation of more than 4,000, annually presents large-scale Christmas and Easter productions. The sanctuary seats 1,200 and can double as a theater.

The pageant production crew began preparing for the event last summer when a committee headed by MacKay and Halverson attended the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. The committee was permitted backstage for a closer look at the work involved.

The group met twice with the director and assistant director of the Laguna Beach pageant, who explained lighting techniques that eliminate shadows and transform three-dimensional human beings in a painting into two-dimensional characters when they are properly made up and costumed--and are very still. The directors of the Laguna Beach pageant also helped the church committee decide which masterpieces to re-create in their production.

“We try to be helpful to people who are interested,” said Sally Reeve, spokeswoman for the Pageant of the Masters, which has been presenting large-scale re-creations of art masterpieces every summer since 1933 as part of the Festival of Arts in Laguna.

In January, after the art selection was completed, the call went out for church members with artistic ability. Twelve artists volunteered, including Charles Landholm, who hand-mixed latex house paint to achieve the desired hues in the “Ascension.”

Working from a photograph taken from an art book, Landholm painted to scale on muslin stretched over a solid wooden rectangle that can be broken down to fit through the eight-foot doors of the church on production nights.

The 22-year-old unemployed house painter said he has always wanted to be an artist, but this was the first opportunity he has had to use his skills in a theatrical setting. He said he sometimes has stayed up until 3 a.m. working on the painting and has enjoyed the experience.

“The church has really helped satisfy a lot of my needs,” he said.

Rassie Harper, a Gardena firefighter, has been the sole artist for a number of church productions, but other commitments precluded him from doing all six of the pageant re-creations.

“I couldn’t do it all, and it brought more people (into the production),” Harper said. “This one has brought some people out of the woodwork.”

Harper agreed to do a 12-by-20-foot re-creation of DaVinci’s “Last Supper” at his home in Lomita.

The 1-hour, 45-minute Pageant of Our Master will be presented in the church sanctuary on Palos Verdes Drive North on Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 6 and 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.

No reservations are required.