Pageant of the Masters chess pieces parade to Laguna Beach City Hall
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Indian chess set pieces crossing Laguna Canyon Road provided a spectacle Friday morning, three ginormous sculptures winding up at their new temporary home.
In the weeks to come, a 13-foot elephantine king, accompanied by a bishop and a knight — each 6 feet tall — will be on display as the latest public art installation on the lawn at Laguna Beach City Hall.
The pieces originally appeared in the 2025 Pageant of the Masters production, “Gold Coast: Treasures of California,” seeking to replicate a 19th-century, ivory chess set on view at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Each summer, the pageant endeavors to bring various forms of artwork to life, posing people in life-sized recreations referred to as tableaux vivant, witnessed by thousands inside the Irvine Bowl.
“We have taken some pieces on the road,” Pageant Director Diane Challis Davy said. “Usually, they’re a much smaller scale than this one, which this elephant … is 13 feet tall, so we wouldn’t normally take that on the road. This is our first big collaboration with the city of Laguna Beach and the Arts Commission.
“I was inspired by many of the arts pieces that they’ve had in recent years. One year, they had these giant black crows,” Challis Davy added, referring to Jack Champion’s “An Attempted Murder,” which featured two bronze crows in an exhibit in the summer of 2024. “That is what got my brain thinking, ‘Well, we have some great — unusual — but sculptural pieces, artistic, and why shouldn’t we [display them], because we’re right next door.’”
Challis Davy said the road to the parade included a public hearing before the Arts Commission.
“I wasn’t sure they would go for it because this is a little unconventional, materials and all,” Challis Davy recalled. “The Arts Commission, some members actually came backstage to look at them in the storage facility to see if they thought it was appropriate, and they loved them.”
The chess pieces, transported on casters, arrived at City Hall at about 9 a.m. on Friday, where they will be on display until July 24. The Pageant of the Masters summer show, “The Greatest of All Time,” will run from July 9 to Sept. 4.
Dickson Janda and Alexandria Trudgen collaborated to build and sculpt the chess pieces. Trudgen, who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in fine art with an emphasis in sculpture from Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), was in attendance.
She has now worked on 13 separate pieces for the Pageant of the Masters, she said, calling the work “the opportunity I was really looking for when it comes to sculpture.”
Trudgen named Brittany Ryan, her sculpture instructor at LCAD, as an inspiration in her career. Christopher Slatoff, sculpture chairman of the California Art Club, was also a mentor. She served as an apprentice for a year under Casey Parlette, a Laguna Beach-based sculptor and Festival of Arts exhibitor.
“We start with wood boxes and metal armatures, and that is done by our wood shop,” Trudgen said. “The guys out there are great. On top of that, we build with Styrofoam, so we cut the Styrofoam into the shapes that we want, and we glue them together with expandable foam and foam adhesives. Then start cutting away with power tools, maybe hot knives, all different types of knives — we have a plethora of knives here.
“Then, [we] also go in with files and sanding blocks. We get it really smooth and get to the point where we can then send it to the paint shop, and they can paint it and do the next step to making it look like the pieces that we’re replicating.”
An Arizona native who moved to Southern California for college, Trudgen now resides in Costa Mesa. She said she views the public art installation as experiential, from up-close examination of the “imperfections” to a more hands-on interaction.
“I think, specifically when it comes to artwork for the pageant, it is already very interactive on a daily basis,” Trudgen added. “During the show, someone’s usually in the sculpture, on the sculpture, or around the sculpture, so I think it makes sense that people will be up and close, personal with it, and touching it, possibly.
“I’m sure they don’t want people to climb on it for liability and safety reasons, but I love the concept of interactive artwork. I would love to do sculpture installations that people could interact with and experience the art through not just only their eyes, but through touch, as well, so I think it will be a really cool experience for the public to see it up close.”
Laguna Beach Mayor Mark Orgill, who took part in the parade, said the city wants to see its arts organizations “thrive and become everything they can be.” He pointed to multiple arts programs at City Hall.
“We have ‘Art That’s Small at City Hall,’ and other exhibits from time to time,’” Orgill said. “That is actually enjoyed by the community. We get quite a bit of traffic through City Hall just for that particular exhibit. As far as the art outside of City Hall, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s controversial, at times, and people share their opinions one way or the other … It’s a great program.”
