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Show Pageant is largely volunteer effort It's called the Utah Pageant of the Arts, and there's only one other like it in the United States. In fact, Utah's version of the "living pictures" production is patterned after the long-running Pageant of the Masters in Laguna, Calif. One differenc is Laguna's is presented outdoors with a live or chestra, while Utah's is staged in the air conditioned auditorium at American Fork High School and uses recorded background music with an updated sound system. A bigger difference, though, is that Utah's production -- going on 15 years now - is largely a volunteer effort. And it's an ongoing one. Almost as soon as one six-week run ends and the sets and costumes have been hauled back into storage, producing director David O. Brockbank begins selecting paintings pain-tings and pieces of sculpture to be reproduced with live models in next summer's production. Months before the show opens, crew members put in around luo hours each constructing sets, backgrounds, and frames, then haul them on flatbed trucks from the Pageant Center to the back of the high school stage, two miles away. Then, the men spend an additional ad-ditional !00 hours moving the sets See I'ACKANTiiii pane :! i Pageant Continued from front page j on and off stage during 34 or 35 t performances. The 200 hours adds ";. up to five weeks of eight-hour days in addition to the men's regular But that's not where the volun-leers volun-leers stop. Besides all the people working behind the scenes on ; casting, costumes, makeup, set .. design and painting, lighting, sound, ; and script, nearly 230 volunteers j make up the cast. The triple cast, j ch who "perform" two weeks by ' standing still in the painting or sculpture as it appears on stage, ' donates an additional 5,400 hours. (, When a cultural arts committee ' from American Fork first visited guna's pageant in 1972 to get ideas for its own production, the committee told Laguna officials it Planned to do it with $4,000 borrowed from the city and a cast and staff of volunteers. "They wished us luck," ,f remembers Betty G. Spencer, who "as researched and written the f script for Utah Pageant of the Arts I lor 15 years now. "I don't think they ; realized the dedication people here c nave to one another." But the Pageant has grown from s frist four-night run to six weeks, drawing audiences from all over the United States. This year's per-' per-' rmances, at 8 p.m. June 10-July 18 , 'except July 4 and Sundays,) will recreate 41 works of art in 21 ' 'cenes. And 36 of the selections are brand new. Art exhibits of work by Pth professionals and students "ave been added, along with pre-snow pre-snow seminars at 7 p.m. each night. A few of the staff are now paid, t wil the production still depends on hundreds of volunteers to make it 1 6. Says Brockbank, "The Pageant th-e Arts is successful here lause of the spirit of voluntarism m Utah." Jfor ticket information, phone 756-T7 756-T7 or drop in to the box office at J w. Main (basement of the Senior Wizens building.) |