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Show Utah Pageant of Arts lacks just one thing art Editor: I am a film and television production designerart director. I reside in Utah valley, even though this means I must spend a lot of time away from my family working in other parts of the United States and Europe. I desire to help promote the growth of the arts in this area. I have carefully monitored the growth and decline of the Utah Pageant of the Arts from its inception, in-ception, and I have been a firm supporter of this once-great production. On July 30, I attended an American Fork city council meeting at which the pageant's problems were discussed. The pageant was regarded as if it were a healthy thoroughbred waiting in the wings to take its place center stage. Important issues were skirted; its problems were blamed upon, among other things, faulty organization on the periphery. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real problem of the Utah Pageant of the Arts became apparent ap-parent to me when my wife and I recently attended the pageant in Laguna Beach, Calif, (the spiritual father and inspiration ot our Utah production). What the Utah Pageant used to be in its first 10 years came rushing back in a flood of memory. At the Laguna Pageant there were "Ooo's" and "Ahh's" when the curtain opened; there were double and triple applause for several outstanding pieces; there was an excited buzz of conversation at intermission. Tickets were difficult dif-ficult to get, there was a waiting list, even though the seating capacity is in the thousands. I remember a time when all of this was present at the Utah Pageant of the Arts. What hap. pened? Believe me, faulty organization of the board of directors is not' the problem. The problem is the show. Seeing the Laguna production verified to me that art has slipped away from the Utah Pageant. This production cannot captivate an audience unless it has a real artist in charge. Its work may be sincere, but sincerity does not make art. Artists make art. It is not called the Pageant of Homespun Crafts. It is called the Pageant of the Arts, and this is what it needs - the magical thing that started the commotion, art. The once healthy thoroughbred can no longer stand on its own, much less pull the wagon of financial responsibility, for the horse is dead. Propping it up and painting it white can work for only so long. Reorganizing committees and dancing around the corpse casting blame in all the wrong directions cannot resurrect this exotic animal. What is needed is what was lost: dedicated and talented artists in charge of the pageant. This year's pageant was at best ' an amateur effort. The selections ' were neither classic nor artistic, crowded with such "cute" or "flashy" items as greeting cards in raw colors, rafts of Hummel figures, and orange crate labels, and advertisements. The visual presentation bordered on embarrassing. The lighting was murky, the sound system was inadequate; head pieces looked like football helmets, and the makeup was the worst it has ever been. Even from the back of the house the makeup looked sloppy, flat, un-sculpted, un-sculpted, and only barely resembled the original pieces of art. It was inexcusable to place this seedy etlort before an audience paying as much as $11 a seat. It made the people of this area look as though they have only a barn-yard education. In the past 15 years, I have been in charge of millions of dollars in production budgets. I know what goes into projects such as the pageant, and as it stands, it is not a $100,000 production. Where is the money going? A full-scale musical with orchestra, chorus, costumes, scenery, choreography, cast and crews could be produced for that much money, especially in this area and with volunteer help such as the pageant receives. The consensus of public opinion is that the show is not what it used to be. Ticket sales will verify this. The public is not interested in who is sitting on the board of directors. All they want is a stunning show. If the board of directors wants to save the pageant, it has difficult decisions to make. The board must turn the reins over to qualified artists who can be totally dedicated to the show. Put the art back into the Utah Pageant of the Arts. The survival of one of this valley's true cultural claims to fame is at stake. -Seven Nielsen Provo |