Laguna Beach’s Pageant of the Monsters going Greek for Halloween
Schoolchildren generally dread summer reading assignments, but the upcoming Pageant of the Monsters will make some wish they hadn’t skipped out on the homework.
Some might remember Greek mythology popping up on the lesson plan. Those who dare to enter “Maze of the Minotaur” will need a good understanding of it to safely pass through to the other side.
The Pageant of the Monsters, making its return after a five-year recess, will take over the grounds of the Festival of Arts for four nights only — Oct. 27, 28 and 29 and on Halloween, Oct. 31, from 6 to 9:30 p.m.
Beware the almighty power of the gods, as the journey will take the adventure seeker along the River Styx to Hades. Regions beyond could have unsuspecting visitors step into Pandora’s box, which may lead to encounters with the stone-cold personality of Medusa and jarring thunderclaps that could only be attributed to Zeus.
“It is popular, and I’m sure we could build an audience,” said Diane Challis Davy, the director of the Pageant of the Masters. “The problem is we’re creating an original Pageant of the Masters every year, and that takes a lot of time and effort. We realized early on that we couldn’t sustain devoting all of October and some of September to creating a haunted house.
“I think I would probably find myself getting into trouble. In Greek myth, it’s hubris. I think it would be hubris to think that we could do a haunted house every year.”
While the haunted house only resurfaces once every five years, Challis Davy said it is as popular among volunteers as it is for the public. Instead of begging for candy, people clamor for parts in the production.
Halloween, with dressing up in costume among its more celebrated customs, was Challis Davy’s favorite holiday growing up. Rumors of the former residence of the late travel writer Richard Halliburton being haunted only added to the fascination.
“We were trick-or-treating at the Halliburton house, which is in South Laguna, which was rumored to be a haunted house,” Challis Davy said. “We hiked all the way up to that hill — it’s at Aliso — and the man who built the house, he was a famous travel writer, and he disappeared at sea. He was on a voyage he was going to write about on a Chinese junk, and the whole vessel was lost.
“I had read about it in the paper that it was a haunted house, and we talked to the owners, and they allowed us to come in the house and look around. That was probably my most memorable Halloween.”
The maze will travel along a garden path on the outskirts of the Irvine Bowl amphitheater, into the Pageant workshops and onto the stage. Visitors can expect to see artistic sets and technical genius, such as an erupting volcano.
“When you’re in this maze, and when the lights are going and the fog’s going, you don’t know where you are,” said David Talbot, construction foreman for the Pageant of the Masters. “If people have no idea [the workshops] are back there, people just think it ends [on the far side of the amphitheater]. When you start going back through all these buildings, people are like, ‘Where are we?’
“People who know it’s there will all of a sudden look up, and they’ll be like, ‘Holy cow, this is the paint shop,’ because you won’t recognize it unless you’re familiar with it, and then you kind of look up above the lights, and you’ll see something that kind of gives you a hint of where you’re at.”
The creator of this year’s headlining villain is W. Bradley Elsberry, who last exhibited at the Festival of Arts in 2019. Like Challis Davy, Halloween has been an absolute favorite for Elsberry, who has been known to furnish costumes and wear them on Hollywood Boulevard.
Elsberry put his bull head on the market, and he was delighted with how it played out.
“I was going to get rid of some of my bigger pieces, and [Challis Davy] immediately said, ‘We want that one,’” Elsberry said. “I said, ‘OK, why?’ And she said, ‘Oh, for the Pageant of the Monsters,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’
“When I found out what they were calling this year’s Pageant, then I was really excited. I wanted to make sure I bumped it up and improved it and made it better. I did all that. Since it’s right there in the name of the show, I want it to really be a star. I’m excited. After all this time, it gets to star in something.”
Past Pageant of the Monsters themes have included “Raiders of the Lost Art,” “The Sinking of the Titanic,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Monsters go to the Movies.”
For those who have the courage to venture through parts unknown, advanced tickets for “Maze of the Minotaur” are $20 for adults and $10 for children age 12 and younger. Admission will be $25 at the door. Tickets are available through foapom.com/monsters.
After completing the maze, there will be options for food and additional entertainment. The spooky selections include fortune tellers, who are free to practice a variety of methods from tarot readings to palmistry.
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