Anaheim resident Christine Sakata tries out
By Loreen Berlin
The “Pageant of the Masters” held annually at the Irvine Bowl in South County is looking for volunteers for the 2018 Pageant.
Costume volunteers assist in measuring everyone, and the needs for the cast change every year, so if a person wasn’t chosen in prior years, Director Diane Challis-Davy says, “Try again.”
Trying out this year as one of the hopefuls is Anaheim resident Christine Sakata.
“This is my seventh year auditioning, and yet to be chosen; however, in the past I’ve only auditioned to be part of the cast but this year I’m also hoping to be chosen to be a makeup artist if I don’t get chosen as a cast member,” said Sakata.
Asked why she wanted to try out, Sakata said, “The Pageant of the Masters is an amazing show; there’s nothing like it and so I think it would be wonderful to be part of it.”
Sakata said she doesn’t remember exactly how she first heard about the Pageant.
“I watched the Pageant nearly 20 years ago with my mother and since then, I’ve watched it at least four more times.”
No stranger to acting and performing herself, Sakata has taken acting classes at the professional South Coast Repertory theatre in Costa Mesa, at the community Santiago Canyon College
and at Santa Ana College, which is part of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.
Her life has been surrounded by the arts, having danced all of her life and played the piano, along with enjoying a love of interior design and architecture.
She now works part time with her husband who owns a motorsport business for the racecar industry.
“My husband auditioned with me one year ago and he was called at the last minute to be a stand-in for Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ scene, which is the annual grand finale, but it was too last of a notice for him with work, so he wasn’t available to take the part,” she shared.
This is the 85th anniversary of the Pageant of the Masters also known as Living Pictures.
A three-day casting call was held recently; however, it’s not too late to try out by simply calling casting and making an appointment to be measured and photographed for a possible slot in one of the recreated oil paintings, billboards and/or sculptures. The main number for the casting department is 949-494-3663.
“They may have missed the weekend casting call, but they can sign up for the next three months for an appointment to be measured,” said Director Challis-Davy.
Challis-Davy said by the end of the three days of tryouts, they had approximately 1,000 in total, with more than 300 each of the three days.
Sakata is one of the nearly 1,000 volunteers who lined up outside the stage door for a shot at being chosen for one of the scenes that will be recreated during the Festival’s run from July to August.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate over the years to cast most of our cast members in the initial appeal period and out of the 1,000 trying out, we’ll probably call back 400,” said Challis-Davy.
This year, the Pageant is enrolling those who try out, on the computer, so they have an easier time reaching out to potential cast members after they’ve initially turned in their paperwork.
This year’s theme is “Under the Sun” and of course will include a lot of things we take for granted that we enjoy under the sun, especially here in sunny Southern California.
Last year, the Pageant area was still under construction, which has given way to a rich and uniquely appealing facade. With that part completed last July, it should also be easier to get onto the Pageant grounds this year.
Challis-Davy has been with the Pageant for 38 years, with 23 of those years as the director; Bettye Murphy has been the makeup supervisor for the past 45 years at the Pageant.
“I feel like this is my family and it’s an annual event I wouldn’t miss,” said Challis-Davy. “The show is the same flow but film is now done digitally.”
Tickets are already on sale at FOAPOM.com, which stands for Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters.
