2013 OCRarts Archive Stories

The Pageant of the Masters, Laguna Beach's famed show of "living pictures," is hosting casting calls Saturday, Sunday and Thursday for its 80th-anniversary performances coming this summer. The show, called "The Big Picture," is looking for men, women and children of all sizes and ages to volunteer to be transformed into charac

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Camino Real Playhouse on Friday kicked off the first of seven days of performances of seven different 10-minute plays from seven different directors in the playwriting festival "ShowOff 2013." Performances continue at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Jan. 10-12 and 2 p.m. Jan. 13 at 31776 Camino Capis

World-renowned marine-life artist Wyland provided "Art Lessons in the Wild" for about a half-dozen aspiring artists Saturday aboard Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching's Dana Pride. It

Art lovers got a free peek inside professional artists' studios during an open house Saturday along Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach. Thirty-four artists participated, including glass blowers, ceramists, painters, print makers and more.

Daniel Cavanaugh, like so many of playwright David Henry Hwang's characters, gets thoroughly entangled in the web of miscommunication and misunderstanding between East and West. His predicament is a source of comedy and intrigue.Like the Westerners in Hwang's "M. Butterfly" and "Golden Child," the principal character in "Chinglish," which

Songwriter Bernie Taupin, the lyricist for most of Elton John's biggest hits, stopped in at Coast Gallery in Laguna Beach on Saturday night for a show of his "other" talent: painting. The exhibit, titled "Beyond Words," continues Sunday with another scheduled appearance by Taupin from 1 to 3 p.m. "I think anyone who knows anything about

It's got a few more wrinkles in it now, but there's no mistaking that face. Anyone who watched network game shows or Johnny Carson in the 1960s and '70s ran into Orson Bean. Witty, charming, quick with a quip, he seemed perfectly tailored to the demands of live-audience television. What most people outside of New York didn't know was tha

The second annual Art for Kids' Sake auction Sunday at Casino San Clemente featured 20 area artists and their works, three vocalists providing music, plus wine and appetizers. The event, presented by the Exchange Club of San Clemente, was a fundraiser for the San Clemente-based Boys & Girls Club of the South Coast Area.

The Cyndi Lauper-scored "Kinky Boots" has earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations, with the British import "Matilda: The Musical" close behind with 12.Both will compete for the best musical prize with the acrobatic "Bring It On: The Musical" and "A Christmas Story, The Musical," adapted from the beloved holiday movie.Amon

Mission Lutheran Church in Laguna Niguel hosted Arts 4 a Cause on Saturday, featuring works by artists from Mission Fine Art Gallery, chalk artists, a smash artist and live music. There also were activities for children, murals from Wyland Galleries, sand art, wax painting and a graffiti wall. Proceeds from the event will support

The touring production of "Wicked," the enduringly popular musical prequel to "The Wizard of Oz," has returned to the Segerstrom Center for the third time, and it's wearing well. It stays through March 17 – a rare month-long run to accommodate demand. Now a decade old, "Wicked" continues to break records for ticket sales and it sti

Art-A-Fair, a Laguna Beach summer art festival that will have its 47th renewal this year, chose its lineup Sunday, welcoming artists from around the country to submit three original examples of their work to a panel of seven jurists and two alternates. The works were judged on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being best. The jury of professio

Laura Seeley has scratched out a spot in Dana Point for an art gallery and studio featuring her artwork of cats. Seeley, a freelance illustrator in San Francisco, had been writing and illustrating children's books since the 1990s and found the feline avenue for her art about four years ago. They're not just any cats – there are maf

If one could imagine a live arena spectacular show that combines the state-of-the-art animatronics of "Walking with Dinosaurs" with the script, story, characters and music of the 2010 DreamWorks film "How to Train Your Dragon," the result would, of course, be called "DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular."The show, which o

"Moby Dick" was literally a whale of a tale for Herman Melville, a time-consuming, painstaking endeavor that chewed up many years. The same has held true for anyone adapting the 1851 literary classic to other mediums.Trying to create a live staging without the benefit of a sizable budget to help re-create the spectacle the story demands i

When German playwright Frank Wedekind's "Spring Awakening" appeared in 1891, its candid, honest depiction of teens struggling to deal with puberty was considered controversial.Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musicalization, which arrived on Broadway 115 years later, is no less frank than its source. What's surprising is how much of Wedeki

If ever there were a personality tailor-made for a dramatic character study, Maria Callas is an obvious choice.No less a great playwright than Terrence McNally tackled Callas in his 1995 play "Master Class." McNally's earlier "The Lisbon Traviata" likewise deals with grand opera, and plays like "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" an

During the Belle Epoque ("the beautiful era"), French playwright Georges Feydeau became famous in the genre of the farce. While his many plays were later hailed as key precursors to the surrealist and absurdist movements, his typical farce is as light as a soufflé and nowhere as portentous as the works of his successors. Of his 60

Like the recent Boston Marathon bombings and Newtown, Conn., shootings, the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., was the kind of sudden explosion of violence that can shake our faith in the goodness of human nature.Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man, was kidnapped and robbed, then tied to a fence in a remote area, pistol whipped,

Driving past the tiny gallery that is AR4T (Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow), one might zip right by without a second glance – no large sign, no signifying landmarks for this small space. But the consistent programming and stellar roster of artists that this Laguna Beach gallery represents and regularly exhibits help this space stand out.

Fullerton's Magoski Arts Colony, a collective of art galleries and artists' studios in a warehouse complex downtown, tackles yet another controversial and impactful topic through art – marriage equality. With help from Art with an Agenda, a nonprofit organization that supports local visual art communities with a common purpose of furtherin

How does watching a live stage version of an Agatha Christie murder mystery sound to you? If you live around San Clemente, you don't have to travel far to see "The Mousetrap," which opens Friday and continues through Feb. 3 at the Cabrillo Playhouse downtown. The play, and production group San Clemente Community Theater, are cele

Five San Clemente street corners have a fresh splash of color, thanks to the city's 2013 public-art program. On Sunday, artists selected by a jury from the city and the San Clemente Art Association put finishing touches on traffic-signal controller boxes. The public artworks are in addition to five boxes dressed up a year ago in the city

Famed marine-life artist Wyland joined a group of future Glennwood House residents Saturday in Laguna Beach to paint a mural at the 42-room residential development for adults with developmental disabilities that plans to open this summer. Wyland's artwork is familiar in Laguna, w

"Rats!" "Good grief!" "You blockhead!" There's one thing that comes to mind when frustration creates such declarations – "Peanuts." The Laguna College Art & Design has a rare treat for fans of the iconic comic strip – "The Art of Charle