A Note from Will Nighswonger

December 9, 2024

will nighswonger

I’m sure that I’ve told you about my first remembrance of the Pageant of the Masters, but it is one of my favorite stories…

As a young boy of 7 or 8, I remember riding with my Mom from Camarillo, where we lived, down Pacific Coast Highway in her 1948 Plymouth to see the Pageant. I loved the show …. are those really living people? And the art show was my first exposure to real fine art. This boy was full of joy and delight. Who would have thought that all these years later this memory would still be strong.

As the years passed, I looked forward to the show. I didn’t get to see the Pageant every year, but very often. In those days tickets were hard to come by, but my Mom religiously wrote in for tickets. Mom and Dad did see the show every year in those days; I like to think of them sitting in their main tier Legacy seats watching the performances…

Funny, all the times I was enchanted with the Festival, it never occurred to me to be a volunteer until I saw a casting call ad in the local Dana Point paper. So, in 2014 I signed up to be cast member and luck was with me, I was picked to be a bum in “Applicants for admission”. My lifelong joy and delight with the Pageant exploded as I became part of the Pageant family.

Pictured third from left: Will Nighswonger in “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci at the Pageant of the Masters

From bum to Benjamin Franklin to “The Last Supper” , then a tourist, live action artist and finally Saint Andrew. What a ten-year ride! So much joy, so much delight, such good friends, such caring and talented volunteers, such amazing creative professionals! Ten years, wow! How time flies. But it’s now time for me to step aside for another volunteer to enjoy supper even if the rolls are stale and wine is turning. I’m afraid sainthood is more demanding than I can supply these days.

I trust that this note conveys my lifelong joy and continuing delight with the Pageant; seeing it takes me back to that first show as a boy. And that you all know how thankful I am for not only the show, but for the opportunity of getting to know such good friends.

I’ll still be around and if “The Last Supper” applause starts early, I just might be in the audience.

Thanks, Will, for sharing your beautiful story with us!

Keep sending in those letters, and who knows – you might be featured next!