Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Play's the Thing

 On Saturday, I visited the Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel.  Those of you who have extensively poked around the blog or my house might recognize that I painted this view once before.  It was easier the second time.

The Mission Playhouse was built in 1927 by John Steven McGroarty for his Mission Play.  The Playhouse was designed by the chief architect of Riverside's Mission Inn.  It is fashioned after the Mission San Antonio De Padua.  I know the latter fact because of my son's fourth grade mission report.  I recognize McGroarty's name because of the McGroarty Art Center in Tujunga.  That was McGroarty's home.  During his life McGroarty was famous as a poet, politician, and journalist, and perhaps most of all because of the Mission Play.  The Mission Play was a pageant that told a history of California, in highly romanticized and euro-biased terms.  Next year, for its centennial, City of San Gabriel will be staging a revival of the Mission Play.

And here are some pertinent internet grabs.  
 


13 comments:

  1. Little kids are knowledgable because they're still being forced to learn. I want to see the mission play.

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    1. Maybe. I think I get your point. Now, if we could only force adults to learn . . .

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  2. Wonderful colors and lighting in your watercolor! No fountain yet in that bottom photo.

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    1. You're right about the fountain. I missed that somehow.

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  3. If your truly nuts, you can see the Passion Play (in Spanish) under the 605 freeway.

    This painting of the playhouse seems a little bit more refined then the others. The light is really beautiful on it. And I'm nutty for the color in the shadow of the archway to the right.

    btw: Is the little art store still across the way? and I remember a pretty good thrift store in the area too. Maybe connected with the mission

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    1. The art store, Mission Art Center, moved around the corner some years back. They built a pretty convincing mission-style facade for it, which I think you'd appreciate. I haven't seen a thrift store.

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