is put on by a small paid staff and several hundred volunteers. Production begins in January with auditions and casting of volunteers from all over Southern California; it takes over 60,000 volunteer hours to put on the two-month Pageant in July and August. Today, the costumes and makeup involved are very elaborate and often require large commitments of volunteer time, so to reduce the impact on individual volunteers, the Pageant selects two full casts known as Blue and Green, which then alternate back and forth. Recognition In 2014, The New York Times summarized the event by stating:"The pageant is hard to describe, because it is — in a strict sense — unique: There is nothing else in the world like it." Popular culture The Pageant of the Masters was parodied in the Arrested Development episode "In God We Trust". The festival was imitated in Gilmore Girls episode "The Festival of Living Art", for which the show won an Emmy Award. The festival was featured on the fifth episode of Somebody's Gotta Do It with Mike Rowe. References External links Artists that have exhibited at the Pageant of the Masters, and have been featured in the show include: Susan Cox Arts festivals in the United States Annual events in California Laguna Beach, California Orange County, California culture Performance art in California