ARTS ON GREEN TO BE HELD AT CENTER

The fourth annual Arts on the Green festival will be held Sept. 20 in Costa Mesa, featuring 35 performing groups and using the Orange County Performing Arts Center for the first time.

Indoor performances will be held in Founders Hall, the Center’s 300-seat studio facility, while outdoor events are set for Town Center Park and the Center’s grand portal entry, said event producer Dwight Richard Odle.

Outdoor performers at the free 11 a.m.-to-5 p.m. festival will include singers from Opera Pacific, Master Chorale of Orange County, Pacific Chorale and Fullerton Civic Light Opera and musicians from the South Coast Symphony.

South Coast Repertory Theatre will present “Better a Witty Fool,” a stage work based on excerpts from Shakespeare works, at Founders Hall. Five other groups will be appearing at that hall, including the Laguna Poets and the Stop-Gap drama therapy troupe.

SCR’s Mainstage and Second Stage theaters, which are next to the park and the Center, are not available for this year’s festival, because the facilities will be in use for SCR’s regular productions, Odle said.

Visual arts exhibits are to be mounted by the Newport Harbor Art Museum, Bowers Museum and several artists’ leagues. The final list of participants, which is also to include dancers and mimes, is still being completed, Odle said.

The first Arts on the Green in 1984 was produced by SCR as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations. Since then, the festival has been hosted by the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce. This year’s $50,000 cost is being underwritten by the city and local business community.