Varied Offerings Flavor 2-Day Arts Festival

“The best cure for a poor fool is a smart wife,” said the woman in the long dress and sandals. The children sprawled around her on carpet samples on the Music Center Plaza laughed and applauded, as though they knew exactly what she meant.

So ended another of Martha Stevens’ stories. But the children were in no mood to let her go, even though her voice seemed ready to desert her. They called piercingly, though ever so sweetly, for “one more.”

That might also sum up the mood of the several thousand people who visited the plaza Saturday for an informal arts festival called “L.A. Alive.” Besides listening to stories, the agreeable crowd tuned into what Susie Lewis, director of public relations, called the Music Center’s first rock concert, featuring a band called “The Untouchables.” Visitors also made paper hats, an impromptu mural and musical instruments out of cups.

“If feel really excited,” said Lewis, wearing a wide straw hat, as she glanced around her at the throng. She had to admit, however, to feelings of uncertainty earlier about the whole venture.

“It was like giving a party and going, ‘what if nobody comes?’ ” she said.

But they did come, and they were in such good spirits that they made the jarring shift, without any outward signs of motion-sickness, from a high-kicking country dance ensemble to a compelling dramatic art piece. “The Annotated Lipchitz,” by artist and sculptor John White, features beefy men in tuxedos who dance with each other in a fountain, and a small woman in a formal who did most of the heavy lifting, all to a thunderous backbeat.

White warned the crowd that his work would be a lot different from the square dancers’ and although no one called for “one more,” the audience was warmly appreciative.

“L.A. Alive” continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.