UC Irvine Celebrating French Artist-Writer Jean Cocteau

The Cocteau Centenary Festival, devoted to French artist and writer Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), continues this week at UC Irvine, with lectures, performances, films, gallery exhibits and a symposium.

“The program (is) an attempt to explore every facet of his work,” said Tony Clark, executive director of the Severin Wunderman Museum, who is coordinating American participation in the international celebration.

Keynote speaker will be author and film maker Kenneth Anger (Friday, replacing composer-critic Virgil Thomson). Upcoming lecturers will include French scholar Pierre Caizergues (Monday), critic-biographer Arthur King Peters (Tuesday), USC professor George Bauer (Wednesday, replacing ethnologist Dominique Desanti), photographer Lucien Clergue (Thursday) and UC Irvine drama professor Stephen Barker (Friday).

The Oakland Ballet will perform “Les Biches,” based on a scenario by Cocteau with music by Francis Poulenc and reconstructed from the original choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, at the university’s Fine Arts Village Theatre Friday and Saturday. (It replaces “Le Train Bleu,” another Cocteau-Nijinska ballet, which was withdrawn over a copyright dispute with Nijinska’s daughter, Irina.)

A student production of Cocteau’s one-act tragedy “Orphee” will be staged at the university’s Fine Arts Gallery nightly through Saturday. In a related event, the Alternative Repertory Theatre will stage Cocteau’s play, “The Eagle With Two Heads,” opening Friday at its theater, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana.

A series of Cocteau films will be screened at several campus locations. Upcoming programs include “Le Sang d’un Poete” (Monday); “La Voix Humaine” (Tuesday); “L’Aigle a Deux Tetes” (Wednesday); “Orphee” and “Les Enfants Terribles” (Thursday), and “Le Testament d’Orphee” (Saturday).

A retrospective of Cocteau art works on loan from the Severin Wunderman Museum will be on view at the university’s Fine Arts Gallery today through next Sunday.

For information about university festival events, call (714) 856-6616 or 856-5000; for symposium information, (714) 856-8765; for the Severin Wunderman Museum, (714) 472-2297; for the Alternative Repertory Co., (714) 836-7929.