Children’s Culture : ‘Imagination Celebration’ Is an Arts Party Presented All Over the County

If your kids think culture is something found in yogurt and art is just a good excuse for a field trip, it could be time for a little “Imagination Celebration.”

Starting Saturday and continuing through April 30, families can take part in a 9-day arts party designed to make the visual and performing arts more accessible to kids. Held at locations countywide, the fourth annual festival is being presented by more than 30 local cultural and educational groups, including the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the California Alliance for Arts Education, and the Orange County Department of Education. Major funding has been provided by the Pacific Telesis Foundation.

The 1989 Imagination Celebration in Orange County is one of 14 such festivals in the United States and abroad. The program was created in 1977 by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in an effort to bring children and adults together in a stimulating artistic environment, while fostering a greater appreciation of the arts in the community.

In addition to public concerts, workshops and exhibits, several groups such as the Orange County Philharmonic Society are bringing their programs inside area schoolrooms and sponsoring private performances for students only. Area libraries and shopping centers countywide will exhibit more than 4,000 pieces of student art throughout the festival.

The following is a list of all public events for the 1989 Orange County Imagination Celebration. For additional information, call the Imagination Celebration hot line at (714) 556-2787 Ext. 2.

SATURDAY

The Imagination Celebration in the Malls

* Very Special Arts Day at MainPlace, 2800 N. Main St., Santa Ana, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

What do a mammoth mushroom, a slithering sea serpent and “Surfin’ U.S.A.” have in common? They’re all part of Very Special Arts Day, a 6-hour showcase of visual and performing arts by more than 1,000 disabled children and adults. The 13th annual festival, which includes skits, music, exhibits, dance and workshops, is presented by the Orange County chapter of Very Special Arts, an international group that promotes arts activities for the disabled.

At noon, students will present 17 short vignettes in a centennial salute to the county’s heritage. There will also be giant-sized produce, padres from the old Mission San Juan Capistrano and an appearance by the fabled Sea Serpent of Newport, a slimy character said to have washed ashore at the turn of the century, as well as a performance of “Surfin’ U.S.A.” by the VSA Honor Choir. All of the noon performances will be signed for the hearing impaired.

Celebrities on hand will include VSA California spokesperson Kate Mulgrew of ABC’s “HeartBeat,” William Allen Young of “A Soldier’s Story” and disabled singer/actor Michael Lee Gogin. Among the other performances scheduled throughout the day are a ballet by handicapped students and members of the Huntington Beach Ballet Repertory Theater, juggling, storytelling and mime. Art workshops will include face painting, button and kite making, and demonstrations of computer graphics and photography.

* Westminster Mall, 195 Westminster Mall (Golden West Street and Bolsa Avenue), Westminster, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

On the program are arts, crafts and music by local schoolchildren, as well as multicultural workshops on Hopi Indian masks, Vietnamese palm leaf weaving, Sumi-e (Japanese brush painting), black American singing games, and African art. Performances will include recorder music by students at the Allen School, the Westminister School District Elementary Chorus, and Mexican and Vietnamese dance groups.

* Mission Viejo Mall, 27000 Crown Valley Parkway, Mission Viejo, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In addition to student art exhibits and workshops, the day will include performances by the San Juan Capistrano School District Honor Orchestra, madrigal groups, the San Clemente High School jazz band and folk dancers from Hankay School.

SUNDAY

* Imagination Celebration Carnival at the Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A range of performances and workshops will pay tribute to the county’s ethnic diversity. Workshops include origami, mask- and puppet-making, and a demonstration of Latino traditional costumes. Opera Pacific will present a children’s opera, “America Works and Sings”; the Orange County Black Actors Theater will stage “Back to Being Black,” an exploration of black heritage through music and poetry; and the Bowers Mobile Museum will exhibit its traveling Orange County Centennial show, “Changing Faces, Changing Places.” Storytelling, poetry readings and a visit from Irvine children’s author Randall Weithorn will be held in the museum’s gift shop. Ethnic foods will be available for purchase.

Young Soloists Concert, Santa Ana High School Auditorium, 520 W. Walnut St., Santa Ana, 4 p.m.

Sponsored by Orange County Philharmonic Society, the concert features six local musicians ages 9 through 16. Each student will perform a different concerto movement accompanied by the ad hoc Orange County Philharmonic Orchestra. Lucas Richman, assistant conductor of the Pacific Symphony, is guest conductor.

MONDAY AND TUESDAY “Chewin’ the Blues,” Orange County performing Arts Center Founders Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, 7:30 p.m.

Packin’ a guitar and a mouth harp, “Chewin’ the Blues” brings the flavor of the old South to Orange County. Sponsored by the Kennedy Center, the act is the official touring show for all the 1989 Imagination Celebrations.

Billed as the “ambassadors of the blues,” musicians John Cephas and Phil Wiggins present a repertoire designed to rekindle the struggle and celebration of blacks in the post-Reconstruction South. The pair have toured the U.S. and abroad, and their debut album, “Dog Days of August,” was named the best traditional blues album of the year at the 1987 W.C. Handy Awards.

THURSDAY AND NEXT FRIDAY

“The People vs. B.B. Wolf,” Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, 4:30 p.m.

Is ol’ B.B. (“Big Bad”) Wolf really such a bad guy or did he just get a bum rap? It’s up to the audience to decide in “The People vs. B.B. Wolf,” a production of South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory Players. Written by YCP instructor Howard Shangraw, this lighthearted family show puts the audience in the jury box while Red Riding Hood, the Three Pigs and other fairy-tale favorites state their case against B.B. The show is part of a countywide tour underwritten by Target Stores.

Limited free tickets for “The People vs. B.B. Wolf” are available at the Center’s box office.

APRIL 29

Pacific Chorale Choral Festival, Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

Student performances: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Pacific Chorale performance: 8 p.m.

Twenty-two choral groups from local high schools each perform in this third annual presentation by the Pacific Chorale. Tickets are not required and audience members may come and go throughout the day.

At 8 p.m., four students from each group join the Pacific Chorale in a program of 20th-Century American music. Tickets for the evening performance are priced from $12.50 to $35 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling (714) 740-2000 or through Pacific Chorale at (714) 542-1790.

The Imaginarium, South Coast Plaza Village, 3840 S. Plaza Drive, Santa Ana, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

From Shakespeare to “clay play,” there’s something for everyone at The Imaginarium, a daylong grab bag of visual and performing arts. Centered in the village’s mercantile building, the event includes participatory art workshops and demonstrations, music, dance, poetry readings and drama.

Held on the half-hour, performances will include: the Arpana Dance Co., mime Ruben Gerard, “Back to Being Black” by the Orange County Black Actors Theatre, Judy Sofer’s Puppet Trunk, the South Coast Chinese Dance Troupe and Japanese koto players. “Super Shakespeare” (a.k.a. Paul Boardman) will stroll the grounds in period dress sharing the bard’s sonnets and secrets.

Art workshops will focus on mural-making, calligraphy,, clay modeling, bead design, origami, and more. In the Orange County Philharmonic Society Music-mobile, pint-sized musicians can try their hand at orchestral instruments. Three sessions are planned to help youngsters better understand the handicapped: Music Therapy Improvisation by Dwayne LeFon of the Fairview Developmental Center, demonstrations by the disabled artists of Women & Artists First and a literal “hands-on” workshop in which blindfolded youngsters can use touch instead of sight to examine art.

The South Coast Plaza Village merchants will present their Village Family Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with entertainment ranging from jazz to juggling, an art appreciation workshop at the Costa Mesa Art League gallery and demonstration at South Coast Glass Engraving.

APRIL 30 “Internationale,” Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, 2 p.m.

Fiery Latin dance heats up the stage of Segerstrom Hall in “Internationale,” the closing performance of the 1989 Imagination Celebration. Featuring Lola Montes and her Spanish Dancers, the performance will examine the Latin heritage of California through dances from Mexico, Spain and South America, complemented by authentic music and costumes. Dances will include bolerdores, bombos and malambo of the Argentine gauchos; Spanish pasodobles and flamenco; and the finale, a colorful Mexican fiesta scene entitled “Fiesta in Michoacan.”

Limited free tickets are available at the Center’s box office.