STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Sushi Gallery Encounters a Bit of Soviet Serendipity

Mayor Maureen O’Connor may object to the presentation of a Soviet rock group and the Red Army Choir during the Soviet Arts Festival on Oct. 21-Nov. 11, but she doesn’t have any problem with the presentation of the Soviet performance art group Derevo by Sushi Performance Gallery on Nov. 2-5, according to Paul Downey, spokesman for the mayor.

“At this point, there are no plans to get involved with what the Sushi Gallery is doing,” Downey said. “Sushi is a nonprofit organization. There is a fundamental difference between what they are doing and what the commercial organizations that want to present the rock music and Red Army Choir are doing.”

Ironically, the presentation of Derevo during the festival is more the result of coincidence than planning, said Vicki Wolf, Sushi’s managing director. The organization had left a slot open in the hope of becoming involved officially in the festival. Then, when festival funds petered out, Sushi had to rush around looking for something else to present in its 100-seat space.

To its surprise, who should call them but the promoters of Derevo, a Leningrad-based troupe that had toured Europe and was readying itself for its first U. S. tour.

“The dates they could perform in San Diego were, coincidentally, the time of the Soviet Arts festival,” Wolf said.

The nine-member troupe works out of an art complex it calls the Bolshoi Basement, where many small theater companies and rock bands have their headquarters. Its work, which Wolf described as “very contemporary,” is a blend of performance art and Japanese Butoh dance. Photographs of the group in performance emphasize visual tableaux: The members--all of whom shave their heads--roll around on the floor; a man curls up in a fetal position but with arms outstretched; another man is upside-down. The name Derevo, which means tree in Russian, was chosen for its significance in Russian fairy tales, Greek mythology and ecology.

“We couldn’t have planned it any better,” Wolf said. “But it wasn’t planned. We got lucky.”

Derevo will mark the first time a Soviet group will have performed at Sushi, an organization singled out by the California Arts Council last week for the highest rating of any San Diego arts organization.

In the 10 years since it opened with an annual budget of less than $10,000--with an opening-night performance by Philip-Dimitri Galas, Don Victor and Whoopi Goldberg--some things have changed and some haven’t. Galas has died of AIDS, Victor is still doing comedy in San Diego (he will be at Underground at the Lyceum this weekend), Goldberg has become famous, and Sushi, while staying in the same place, now has a budget of more than $200,000 and presents more than 80 performances and seven exhibitions a year.

On tap for its 10th anniversary season: “We Keep Our Victims Ready,” a solo performance work by New York artist Karen Finley, Sept. 13-17; Leonard Pitt in “Not for Real,” written by Pitt and Rinde Eckert with original music by Paul Dresher, Oct. 5-8; “I Think It’s Going to Work Out Fine,” based on the life of Ike and Tina Turner, performed by Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor of Cultural Odyssey, Nov. 30-Dec. 2; “Little Stories With Private Parts” by New York artist David Cale, Jan. 4-6; and, on dates to be announced, a return visit by “Talk Radio” star Eric Bogosian and “Border Brujo,” a multi-media event by San Diego artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena.

Also on the schedule are the adult puppet theater of New York’s Jottay Theater and a presentation by Fiona Templeton and Ellen Sebastian that will travel on the streets of San Diego.

The La Jolla Playhouse was the big loser in last week’s California Arts Council funding results (its award dropped from $47,363 last year to $22,949), but San Diego theater as a whole came out with a strong endorsement from the state arts agency.

Every theater that applied received some kind of grant, and the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre and Sushi Performance Gallery were the only other organizations to receive less than they did last year. The Gaslamp received $13,255, contrasted with last year’s $25,000. Sushi’s award dropped--although slightly-- from $13,600 to $13,000.

The La Jolla Playhouse was commended for its main-stage work, but criticized for its school touring show, “Silent Edward,” as being of lesser quality, as well as for an absence of minority representation on its board and its deficit of $703,000. Part of the reason the Gaslamp’s funding was slashed is that last year the council gave money for the California Young Playwrights Project separately, and this year it evaluated the project together with the Gaslamp’s main-stage work, which council theater grants administrator Ray Tatar described as “a little weak.”

Unlike these other organizations, Sushi maintained a high rating for the quality of its work, but the drop in funding reflected an increase in requests for CAC funds. Although CAC’s total budget increased from $6.539 million to $6.9 million, this year it had 692 applicants requesting $12 million, up from 672 applicants requesting $11 million.

Tatar praised San Diego theaters for being “innovative” and “taking chances” and said he has been told by a colleague with whom he served on a National Endowment for the Arts panel that San Diego’s reputation as a theater town extends to the national level.

“ ‘All the eyes are turned on San Diego,’ ” Tatar quoted his colleague as saying. “They felt that San Diego was the sparkling theater town on the West Coast.”

The Old Globe Theatre received $107,580, up from $104,160 last year; San Diego Repertory Theatre received $33,699, up from $28,600; the Bowery Theatre, $3,360, up from $2,400; Starlight Musical Theatre, $9,612, up from $5,000, and first-time award recipients Diversionary Theatre and Sledgehammer Theatre received $1,120 and $1,000, respectively.

Tatar had special praise for many of the theaters that received smaller grants. He singled out the Bowery for being “up to near exemplary status.” The Bowery’s decision to go Equity, its ability to survive massive changes on its board and a move to a new location all contributed to a jump in funding after a two-year plateau.

“This is a big pat on the back” for Ralph Elias, the new artistic director, Tatar said. “He is very well respected. The only fear the panel had is fear for his burnout.”