Some Artists Feeling Left Out of September’s L.A. Festival : Arts: Hundreds of artists and performing groups who applied were rejected. Obstacles to their participation in a connected festival include a lack of funding.

A week after the Los Angeles Festival made its first announcement of programing for the Sept. 1-17 arts festival, many of the more than 600 artists and performing groups who had applied but were not included are undecided as to whether to take part in the connected Open Festival, which offers no financial subsidies for artists.

In making such decisions, artists contacted this week said that they faced several obstacles, including lack of funding, not enough time to find venues, a lack of information from festival planners and inability to compete with curated events for audiences once the festival rolls around next fall. Some said that they had already decided not to participate.

“I had applied for the L.A. Festival and hoped to be included, but I don’t think I will do the Open Festival at all,” said Francisco Martinez, whose 10-member Francisco Martinez Dance Theater is in residence at East Los Angeles’ Plaza de la Raza. “I don’t think I would be able to gather any kind of audience because there will already be so much going on in terms of dance.”

Despite such obstacles, however, Open Festival coordinator Aaron Paley, who also ran the Open Festival’s precursor, the 1987 Fringe Festival, said that he expects about 500 artists and groups totaling about 10,000 individuals to participate (about the same number involved in 1987, when 450 events were produced). Any and all artists are welcome, but all will have to produce their events themselves. Paley hopes, however, that the Open Festival’s guidance may make the difference for artists who wouldn’t be able to do so otherwise.

“Our responsibility is to ease those burdens of production as much as we can,” said Paley, adding that the Open Festival’s $260,000 budget will be used to promote and provide publicity for all Open Festival activities and to hold workshops dealing with production aspects such as ticketing and finding a venue.

The Open Festival is also producing a how-to manual, “Doing it Right in L.A.: Self-Producing for the Performing Artist,” and a list of about 900 venues in Los Angeles County ranging from churches and community centers to traditional theaters and museums.

In addition, L.A. Festival Executive Director Judith Luther has said that some Open Festival programs may be selected to appear on the same stages as curated programs, and thus would receive free use of the stage and some technical support. Paley said that details for such arrangements were still up in the air, however, because matters such as who would insure those Open Festival artists had not been determined. But, Paley added, a main activity of the Open Festival staff is networking with venues throughout the city to find spaces in which artists can present their works for reduced costs.

With only a little more than six months to go, most artists contacted had not yet decided whether to be part of the Open Festival.

Culver City-based contemporary composer Paul Des Marais is in the position of many artists contacted this week. He had hoped to present his “Two Fables,” a moveable theater piece featuring a narrator and three musicians, in the curated portion of the festival. He is interested in the Open Festival, but doesn’t know much about it.

“I received a letter that was so complicated and baroque that I didn’t quite know what it meant, but I think it was a rejection notice (from the L.A. Festival),” he said. “I’m still interested in the Open Festival, but I don’t quite know how to move from here. I thought I would get a little more information and recommendations (from Festival organizers) on what to do.”

To that end, Paley said he and his staff (which includes five paid people and six interns) produce a monthly newsletter that is sent out to more than 700 artists who have expressed interest in the Open Festival. In addition, they speak in depth with more than two dozen artists a day, both by phone and in person. And an average of 15 additional “intent to participate forms” arrive each day.

Of those already familiar with the concept of the Open Festival, many said their participation is contingent on receiving funding from sources such as the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

“It’s going to be at least $7,000 for me to produce my piece (for a weekend run) and I don’t think I can do it if I don’t get the funding,” said dancer/choreographer Donna Sternberg, who has applied for a $10,000 grant through the Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts and hopes to collaborate with a composer, singer and other dancers.

Also waiting to hear about Cultural Affairs grants is Santa Monica-based performance artist Sharon Kagan, who is working on a large-scale piece involving about 25 performers, called “As I Recall.”

“If I can get the funding in time, I would like to do it,” Kagan said, noting it would cost about $15,000 to produce the piece. “But right now I’m really up in the air.”

According to Al Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department, Open Festival projects will be given some priority when the more than $2 million in grants is awarded July 1, but they will not take precedence over other priorities, including artists with special needs, such as minorities and the handicapped.

“The Open Festival is one of many (priorities),” said Nodal, noting that Cultural Affairs had already given grants of $150,000 to the L.A. Festival and $10,000 to the Open Festival. “We want to support the Open Festival and we’ve encouraged people to apply, but we can’t limit all our funding to things going to the Open Festival. . . . We have not set a specific amount aside (for the Open Festival).”

Funding is not the artists’ only concern, however. Some worry that the time is too short to prepare works for the festival. Such is the case with writer/director Teresa Chavez, who has spent the past year working on her theater piece “L.A. Real,” but still doesn’t know if it will be ready by September.

“If I can get the funds for the work, then I’m considering being in the Open Festival,” said Chavez, part of the collaborative theater group About Productions. “If it comes together by then, then great, but I’m not going to kill myself to get it ready in time for the festival.”

But while she said there is about a 50% chance that her piece, focusing on Mestizo history in Los Angeles, will be included in the Open Festival, Chavez added, “I don’t really think I have time to find a venue--unless something just pops up in the air--because venues get booked up.”

In addition, she said, “I’m not sure if it’s worth being attached to the festival. Being in the Fringe Festival in 1987 did not attract a different or better audience. So unless you’re in the larger (L.A.) festival, I’m not sure what kind of an audience you can get (in the Open Festival).”

Taking a different view is performance/conceptual artist Elisha Shapiro. Like everybody else, he had hoped for funding from the Los Angeles Festival. But he said that lack of funding wouldn’t stop him from producing his “Nihilism Expo 90” during the Open Festival.

“We’ll do it one way or another; I’ve done things on no money before,” said Shapiro, who said his “world’s fair” will include interactive installations by artists including Jeffrey Vallance and Michael McMillan and performance pieces by artists such as Linda Albertano

Also set on being in the Open Festival is Burbank-based performance artist Deborah Marsh, who didn’t find out about the L.A. Festival until it was too late to apply, but decided about a month ago to be in the Open Festival.

“The idea of the (Open) Festival goes back to the grass root arts, when art was performed just for the love of the craft. So much of the art now is commercial, but here are a bunch of artists saying, ‘Hey, I love my craft. I love my art.’ That’s what makes me want to be in this festival--my love for my art.”

Marsh is now looking for a venue in which she can produce her one-woman show, “The Final Mission of Mother Jones,” which she has been touring since 1986. She says she may not have time left to find a traditional house, however.

“It might be a little tight,” said Marsh. “But if I can’t get into a theater, I might end up doing it at one of the community centers or libraries, just to put it on for the festival.”

Some of those who have decided to join the Open Festival had already planned to present works independently, so foresee no problems with their participation.

“I don’t know if our work fits in with the standard ‘festival’ work, but we want to be under the umbrella of the thing,” said Lenore Carlson, who is working with director Lisa James in developing “Palladium is Moving,” a theater piece that Carlson plans to open in the Spring.

“We’ll be open long before the festival, but if we close down for any reason in the summer, we want to reopen in September. We just want to be a part of it,” said Carlson.

Still another view was that of dancer/choreographer Naomi Goldberg, who participated in the Fringe Festival but has decided not to present work this time around.

“At this point, really, I’d just like to have the time to go and see stuff during that time. The stuff they’re bringing is wonderful, and I really want to see it, but when you’re involved in a production, that’s really hard. So I think this time it might be good just to be a nice attendee.”

Said Open Festival coordinator Paley: “Not everybody has to be in the festival. It’s important that people consider the context, and the factor that there will be a lot of competition for audiences.

“But we’re helping people look at ways of cutting costs so they can be in the festival. Ways like being a better producer, sharing costs, finding venues at less cost, and maybe even scaling down expectations. These things are just as important as getting grants.”

However, noted Paley: “People have to get in gear. There is definitely a critical time frame here.”

The deadline to register for the Open Festival is the end of May, and Paley said he hopes to compile a final list of events by July. He urges those interested in information about the Open Festival or who need help finding a venue to call his office at (213) 315-9444.