Black Church’s Gospel Opera to Benefit Los Angeles Festival : The Arts: The black community’s involvement in the L.A. Festival this year is seen as specially significant, since blacks were virtually shut out of the 1987 version.

It’s 7 p.m. on a weeknight, and the Mid City-area parking lot of the First A.M.E. Church is overflowing. Inside, more than 100 church members--wearing everything from nice dresses to sweat pants--are milling around in a downstairs meeting room, greeting one another and partaking of coffee, cookies and hot chocolate. Then, after a fervent prayer, they begin to sing.

Such has been the scene--three hours a night, five nights a week--for the past month. About 185 First A.M.E. Church members--all volunteers--have been putting together a benefit production of the gospel opera “Job,” which opens Sunday at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Organizers hope to raise $75,000 for September’s Los Angeles Festival through the production, which will continue at the theater on March 9 and 16.

“Our community needed to be involved because culture touches the soul,” said Remell Hence, a First A.M.E. member, executive producer of “Job,” and chair of the African-American Community’s efforts to raise a total of $100,000 (with the remainder coming from individual and corporate donations) for the Pacific-themed arts festival. “Once culture touches the soul, we can see how much the same we all are, and we thought we had to raise our share to make that happen.”

But unlike festival fund-raising efforts by other segments of the community--such as the Asian sector, which is working toward it’s $2-million fund-raising goal through large corporate donations--Hence said the black community must do its work through the church.

“That’s where the people are in the black community,” she said. “We’ve been shut out of the country clubs and that type of thing, but we are here in our churches.”

The black community’s involvement is much touted by festival organizers. For the 1987 Los Angeles Festival, key organizers said, the African-American community was virtually overlooked in both the planning and participation stages. Thus, their involvement this year is seen as especially important.

(In July of 1987, members of Dance Umbrella, a service organization for black dancers, charged that local black dance troupes had been left out of the festival and petitioned the City Council for funds to produce a separate minority arts festival to coincide with the Los Angeles Festival. The council took no action on the matter. At that time, the festival’s then associate director, Thomas Schumacher, said that the black community was represented in the multi-cultural program through foreign black artists, classical jazz performers and others.)

Cecil (Chip) Murray, senior minister of First A.M.E. Church and a recognized leader in the black community, said financial backing of the festival by his community is vital, especially since the next Los Angeles Festival (scheduled for 1992 or 1993) is planned to focus on the African continent.

“We can’t have participation on the stages without participation in the work--no inspiration without perspiration,” said Murray.

In a recent pep-talk to “Job” cast members, L.A. Festival Director Peter Sellars underscored the symbolic importance of the participation of the black community.

“This is the most segregated city I’ve ever lived in,” said Sellars. “But as you set foot on this stage, you are created equal. The point is that culture, art, is not something people should have to go buy. It’s something you’re born with. It’s something you own already.”

The “Job” production is led by a professional star--Gospel recording artist and Stellar award winner Daryl Coley--and a professional director--Cliff Roquemore, who has directed a number of inner-city theater productions, including “The Gospel Truth,” “For Heaven’s Sake,” and a boxing musical called “TKO.” While most of the production staff and musicians are also paid, most of the planners and the more than 100 additional cast members are all volunteers. But Roquemore says that won’t hurt the caliber of the performance.

“This is the first time I’ve ever worked with a complete group of novices--98% of them have never done anything but sing in church, but they’re working better than most of the professionals in Los Angeles,” Roquemore said. “They’re more dedicated, they take instruction better. It’s gonna blow people’s minds to see (this production). It’s blowing my mind.”

“Job,” which takes the biblical story and sets it in current times, was written two years ago by First A.M.E.’s minister of music, Joe Westmoreland, and pianist, Charles May. The church’s Freedom Choir then performed the piece--which at that time had no dialogue--for approximately 35,000 people at a national A.M.E. church conference in Ft. Worth, Tex.

Said Westmoreland, who also worked with Roquemore to add dialogue to the production: “ ‘Job’ is about the basic human emotions of being wealthy, then being poor, your children dying, and your friends turning against you but still surviving and having an unshakable faith in God.”

Westmoreland said sharing Job’s story is a large motivation for volunteers performing in and working with “Job.” But in addition, he said, “It will give them an opportunity to be a little part of history. . . . It is an honor to help the black community participate (in the Los Angeles Festival) and to be involved.”

Warren Conner, a drummer for the church who plays a servant in the production, says the hours spent rehearsing for “Job” will pay off for several reasons. “I’m an artist in general--a drummer and a songwriter--and I thought it would be a good experience for me as well as a chance to show my versatility. In addition, it’s a worthwhile effort. It’s a good cause. And it’s a good story--people need to know about Job, because in today’s world people are not that faithful.”

Tickets for “Job,” which will be presented at 7 p.m. on Sunday and at 8 p.m. on March 9 and 16, range from $15-$50. Information: (213) 689-8800 or (213) 221-9556.