Grand Kabuki Tour Includes Costa Mesa : Japanese theater: Performing Arts Center officials insist negotiations have not yet concluded for local performances during the 12-city itinerary announced by the Tokyo company.

Costa Mesa will be among 12 U.S cities to be visited by a 65-member Grand Kabuki company this summer--the largest Grand Kabuki American tour in history--Shochiku Company Ltd. of Tokyo has announced.

The Grand Kabuki will appear June 30 and July 1 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, according to the company’s tour director in Seattle.

Center officials, however, insist that negotiations are not yet concluded.

Of the 12 cities on the tour, 10 have never before hosted the Grand Kabuki.

Highlights of the tour include an opening in Columbus, Ohio, on June 4, a headline performance at the Goodwill Arts Festival in Seattle on July 12-14, and a final stop at the Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles on July 22. The full tour includes dates in the following cities:

Columbus, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minn., San Antonio, Tex. (San Antonio Festival); Atlanta, Ga.; San Francisco; Indianapolis, Ind.; Portland, Ore; Iowa City, Iowa; Seattle, (Goodwill Arts Festival); Lincoln, Neb.; Los Angeles (Japan America Theatre).

Each Grand Kabuki performance will include two plays: “Narukami” (The Thunder God) and “Migawari Zazen” (The Substitute Mediator). The Grand Kabuki has presented both on previous American tours.

“Narukami,” an impassioned story of dragons, princesses, priests, demons, seduction and spells, was originally performed in 1742, and continues to be one of today’s most popular Kabuki plays. “Migawari Zazen,” one of the great plays from the traditional Kyogen repertoire, is a lively comic tale of a philandering husband, told in song and dance.

Starring in all productions, and appearing for the first time before American audiences, is Kichiemon Nakamura II, who will portray the jealous wife in “Migawari Zazen” and the fierce male hero in “Narukami.”

All Kabuki performers are male, with female roles played by actors known as onnagata. With roots as early as the 17th Century, Kabuki has evolved from its beginnings as bawdy traveling outdoor dances into a multidisciplinary classical art.

Center president Thomas Kendrick said through a spokesman Friday: “We are very interested in in presenting the Grand Kabuki and we are negotiating with the company. But there are some substantial problems involving both dates and costs that have not been resolved.”

Times dance writer Lewis Segal contributed to this article.