No O.C. Groups Confirmed Yet for L.A. Festival : Arts: Many who intend to participate in the September event are still seeking venues and funding. They have until June 30 to firm up their plans.

While several Orange County arts groups have announced plans to take part in September’s Open Festival in Los Angeles, none are on a list of 40 confirmed participants.

However, festival organizers said, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the groups won’t end up in the festival, the uncurated, pay-your-own-way portion of the Los Angeles Festival of the arts.

Officials said the list is preliminary, including only groups who have confirmed their own productions and venues. Officials at most of the Orange County groups contacted this week said they know what they want to present but have not yet secured sites (which must be in Los Angeles County) or raised all the funds.

They aren’t alone, said festival coordinator Aaron Paley. “Probably 50% of the groups (planning to take part in the Open Festival) are in the same situation,” he said, noting that groups have until June 30 to firm up their plans. “My experience from the 1987 Fringe Festival (the Open Festival’s precursor), and life in general in L.A., is that that’s enough time,” Paley said. The final list of participants will be released in August.

About 450 groups are expected to take part in the Open Festival, which runs from Sept. 1 to 17. Groups from Orange County who want to participate include the Korean Classical Music and Dance Co. of Buena Park, which needs approval of a $6,000 grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department; Readers’ Theater of Santa Ana, still looking for venues; and the Atesh Belly Dance Troupe of Santa Ana, the Arpana Dance Group of Irvine and the Brea-based Hardcover Railroad (which plans literary readings), all in various stages of preparation.

The Gloria Newman Dance Theater, Dance Kaleidoscope of Orange and Francis Zappella & Dancers of Placentia had announced plans to participate but now say they will not, largely because of insufficient funds.

Among the productions that appear on the list of confirmed Open Festival events is a Chinese version of Eugene O’Neill’s one-act play “Hughie” featuring actors from Shanghai, even though the L.A. Festival has maintained that because of violence in Tian An Men Square, no artists from China would be brought in.

Judith Johnston-Weston of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Festival nevertheless plans to present the two-person play at Los Angeles Theatre Center. She says the Chinese government is eager to have the actors included in the festival. “They’re trying to inch their way back into the world,” she said.

“I wish it could have been part of the main (curated) festival, but just to get them here to be part of the whole thing is the important part,” she said. “We want to show that art does go beyond political boundaries.”

Also included among the confirmed Open Festival participants are the L.A. Philharmonic; the Music Center Opera, to present “Fidelio”; the Long Beach Blues Festival; the Pacific Asia Museum, to present “Images of Faith: Ivory Sculptures From the Philippines”; the Southwest Museum; and the Pasadena Playhouse, to present “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.”