With Kabuki, ‘You Feel It’; at the Party, You Interpret

Instant interpretation.

Those were the watchwords at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Saturday night when the Center board celebrated the local premiere of the Grand Kabuki Theatre of Japan.

From the Japanese interpreters who helped guests chat at the pre-performance bash to the headphone-translations used by the audience, East met West with ease.

This was a gathering where most of the calling cards had a flip side: personal names and company names printed in Japanese.

“The (appearance of) Grand Kabuki is representative of the importance of the Pacific Rim to our community,” Center Vice Chairman Roger Johnson told theater buffs. “We look forward to additional programming of this high quality in the future.”

More than 100 party-goers, many from Japan, gathered in the posh Center Room to sip wine and pluck shrimp from the top of open parasols before hearing welcoming speeches from Johnson, president of Western Digital; Center President Thomas Kendrick; and Kiyohiko Arafune, consul general of Japan.

During the reception, Kyoichi Miyazaki--an executive producer for the Grand Kabuki--talked about his country’s 400-year-old national treasure. “Kabuki is not something you have to think hard about when you watch it,” he said through an interpreter. “You just feel it.”

Up for viewing in Segerstrom Hall were two of the Grand Kabuki’s most famous works. “Narukami” (“The Thunder God”) wove a dramatic tale about drought. “A priest has trapped a god of rain under a waterfall and the land is dry,” Miyazaki explained.

“Migawari Zazen” (“The Substitute Meditator”) told the story of “love between a man and a woman,” he said. The other woman. “The husband is interested in someone else but pretends he is not. Chances are, such behavior would lead to divorce in Japan today. But this play is from feudal times. There was no such thing. Then, such behavior just got your wife very mad.”

Also among party guests was David Eagle, who is affiliated with the Japan America Society, an organization devoted to enhancing socio-economic communication between the two countries.

“The Grand Kabuki coming here is big news,” said Eagle, sinking into one of the Center Room’s plush sofas. “This will lead to Orange County being hospitable to Japanese investments and, as a community, being hospitable toward the Japanese living here.

“Yukiyasu Togo (president of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.) sunk one million yen into the Kabuki tour. I believe that 12 of the 25 largest Japanese firms have their American corporate headquarters here in Orange County. Orange County is unique. It’s a frontier community open to new ideas.”

Tiffany & Co. at South Coast Plaza underwrote the reception, which included Sino-serenades strummed on a koto (zither). Earlier in the day, members of the Kabuki troupe visited Tiffany, said the store’s vice president, Jo Qualls. “They loved the gold, mostly the small, tailored pieces,” she said, “like Elsa Peretti’s lima-bean necklace and her floating heart.”

More faces in the crowd: Center General Manager Judy Morr (who loves Kabuki, she said--”the technique, the skill, the orchestration--awesome!”); Henry and Renee Segerstrom, (who ducked out of the party early to dine with the Japanese consul at the Center Club--site of the post-show party. The Segerstroms are planning a trip to Japan in the fall. “This is a wonderful exposure to the Grand Kabuki,” Henry said. “I am glad we can have this international relationship.”); Janice Johnson (who, with husband Roger, just returned from a business trip to the Soviet Union); Joyce and Tom Tucker; John and Jan Landstrom; Yasui Matsumoto, Grand Kabuki tour manager; Nancy and Rick Muth; Elaine Redfield; Stephanie and George Sakioka of Sakioka Farms; Candice and Roger Schnapp; Hisasai Takei, who donated $10,000 toward the Kabuki tour; and Gerald Yoshitomi, executive director of the Japan American Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Designing Women: The support group for the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach did it again. It tossed a gala extravaganza that saw a few hundred guests dining, dancing, bidding on auction items, and watching a style show staged by Kitty Leslie, fashion director for Newport Center Fashion Island.

Designing Women--founded by Muriel Reynolds--presented an “Affaire in the Casbah” at the Newport Beach home of Mrs. John (Pilar) Wayne on Saturday night under a huge white tent on the tennis court. There, co-chairwomen Susan McFadden and Joleen Parham watched guests live it up in casbah garb, an arty array of chunky jewelry and yards of gauzy fabric.

“I keep tripping on my flowing pants,” piped Pam O’Neill, who checked out of the bash early to prepare a white chocolate wedding cake for Sunday’s wedding of Five Feet Too restaurant owner Michael Kang. “It’s topped with white chocolate lilies done up with edible 23-karat gold centers,” O’Neill said. “I have work to do! Kang is lucky. The price of gold went down last week.” (Kang and his bride, Renee Lippe, are lucky for another reason. Irvine Co. chairman Donald Bren--a restaurant regular--sent the couple two Baccarat decanters for a wedding present.)

Gurley Brown in Town: Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown was at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach last week, sweet-talking the advertising crowd into buying space in her slick magazine. Last Monday, the willowy author of “Sex and the Single Girl” was living it up with pals in New York, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cosmo. There, she received a new Mercedes-Benz. What did she get from Orange County? “Ooooh,” she purred, “hotels don’t get any more gorgeous than the Four Seasons.”

As for her personal style, forget the cleavage-baring Technicolor numbers she throws on her cover girls. Brown wears elegant Adolfo knits when she wants to look like a “lady”; stylish pieces by Donna Karan when she hits the office; and something black and covered-up when she wants to look sexy.

As for women worrying about loving clothes (the old “if-you-adore-clothes-you-can’t-be-serious-about-life” guilt trip), forget it, Brown said. “Gloria Steinem is always fabulously dressed. And Margaret Thatcher cares deeply about her wardrobe and does great things with her life.”

Social Scoops: Former Laker coach Pat Riley is coming to the Irvine Marriott to do lunch on Aug. 23. Riley will be the guest speaker at the first local “Winner’s Circle” benefit for the City of Hope in Duarte. The topic? “His career and his new direction,” said Joe Broady, associate public relations director for the City of Hope. “We got him before he resigned from the Lakers!” . . . The Little Mermaid Guild of Childrens Hospital of Orange County has landed the coup of the fall social season. CHOC will be the beneficiary of the Sept. 15 black-tie bash that will open the new Hilton hotel in Huntington Beach. The price is a steal at $125 per person. (The Hilton does it up right. Who can forget the caviar-smothered opening of the Irvine Hilton?)