L.A. Festival Making Moves to Change Venue

Los Angeles Festival is going ahead with plans to move seven performing events--including the Court Performers from the Yogyakarta Palace of Java, widely viewed as the centerpiece of the festival--from downtown’s Embassy Theater to a two-acre outdoor site at Arcadia’s State and County Arboretum, despite the lack of signed contracts.

Although tickets for the Embassy programs affected by the switch have been on sale for a month, L.A. Festival director Peter Sellars said that the move represents the festival’s “first dream” to present the 67-member Javanese royal court dancers.

Sellars said increased fund raising and a pending $100,000 donation make the change possible.

“We began discussions with the Arboretum over eight months ago (because) we’d always wanted to put it outdoors,” he said. “But we decided to put it in the Embassy when we announced a $3 million festival. Now that we’re back up to $4.7 million, we’re thrilled. It really is what we wanted all along, and it’s much closer to the way you would see it done (in Indonesia), but we just didn’t think we had the wherewithal to pull it off.”

The Javanese troupe--which is scheduled to perform four separate programs over 10 nights--is not the only group affected by the proposed venue change. Now scheduled at the Arboretum are the 32-member Cambodian Classical Dance Troupe (which has yet to receive entry visas from the U.S. State Department), the 20 dancers of Japan’s Uwanuda Kagura Troupe and the 22-member Majikina Honryu Okinawan Dance Company.

In addition, the Mahabharata Classical Dance of India, which brings together two L.A.-based companies and had also been scheduled for the Embassy Theater, will now perform at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater, said Tom A. Larson, the festival’s production manager.

Sellars, who had “always viewed the Javanese as the centerpiece of the festival,” said the selection of the Embassy Theater had always been viewed by the festival as a “compromise” forced by limited funding.

Although a source within the festival on Tuesday called the move “an absolute go” and festival officials have said a formal announcement of the move is expected shortly, Patty Mannatt, special events coordinator for the county-operated arboretum, cautioned that “No contract had been signed . . . (and) I can’t think of this as a closed deal. . . . But we are excited, and hope that it can be worked out.”

According to sources from both the festival and the Arboretum, a major negotiating point revolves around a city-imposed 10 p.m. curfew at the Arboretum, located in a residential area of Arcadia.

John Calhoun, the festival’s technical consultant, said that ending the majority of programs by 10 p.m. is not difficult, but both sides noted that an agreement from the city and notification of area residents would be needed if the Javanese court dancers’ performance of the shadow puppet play Wayang Kulit, scheduled as an all night performance from 10 p.m.-6 a.m., remains scheduled.

Meanwhile, the festival is proceeding with plans to construct a special stage and 800-seating plan for the Arboretum’s south lawn. Included will be a shell-like roof that would act as a sound shield for the 35-person sacred gamelan orchestra, as well as a 40-foot-by-30-foot stage for the 32 dancers.

Cost for the stage and covering at the Arboretum would run an estimated $35,000, with an additional $5,000 for outdoor tents and dressing rooms, Calhoun said.