Emmes Does An About-Face : Arts: Anxious to ‘correct any misconception,’ a South Coast Repertory director decides he will speak after all at an LA session on freedom of expression.

A top official at South Coast Repertory has said he will speak after all today at a major meeting of state arts officials on the subject of freedom of expression. And representatives of the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, who had been considering an invitation to speak, have decided to accept it.

They will join a panel called “The Fight for Freedom of Expression” at the annual convention of the California Confederation of the Arts, the state’s largest arts advocacy organization, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Earlier in the week, when it appeared that no representatives of either troupe might attend, confederation officials said that discussion of recent arts controversies in Costa Mesa--the only Orange County issue on the agenda--would be deleted.

David Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director, had declined the confederation’s invitation to speak, asserting that he had been given inadequate notice and was “completely unaware” of the panel’s subject when the invitation was relayed to him through an assistant.

But Friday, after The Times reported his decision, Emmes said he would appear on the panel. He said he had been made aware of “the importance of the issue to be discussed” and wanted “to correct any misconception about SCR’s advocacy for artistic freedom.”

Informed of Emmes’ initial decision, a prominent arts advocate had charged that SCR had been “spineless” and tried to “avoid confrontation” in July when the Costa Mesa City Council approved arts-grant restrictions banning the use of city money for obscenity or religious or political activity.

The restrictions were imposed after a Costa Mesa resident complained that SCR, a recipient of city grants, had inserted flyers into programs urging support of the National Endowment for the Arts, under attack by conservatives for funding allegedly obscene or sacrilegious artworks.

Jeffrey Chester, a political consultant and co-founder of the 2,000-member National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, had said that the Tony award-winning theater troupe had rejected his offer to help organize a large protest at a council meeting on the grant restrictions, and to arrange national publicity for the protest.

Emmes has acknowledged that he rejected Chester’s offer, but on Friday he insisted that SCR has participated in the nationwide debate on public arts funding.

“We ran two different (pro-NEA) essays in our program,” he said, “. . . and we understand they were distributed to certain members of Congress. Plus, even after the whole stink about the (program flyers), we printed and inserted a second flyer.

“So it seems to me that Mr. Chester is not fully informed about what was going on. We’ve never ducked an artistic issue.”

Civic Playhouse officials had said earlier that the distance between Costa Mesa and Los Angeles might make attendance at the convention difficult.

But Friday, board member Judy Sharp said that having a voice at the convention, where about 300 arts leaders from throughout the state are expected, is crucial. She said that she and board President Eleanor Rey would be speaking.

“Non-participation,” Sharp said, “would be a form of censorship.”

The playhouse, a community group that receives Costa Mesa subsidies, was thrust into the local and nationwide arts funding debate with its production of Christopher Durang’s satire “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.”

The play, staged after the City Council imposed its restrictions, offered the first test of the new policy when residents complained that Durang’s work is “anti-Christian bigotry.” The City Council found that the play did not violate the policy, though individual council members indicated that the theater’s future may have been marred by the imbroglio.