A Counter-Gala in the Year of Columbus : Celebrations: City’s arts festival takes exception to the ‘discovery’ of America by the explorer (some would say conqueror).

What did you expect?

The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria?

No, no, no. This is Santa Monica. So when the city parents decided to link their second annual festival of the performing and visual arts with the Columbus quinquecentennial, paying homage to the white male who sailed the ocean blue was not what they had in mind.

Instead, today’s “Santa Monica Arts Festival 1992” will feature a revisionist (some would say politically correct) view of 1492. Events will include a salutary measure of Columbus-bashing and a celebration of the arts of America’s indigenous people, who have yet to be persuaded that they needed to be discovered, thank you.

Hollywood’s favorite political satirist, Tim Robbins, has contributed a new piece about Columbus, called “Mayhem: The Invasion.”

A 30-minute excerpt from the play, which will air on National Public Radio next month, will be performed by the Actors’ Gang.

According to director Brian Brophy, the debate over whether Columbus was a hero or one of the premier villains of all time is presented in the form of a political game show (Columbus’ conservative defender is named Trevor, the liberal critic, Bill). Scenes from Columbus’ conquest are acted out on stage.

The action is interrupted by frequent news breaks on the Gulf War, Brophy said. Among the various voices heard in the piece is the barely audible sound of Taino, one of the natives who greeted the conqueror, and the excited voice of TV reporter “Brick Rock, reporting from under the table somewhere in the Middle East.”

Brophy said he hopes the audience walks away from “Mayhem” with a more complex view of how history is transmitted.

The festival will also feature excerpts from two other theater pieces, one on the American Indian “Ghost Dance” by Mark Laska and “Christopher Columbus 1992,” an exploration in words, images and music of the “New World Order” by Roger Guenveur Smith.

Diversity is the real theme of the free festival, and there is no evidence that Columbus and his contemporaries thought diversity was anything but a mortal sin. One wonders, for example, what Queen Isabella would have whispered to her confessor about festival performer Monica Palacios, a Latina lesbian comic.

Palacios has worked up a new routine for the event. Called “Hola, Columbus!” (“Hello, Columbus”), it will include Palacios’ fantasy of an epic Columbus movie, not running in any theater, that tells the truth about the wonderful folks who brought measles and the auto-da-fe to the first Americans.

Palacios says Columbus reminds her of President Bush. “Columbus came here for Spain and the Christian God,” she said. “And at that point you know he’s Republican.”

Palacios knows that her brand of commentary is not likely to be underwritten by the powers that be in, say, Columbus, Ohio. “So many times, cities that back events specifically say this is what we want and this is what we want you to do. But with this, I was encouraged to be myself, and that’s great.”

The festival, which will take place from noon to 7 p.m. at the Santa Monica Pier, is sponsored by the city’s Arts Division. It was produced by Community Arts Resources (CARS).

Executive producer Theresa Chavez said she believes the event strikes a balance between political statements and evidence that non-European traditions anteceding Columbus are “alive and well and, in some cases, living in our back yard.”

She said she was especially pleased to have the cooperation of American Indian artists, including the Dolphin Dancers of the Santa Ynez Reservation.

Chavez noted that one criterion for artists’ inclusion was the quality of their work; she pointed to the musical group, Quetzalcoatl, as an example of how excellent a counter-Columbus celebration can be.

Festival Schedule

Here is the schedule for today’s Santa Monica Arts Festival 1992 on the Santa Monica Pier.

12-12:30 p.m.: Navajo storyteller Geraldine Keams.

12:45-1:15 p.m.: Musical trio Hecho en Mexico.

1:30-2 p.m.: “Ghost Dance,” a theater piece on American Indian culture by Mark Laska.

2:15-2:45 p.m.: Cahuilla Indian Bird Singers.

3-3:30 p.m. “Christopher Columbus 1992,” a theater and music piece by Roger Guenveur Smith.

3:45-4:15 p.m.: Dolphin Dancers.

4:30-5 p.m.: “Mayhem: The Invasion,” a theater piece by Tim Robbins, performed by the Actors’ Gang.

5:15-5:30 p.m.: Monica Palacios.

6-6:30 p.m.: Musical group Quetzalcoatl.