NoHo Festival Looks for Big Crowds Via Subway

The Valley has long been the most multicultural of suburbs, and that diversity will be celebrated this weekend during the NoHo International Theatre & Arts Festival 2000.

This will be the eighth year that North Hollywood has showcased local talent--with the hope that people who attend free theater this weekend or listen to music at one of the five outdoor stages on or near Lankershim Boulevard will patronize local theater and artists in the future.

“There’s a buzz happening now,” says Alice Buonato, one of the organizers of the event produced by the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. “Obviously, we want NoHo to become a destination, and that comes with marketing.”

Because this year’s festival is being linked with the opening of the North Hollywood Metro station, it is expected to attract far more people than last year’s crowd of 30,000 to 50,000. Some involved in planning the event think as many as 250,000 people may take a free ride on the subway and then take part in one or more festival events.

Attractions at this year’s expanded festival include 64 hours of live entertainment. Called the Festival of Festivals, programs will feature music and dance by performers who participate in some of the more than 200 arts, cultural and ethnic festivals held in Los Angeles annually. Among the cultures represented are those of Argentina, Bali, the Caribbean, China, Italy, Korea, Mexico and Spain.

Free theater has always been a major draw at the festival, and this year there are 12 theatrical venues to choose from, including the recently renovated El Portal, which has three stages. According to Peter Greene, publisher of Evening Out, a bimonthly publication that serves local theaters, there are 28 theaters in the NoHo Arts District, where there were only two nine years ago.

“We have the largest concentration of Equity-waiver theaters in the country today, more than Greenwich Village,” said Greene, who adds there are a total of 44 theaters in the San Fernando Valley.

Almost 100 performances will be given during the two days of the festival, for which 6,000 free tickets will be available.

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Somewhat surprisingly, these will include some R-rated shows, such as the All-American Latino Theatre Ensemble’s “Four Tamales Missing in Action” Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Bitter Truth Theatre, 11050 Magnolia Blvd. There are also less risque performances appropriate for children and, for the first time, a Spanish-language play--”Mujeres con Ganas” by Meche Martinez, which will be staged Saturday and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Bitter Truth.

According to Greene, a handful of theaters that usually take part in the festival chose not to participate this year because their owners believed their actors were being shortchanged in comparison to the other festival performers, who are being paid for their work. The participating theaters receive only a nominal amount, he said.

Children will have their own destination at the festival, the 300-seat Theatre of the Enchanted Forest at what organizers are calling Kids Court.

Nancy Bianconi, executive director of International Cultural Enterprises, the festival’s coordinator, said the children’s program is greatly expanded over last year’s.

“The children will have a chance to perform--with microphones,” she said, as well as watch performances by magicians, puppeteers, jugglers and others. There will also be arts and crafts activities.

“We’ll have fairies and wizards,” Bianconi said. “It’s very interactive.”

In the great American tradition, there will also be things to buy and things to eat--more than 140 vendors have signed up.

According to Bianconi, a major innovation this year was greater participation by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, in many ways the cultural anchor of the NoHo Arts District.

“They have gone all-out,” Bianconi said.

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The academy is turning its plaza and driveways into a fairground within the fair, where visitors will have an opportunity to learn more about such behind-the-scenes aspects of TV as sound editing and special effects. Among the inside stuff to be revealed: That TV snow is really dried potato flakes.

For anyone who ever dreamed of buying a vowel from Vanna White, “The Wheel of Fortune”-mobile will be at the festival, recruiting contestants for the TV game show. There will also be appearances by stunt people, including one who will do a free fall from a 54-foot-high crane.

And don’t be alarmed if you see people plummeting from the sky over North Hollywood. They’re members of a stunt team who believe every festival should have its skydivers.

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Spotlight runs every Friday. Patricia Ward Biederman can be reached at valley.news@latimes.com.