Short scenes in the Noguchi garden

Young Chang

Just when you thought Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario sculpture

garden couldn’t make any more headlines, a bunch of artists have entered

the scene.

While Costa Mesa council members and Commonwealth Partners LLC, owners

of the land, have been hashing out the issue of how long the developers

must maintain the garden -- it’s been argued from 25 years to “in

perpetuity” -- artistic heads from South Coast Repertory have taken

notice of the garden’s aesthetic potential for theater.

Specifically, for a piece celebrating California’s landscape as part

of the fourth annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, which will end July 1.

Called “California Scenarios,” the series of short works was penned by

five playwrights -- Luis Alfaro, Joann Farias, Anne Garcia-Romero, Jose

Cruz Gonzalez and Octavio Solis -- through SCR’s Hispanic Playwrights

Project.

“Scenarios” opened Friday and will be performed in the outdoor garden

through July 1.

“The director, Juliette Carrillo, has been interested in that space,

in Noguchi garden, for some time now, and she found it to be very

beautiful but also very theatrical,” said Jennifer Kiger, associate

director of the festival and literary manager for the repertory.

The collaborative play contains five mini-plays: “Desert Longing,”

“Two Steps Forward, One Step Back,” “Encarnacion,” “Odysseus Cruz” and

“The Gardens of Aztlan.”

Plot lines range from four women and a bandido to a farm worker’s trek

home to a tale about tortillas, oranges and nature.

But the most conspicuous piece is “Encarnacion,” by Solis and Larry

Reed, a pioneer in shadow theater. The main puppet’s character is named

Encarnacion. It’s a story about his search for identity, origin and

future.

“It’s a piece about California, about the Latino experience , about

the first Mexicans,” Reed said. “Encarnacion -- his mother was Indian,

his father was Spanish, he was an orphan.”

The story is based on research and compilations of stories, but not on

an actual event.

Reed and Solis will use a wall and a big, white, transparent screen to

project their shadow play at Noguchi garden.

“It’s not constrained by the limitations of theater,” Solis said.

“It’s done in a really beautiful, magical way with just lights and

shadows.”

Reed, who is trained in Balinese shadow puppetry, fell into the art

almost by accident.

Someone stole his camera more than 20 years ago while he was a

filmmaker in Bali. He looked around for something else to do and fell in

love with the style of theater there -- a traditional style involving

shadows.

Reed said “Encarnacion” shares a theme with the other short plays in

“Scenarios.”

“All the writers had a different way of approaching things,” he said.

“But common themes are ‘what is the meaning of death?’ ‘Family’ is

another, ‘work’ is another. . . . But each one of them is very

distinctive.”

FYI

WHAT: “California Scenarios”

WHEN: 8 p.m. today, Sunday, June 29-30 and July 1

WHERE: Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden, walking distance from SCR,

behind the offices at 611 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa

COST: $10

CALL: (714) 708-5555