Dracula

Dracula lovers, your ship has come in – and yes, it’s carrying the irresistible Count and his coffins of Transylvanian soil. It’s docked in North Hollywood, where “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” plays at the Noho Arts Center through March 22.

Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula,” the bible of vampire literature, has spawned countless retellings, not all of them worthy of their literary ancestor. Fortunately, director Ken Sawyer adapted Hamilton Deane’s 1924 play, authorized by Stoker’s widow and revised by John Balderston in 1927. The Noho production feels authentic and contemporary at the same time, and has a great balance of horror, romance and even a few laughs.

In this version, Mina (understudy Erica Hess at last Sunday's show) is Count Dracula's (Robert Arbogast) first victim, and Lucy Seward (Mara Marini), Jonathan Harker’s (J.R. Mangels) fiancée, becomes the Count’s next conquest (and, it turns out, his reincarnated love from centuries past). Lucy’s mother, Dr. Lily Seward (Karesa McElheny), runs the asylum, where Renfield (Alex Robert Holmes) tries to resist being a slave to the “Master.” Dr. Seward’s friend, professor Van Helsing (Joe Hart), who has a helpful knowledge of folklore, leads her and Harker in a quest to kill the vampire.

Yes, there are plot and character condensations, and no scenes in Transylvania, but those are not to be considered flaws, even by this Stoker purist who has not found satisfactory updates in Anne Rice’s books or Buffy and Angel and has not checked out “Twilight” for fear of similar disappointment. The essence of the classic in the Noho Arts Center Ensemble/David Elzer production is as potent as wolfsbane or garlic is to vampires.

All of the actors, without exception, are outstanding. But, of course, Dracula is the star. Arbogast, with his lean chiseled body and low-riding tight leather pants, is a reincarnation of the sexy, seductive and pretentiously evil vampires played by Frank Langella or Gary Oldman. But Arbogast’s version is no imitation; only once, and to good effect, did a line recall Oldman’s delivery in the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie. And a sexy “Dracula” is only appropriate given the themes of the classic novel, including the Victorian notion that female sexuality is a sin and that women willing to be tempted by the evil Count must have their souls saved.

Marini (who usually plays Mina but was cast last Sunday as Lucy) could work as a horror movie screamer and made a convincing transformation from meek innocent to voluptuous vampire. Holmes has a meaty role as an asylum patient who climbs walls and eats flies, but is sane enough to know evil when he sees it. Even the smaller roles of Butterworth and Wells, played by Chad Coe and Tahni Delong, are distinct and interesting characters.

The set design by Desma Murphy is worthy of a film with plenty of lush, romantic details and ingenious devices, like torn “ship sails” that economically transform part of the stage into the ship on which Dracula traveled from Transylvania to England. The literary touch of painting a copy of Henry Fuseli’s 1781 “Nightmare” on the set’s back wall was a creative and thoughtful addition. Throughout the play, a soft light usually stayed on the incubus sitting on a sleeping woman’s chest.

Paula Higgins’ costumes evoke a Victorian era with a contemporary twist. And the atmosphere’s thrills and chills are intensified by Sawyer’s sound and Ovation Award winner Luke Moyer’s lighting. The theater is filled variously with bat sounds, lightning, howling wolves, smoke and more.

The only weakness in the production came near the end. I was unsure what happened to Lucy because Van Helsing says they cut out her heart to save her soul -- but then that doesn’t appear to be true. Even so, that’s easily forgiven after an hour and a half of brilliant theater.

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm through March 22.
Noho Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 508-7101, ext. 7, www.thenohoartscenter.com

Robert Arbogast as Dracula and Joe Hart as Van Helsing in the Noho Arts Center Ensemble production of “Dracula,” directed by Ken Sawyer. Photo by Michael Lamont/courtesy of Demand PR

Vienna, Mehta and Lang Lang

File this under “hard-to-believe-but-true”: The Vienna Philharmonic has never played at Disney Hall. With all the world-class orchestras the LA Phil has been bringing in since moving to their new home in 2003, that’s a surprise. But, finally, the Vienna Phil, one of the world’s undisputed best for a century and a half, makes its debut on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and returns Wednesday, Feb. 4. Both concerts begin at 8 pm.

And that’s not all: The conductor will be LA’s beloved Zubin Mehta, who served as Music Director of the LA Phil between 1962 and 1978, and holds the title of Honorary Conductor here. Mehta is a classical superstar, having led the New York Philharmonic for 13 years and been named Music Director for life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Honorary Conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Bavarian State Orchestra.

The Vienna-themed program on Tuesday will feature Wolf’s “Italian Serenade,” Marx’s “Four Songs” (with soprano Angela Maria Blasi), and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9. Wednesday brings Wagner’s “Rienzi Overture,” Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 “Great.”

As if you needed more enticement, 26-year-old Lang Lang, dubbed “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, will perform the Chopin Piano Concerto (which he recently recorded with Mehta and the Vienna Phil) at Wednesday’s concert.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., (323) 850-2000, www.laphil.com

Two Lives, Two Stories

LA photographer Karl Larsen contacted me last weekend with a story idea: “I know this lady in Pasadena who is African-American and she is the City Attorney for Pasadena. Her name is Michelle Bagneris, and her grandmother just turned 109 years old last week!! As a gift I am going to give her a print of Barack and Michelle Obama on the parade route. She was too old and frail to go to the inauguration herself, so I feel this may be the next best thing.”

Not only did I want to know more about how the centenarian Lucile Burrell and her family felt about the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, but I also wanted to learn the story behind the photo itself and more about the photographer whom I had hired to shoot Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney for stories I worked on as an arts editor at a weekly newspaper.

The Big Picture
Attached in Larsen’s email was his photo of the President and First Lady, smiling, holding hands and waving to an expectant nation on Jan. 20. For so many people, of so many races and backgrounds, that day was historic. Larsen said being at the parade was a “spiritual experience,” a sentiment that many in this country who went into the voting booths on Nov. 4 and only watched the inauguration on TV completely understand.

But Burrell, having been born in Arkansas on Feb. 2, 1900, was someone who perhaps had a much deeper understanding of the significance of the occasion. “She was born just one generation removed from slavery,” Larsen said, “and I thought I would have to give her a photo of this monumental event that I was fortunate enough to capture.”

I drove with Larsen on Presidents Day to Inglewood, where Big Mama, as she is affectionately called by her family and friends, lives with her daughter Rohelia Beal and son-in-law Meredith Beal, Bagneris’ parents.

Big Mama – who had met George Washington Carver as a child when he came to Arkansas to teach food-canning skills and stayed at her family’s home – didn’t say much during our visit, but when she saw the 16-by-20-inch framed print of the Obamas, she seemed excited and said “hallelujah.” She even began to sing a little bit.

She had a similar reaction when the family watched the inauguration together on TV. Bagneris told me, “We experienced chills and watery eyes, and Big Mama exclaimed ‘hallelujah,’ and as Obama spoke, she shouted to him to ‘tell the world!’”

All three generations were overcome with emotion, Bagneris recalled. “My 86-year-old father choked up, saying that, having been raised as a child in East Texas, he never in his wildest dreams imagined that he would live to see the day that a Black man would be president.”

Before we left, Larsen posed with the entire family and gave Big Mama a kiss on the forehead, both of which I captured with his camera.

Afterward, Bagneris told me what the inauguration and Larsen’s gift meant to her. “My mother and I revel in the recognition that, although America continues to experience challenges in race relations, this represents a giant leap forward and something that my children will recognize came with great sacrifice, presenting a hopeful future. Karl’s photo of the First Couple represents the strength, unity and determination that I have seen in my parents and grandparents, and that I hope to convey with my husband.”

Behind the Camera
Larsen didn’t have media credentials to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration, but that didn’t stop him from flying to Washington, D.C., last month. On Jan. 19, he scoped out the mall and realized without a ticket he couldn’t get close enough to the stage, so he visited the parade route, found a good spot and noted things like the lighting at the time of day he expected to take the photo.

The next day he awoke at 3 a.m. and was the first civilian in line for the parade at 4:35 a.m., behind police, volunteers and media. By 7 a.m., he was in place and trying to stay warm – in thermals, ski pants and goggles – waiting for the president to pass by at 4 p.m. Apparently, it’s not just the National Geographic photographers stalking wildlife and ideal skies who have incredible patience.

Over the course of nine hours of talking and even dancing to Motown, country and more over the PA system, Larsen got to know the people around him. “We all were strangers at 7 a.m. and by 4 p.m. were lifetime friends,” he said, explaining that he also promised to send them all a copy of the photo if they were careful not to bump him during that one crucial moment – which came at 4:05 p.m.

He had maybe a matter of seconds to take a photo of the Obamas, who hopped back into the limo right after he snapped it.

I knew that Larsen, who started as the house photographer for the West Hollywood House of Blues and has worked extensively for Rolling Stone magazine – and whose image of Paris Hilton crying in the back of a police cruiser made newspapers across the country – was good at his job. Hearing about his trip to D.C. and seeing his “catch” confirmed that.

Even so, Larsen’s agency has not yet sold the photo to any media outlets (most likely because many have subscriptions to agencies like the Associated Press and Reuters). So Larsen gave one photo as a gift to Burrell and a 24-by-30-inch giclee print to a friend’s mother who happens to be a Congresswoman in Florida. She had flown with the President on Air Force One when he visited her district and wanted to send it to the White House as a thank you.

In the meantime, a giclee print of the Obamas, arguably the biggest celebrities in the world right now, is at the Celebrity Vault gallery in Beverly Hills along with a few other images by Larsen, as well as ones by famous photographers Richard Miller, Bert Stern, and Gered Mankowitz, who photographed icons such as James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Jimi Hendrix, respectively. Larsen is investigating the possibility of Obama signing a number of his limited-edition giclee prints so that he can sell them at the hip gallery on Canon Drive and donate a portion to charity.

At the gallery, in addition to photos of Slash whom Larsen had intimate access to as the official photographer on Velvet Revolver’s first album tour, are some others by Larsen. They aren’t portraits, but emotional images that quietly tell LA stories. The shuttered Tower Records on Sunset is a symbol of the end of a musical era. The inflatable pig that escaped during a Roger Waters concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006 and floated toward a full moon makes it obvious that being a photographer is as much about being in the right place at the right time as it is about doing your homework.

As for his black-and-white image of the Hollywood sign with smoke ominously billowing behind it, Larsen said at the moment he heard the fires were encroaching on the city’s world-famous icon, “If the Hollywood sign was going to burn down – then I was going to have to get that photo.”

Visit the Celebrity Vault gallery or website to see more of Larsen’s work: 345 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills 90210, (888) 838-1881, www.thecelebrityvault.com

Visit Wikipedia to learn about the controversy about Larsen’s famous photo of Paris Hilton being incorrectly attributed to Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Nick Ut on ABC’s “20/20.”

A Must-Hear Concert

If you’ve heard the 6,134-pipe Disney Hall organ, you know why every opportunity should be taken to hear it again. The next chance is Sun., Feb. 22, when the Los Angeles Master Chorale presents an evening of “Chorus + Organ” at 7 p.m.

Now if you’re thinking this kind of music is not your thing, remember that Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana” – a collection of dynamic songs based on medieval poems about everything from spring to drinking and which you’ve undoubtedly heard in movies and commercials – is choral music. Furthermore, the Master Chorale is not just any ensemble – it is the nation’s, and maybe the world’s, most innovative chorale group, thriving under its vibrant music director, Grant Gershon. They’ve commissioned 21 and premiered 51 new works, bringing vital spirit to an art form that goes all the way back to medieval Gregorian Chants.

I don’t know much about chorale music, but I was blown away by the gorgeous artistry of one of the Master Chorale’s recent concerts featuring a collaboration between choreographer Cheam Shapiro and composer Chinary Ung for the world premiere of “Spiral XII.” (As an interesting side note, the singers of the Master Chorale have been featured on movie soundtracks, including a personal favorite, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”)

On Sunday’s six-piece program are the world premieres of “Dream Variations” by Andrea Clearfield and Steven Sametz’s “Music’s Music” as well as the West Coast premiere of Nico Muhly’s “Expecting the Main Things From You.” Plus, there will be music by Bruckner, Liszt and Part. Christoph Bull is the featured organist.

Clearfield’s “Dream Variations,” written for flute, viola, harp and organ, will be performed with the Debussy Trio. “All About Jazz” said of the composer that she “is to be thanked for ‘daring to disturb the universe.’”

Sametz’s “Music’s Music,” was commissioned by Kathie and Alan Freeman in honor of Gershon, Executive Director Terry Knowles and the Master Chorale and features double choir, mezzo-soprano, obbligato clarinet and harp.

“Expecting the Main Things from You,” a three-movement piece for organ and string quartet, sounds like another rare treat, as the work of Muhly, who has collaborated with the likes of Bjork and Philip Glass, is rarely performed on the West Coast. He’ll also be at the concert.

Also of note is Arvo Pärt's “De Profundis,” for men's chorus, which, the press materials indicate, “starts at the lowest depth, as its title suggests, and uncoils into an eight-minute long crescendo and thundering climax with tam-tam (gong) and organ.” If that doesn’t sound awesome, I don’t know what does.

Tickets start at $19. Student rush tickets are $10.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012, (213) 972-7282, www.lamc.org

photo by Steve Cohn Photography/courtesy of LA Master Chorale

Art at the Armory

Time is winding down on your chance to see "at the Brewery Project," an exhibit that ends March 1 at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. The Brewery Project was a showcase for artists, by artists, first organized at the Brewery Art Colony near downtown LA by artist John O'Brien in September 1993. Between then and May 2007, the project was responsible for more than 35 exhibits, curated by as many as 20 different artists, and featuring photography, painting, ceramics, collage and more.

The retrospective at the Armory provides a fascinating glimpse of the contemporary art scene in LA. Among the most fun works on display is Keiko Fukazawa's "Good Luck" with a wedding cake -- made of white ceramic Maneki Neko (Good Luck) cats topped with the colorful ones that are ubiquitous in Little Tokyo -- paired with a kimono decorated with graffiti art. In front of Thomas Muller's enlarged photos of a clay elephant balancing on a gorgeous ripe tomato are the actual items in plexiglas boxes on wooden pedestals -- only it takes a while to figure out what's going on in those boxes because the tomatoes have almost completely decomposed since the installation.

Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena 91103, (626) 792-5101, www.armoryarts.org

Keiko Fukazawa, Good Luck, 2005, clay and kimono, kimono: 60 x 50 x 3 inches, ceramic cake: 60 x 22 x 22 inches/photo courtesy of Armory Center for the Arts

The 'Ring' Begins

Following an enchanting “Magic Flute,” LA Opera unfurls “Das Rheingold,” the first of four operas in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (“Nibelung’s Ring”). Fantasy and adventure combine in a tale of a Nibelung dwarf who creates from the gold of the Rhine a magic ring that gives its bearer power over the world. Inspired by German and Scandinavian myths, Wagner’s 19th-century epic is filled with gods, warriors and giants – and may win over an admirer or two of JRR Tolkien. The Ring Cycle is an ambitious undertaking for any opera company, and LA Opera aims to impress with acclaimed German artist Achim Freyer on board to dazzle LA crowds with his direction and design. At a mere 2 hours 25 minutes, “Das Rheingold” is the shortest work in the Ring Cycle, which continues when LA Opera General Director Placido Domingo stars in “Die Walkure” in April.

Sat., Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m.; Sun., March 1; Thurs., March 5, at 7:30 p.m.; Sun., March 8; Wed., March 11, at 7:30 p.m.; Sun., March 15
Wed., Thurs., Sat. at 7:30 p.m.; Sun. at 2 p.m.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012, (213) 972-8001, www.laopera.com

If you want some help figuring out Wagner's "Das Rheingold" before you go to the LA Opera production, get over to the Brand Library on Sat., Feb. 21, at 2 pm for a free talk by Jackie Johns of the Los Angeles Opera Speaker Bureau.

Glendale Public Library, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale 91201, (818) 548-2051, www.brandlibrary.org

photo by Monika Rittershaus/courtesy of LA Opera

Documentary Film Events

Let’s face it: You have no chance of getting into the Oscars. But you can get into the International Documentary Association’s 27th Annual Nominees Reception, hosted by comedienne extraordinaire Lily Tomlin, on Wed., Feb. 18, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There, you’ll get a glimpse of the documentary features and shorts up for Oscars this year and hear from the filmmakers, who usually have a tremendously passionate stake in the material -- because god knows they aren’t making any money – and create amazing works of art with true stories, meant to inform, inspire, incite emotion, or all of the above.

The nominated documentary features are:
Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” about a hidden society living in Antarctica
Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s “The Garden” about a community garden in South Central LA
James Marsh’s “Man on Wire” about high wire walker Philippe Petit
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s “Trouble the Water” about an aspiring rapper in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina
Ellen Kuras’ “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” about the struggle of one family from Laos, filmed over 23 years

Wed., Feb. 18, 6:30 pm hors d’oeuvres and wine, 8 pm program: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills 90211
For tickets and info: http://www.documentary.org/reception09

Then DocuDay on Sat., Feb. 21, provides the unique opportunity to see all five features and four shorts, since most so rarely make it to the theater. Films run from 9 am to 11:55 pm (what happens to documentarians at midnight?), and all-day passes are available.
Sat., Feb. 21: Writers Guild of America Theater, 135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills 90211
For tickets and info: http://docuday.eventbrite.com/

My Romantic Valentine

The acclaimed Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra presents Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” on Sat., Feb. 14, and Sun., Feb. 15. “The Fairy Queen,” a masque written in 1692, is based on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a comedy about Athenian lovers and a mischievous fairy named Puck. The melodic, operatic piece will feature the Santa Monica-based orchestra, along with sopranos Lisa Saffer and Catherine Webster, bass-baritone Michael Dean, and the Concord Ensemble chorus. Music Director Martin Haselböck will conduct.

Sat., Feb. 14, 8 pm.: Zipper Concert Hall, Colburn School of Performing Arts; 200 S. Grand Ave, Los Angeles
Sun., Feb. 15, 4 pm.: The Broad Stage, Santa Monica Blvd and 11th Street, Santa Monica
Tickets: $39 to $55
(310) 458-4504, www.MusicaAngelica.org

My Funny Valentine

Christopher Moore, on tour with his latest novel, “Fool,” appears at the Borders in Northridge on Sat., Feb. 14, at 2 pm. “Fool” is a bawdy (the author says there’s plenty of “shagging”) and humorous retelling of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” from the point of view of the king’s fool, Pocket. An American author of incredible imagination, Moore also authored the irreverent and epic “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal,” in which the adventures of a teen-aged Jesus and his friend Biff read like a take on “The Odyssey.”

Borders, 9301 Tampa Ave., Northridge 91324, (818) 886-5443, www.borders.com

Gedde Up!

Gedde Watanabe stars in East West Players' next production "Ixnay." (For details, see the previous post.)

Watanabe, who just finished a film and is part of a TV pilot in development, sat down in the lobby of EWP’s David Henry Hwang Theater one evening before rehearsal for “Ixnay” to chat with me. The laughter punctuating his comments was so hearty and infectious, he could sell tickets to listen to him just talk and laugh on stage.

Tell me about your character Tadashi Ozaki.
Tadashi Ozaki is head of the Reincarnation Station No. 92, which is when people die, they come and see me before they transition.

Do you choose what they become?
I don’t really choose, but probably from my own sense I can choose who goes back as Asian American. And a lot of them didn’t want to. [laughs] One of the characters [Raymond Kobayashi, played by Aaron Takahashi] doesn’t want to go back as one, and I’m totally befuddled by the fact that he doesn’t want to go back as an Asian American.

Why doesn’t he?
I think he just had a really hard life [laughs] as an Asian American. You know, the discrimination. He wants to experience being a white person. It’s kind of profound in that sense. I totally get it. But my character is totally befuddled at him. Consequently, he shows his racist side because he pushes it so hard…. I try to reason with this kid about why it’s so important why he needs to go back as one. I give him lots of lists, and it’s like [laughs] the reasonings are kind of comical. But in an odd way, they’re kind of real too. … One line says the Japanese-American race is kind of disappearing because of interracial marriages and all that kind of stuff. In the year of Obama, you kind of wonder.

Is this a laugh-out-loud comedy?
I have no idea how this audience is going to react to this. It’s kind of like [Albert Brooks’] “Defending Your Life” Japanese style, in a way. [laughs] It will be interesting to see what the audience, what the generations are going to think of this.

How are rehearsals going for this word premiere?
There’s an open door for me in this play and I realize that [director Jeff Liu] is letting me do that and I respect that. It’s been neat. He knows that I’m always trying to figure something out. I will always question something when it’s just not working…. This is what’s so great about East West is that you can explore that. You don’t have to be perfect. I think they want to make a good play and they want to figure out how to make sense of it.

Is that why you like working here? [Note: Watanabe also performed in EWP's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in 2001 and last year's "Pippin."]
I think the reason why I like working here is that it’s just comfortable. … They all know me. They can slap me in the face when I’m really being ridiculous. They can tell me to go to hell. Or I can tell them to go to hell. [laughs] So it’s sort of comfortable. It’s like you’re in your living room. And what better place to do theater than in your living room? At least when I was a kid we all did theater in the living room.

Were you funny when you were a kid?
No. My sisters thought I was funny. I was very serious and very brooding. I fought people a lot. So maybe that’s what made me funny. I defended a lot of people. You grew up in Utah, so all the white people you just wanted to slap in the face. Excuse me, sorry. It’s true. [laughs] All the Mormons, sorry. I wanted to slap them in the face. [laughs] Especially the girls that were always complaining about girls that didn’t wear bras. I thought, “Oh god, get over yourself.” That’s all the Mormon girls cared about: “She’s not wearing a bra.” My best friend was a girl from Boston and she never wore a bra and she was the most brilliant girl in that whole class, just sophisticated. Her mother brought her to Utah and she said, “What the f!$* am I doing here?” -- excuse me -- and we became friends immediately.

I noticed on Tadashi’s Myspace page (www.myspace.com/tadashiozaki) that he said he hated “Sixteen Candles.” Now why is he disparaging that film?
He did? I never said that. [laughs] Somebody made that up.

Oh, you aren’t doing the updates?
No, I don’t even know what Myspace is. … That’s an interesting thought: Would he have liked “Sixteen Candles”? Yeah, he would have liked it. He would have adored it, because he is just out of his gourd about how he sees life. … Isn’t that weird? Interesting, huh? Yeah, he would have thought it was like Shakespeare probably. [laughs] That’s the character speaking, that’s not me speaking. [laughs] He would have loved it, and I’ll tell you why. Because he was making fun of another culture, which he does. He thinks everything is below Japanese American. So he would have loved it!

Well, you know, everybody still loves that movie. What’s it been, 25 years? People still love that movie and talk about your character Long Duk Dong. [Note: Some in the Asian-American community found it controversial.]
Can’t live it down.

No. But do you want to?
No, I don’t really think about that much anymore. The last thing I ever did that made any sense to me about it was I went to a benefit for homeless women who needed underwear and I just thought at the last moment, you know I’m going to raise them some money, so I took the microphone and I said I will sell any line that you want, put it on your cellphone if you give them $10. They made over $2,000 in the crowd, something like that. I thought, well, there you go. Who cares anymore?

If you could be reincarnated…
Oh god!

You know I have to ask this. I saw your Myspace video (www.myspace.com/tadashiozaki), but I figured I’d ask this fresh.
I would just like to be able to be reincarnated. Let’s just say if I decided to come back as an actor, I would love to come back in a time when color didn’t matter for the role. Because I think you don’t get considered for a lot of stuff. In one sense, you can’t really develop your talent, and I think that’s the hardest to live with when you are in this business.

East West Players

East West Players, the nation's premiere Asian-American theater, brings Long Duk Dong back to its Little Tokyo stage in "Ixnay," which opens Feb. 18. Well, not actually Long Duk Dong, but the actor who played him in the classic '80s film "Sixteen Candles," Gedde Watanabe. Beloved by a generation of now-middle-aged John Hughes fans who have seen the film over and over and can recite all of the actor’s hilarious lines, Watanabe appeared recently on East West Players' stage as the grandmother in the company's hip-hop/anime version of "Pippin."

If you missed the chance to see Watanabe in drag, be sure to catch him in "Ixnay," written by Paul Kikuchi (and developed and workshopped in EWP’s David Henry Hwang Writers Institute) and directed by EWP Literary Manager Jeff Liu. This world premiere play is the story of a Japanese-American man who wants to be reincarnated as a Caucasian. Watanabe plays the reincarnation station attendant. Other actors in the cast include June Kyoko Lu, one of the founders of EWP (“Lady in the Water”); Dante Basco (“Hook”); and Aaron Takahashi, member of Cold Tofu improv troupe (“Yes Man”).

“Ixnay” opens Wed., Feb.18, and closes Sun., March 15. Opening night will be accompanied by a pre-performance cocktail reception and a post-show reception with the cast and creative team ($60). Regular performances ($30, $35) are Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2pm. Previews ($20) are Feb. 12 - 14 at 8 and Feb. 15 at 2. The Pay-What-You-Can Performance will be Feb. 19 at 8.

East West Players’ David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., (213) 625-7000, www.eastwestplayers.org.

Photo by Azusa Oda/courtesy of EWP: Aaron Takahashi surrounded by Dante Basco, Gedde Watanabe, June Kyoko Lu, and Matthew Yang King.

Fun With Words

Larry Wilmore, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning “Senior Black Correspondent” from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" discusses and signs "I'd Rather We Got the Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts" at Vroman's Bookstore on Feb. 10 at 7 pm. Through letters, op-eds, graduation speeches and more, Wilmore takes a comic look at race in America. Vroman's brings authors on an almost-daily basis to Pasadena. Founded in 1894, it is the oldest and largest independent bookstore in Southern California, with two floors of books and gifts, as well as a cafe.

Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, 91101, (626) 449-5320, www.vromansbookstore.com.

Coming up...

Literary Music
On Feb. 7 and 9, Grammy-winning Southwest Chamber Music presents the West Coast premiere of "The Haroun Songbook," music from Charles Wuorinen's opera "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," based on Salman Rushdie's novel about a storyteller who loses his powers. (Incidentally, New York City Opera, which commissioned that work that opened in 2004, also asked the composer to write an opera based on "Brokeback Mountain.") The excerpts from the magical, comic opera have been arranged by Wuorinen for piano and four singers. The Southwest Chamber concert will feature pianist Phillip Bush, mezzo sopranos Elissa Johnston and Kathleen Roland, tenor Robert MacNeil, and bass-baritone Cedric Berry. Also on the progam devoted entirely to Wuorinen's work in celebration of his 70th birthday are: "Eleven Short Pieces for Violin and Vibraphone" (West Coast Premiere), the "Ave Maria…Virgo Serena" for violin, clarinet, violoncello, and piano, and "Iridule" for oboe solo and ensemble (West Coast Premiere). The latter was also inspired by literature, namely, Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire."

Sat., Feb. 7, 8 pm, (pre-concert talk with Artistic Director Jeff von der Schmidt at 7:30):
Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena 91103.

Mon., Feb. 9, 8 pm, (pre-concert talk with Artistic Director Jeff von der Schmidt at 7:30):
Colburn School for Performing Arts, 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012.

Tickets: $38 (General), $28 (Senior), $10 (Student w/ID)
For more information, (800) 726-7147, www.swmusic.org.

East and West, Old and New
Pacific Serenades, a chamber ensemble founded in 1982, presents its 91st commissioned world premiere Feb. 7, 8, and 10: "Memories of a Shoehorn" by Istanbul native Münir Beken. The piece combining Western and Turkish sounds will feature the composer on oud (precursor of the lute), Pacific Serenades Founder and Artistic Director Mark Carlson on flute, Kathleen Lenski of the Grammy-winning Angeles String Quartet on violin, Roland Kato on viola, and David Speltz on cello. Since Pacific Serenades makes it a point to mix old favorites with world premieres, the other pieces on the program are Beethoven's String Trio in C minor, Op. 9 No. 3, and Mozart's Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285.

Sat., Feb. 7, 8 pm: private home in Valley Glen ($55)

Sun., Feb. 8, 4 pm: Neighborhood Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena ($32).
The Gamble House, next door to the church, offers a discounted tour at $8/person to Pacific Serenades patrons on concert dates only. One-hour tours begin promptly at 2 and at 2:40 pm. Reservations are required at least 48 hours in advance of the concert date by calling (626) 793-3334, ext. 16.

Tues., Feb. 10, 8 pm: UCLA Faculty Center, 405 N. Hilgard Ave., on the UCLA campus in Westwood ($32). Parking is available for $9 in Lot 2.
Pacific Serenades patrons can dine at the UCLA Faculty Center prior to the concert. Reservations can be made by calling (310) 825-0877.

Student tickets available at the door on Sunday and Tuesday for $5!
For more information, (213) 534-3434, www.pacser.org.

Art, Science in Pasadena

Science is a beautiful thing and, sometimes quite literally, a work of art. Such specimens spotlighting the universe, the natural world, and technology are on display at the Pasadena Museum of California Art through April 12.

In the main gallery, "Data + Art," curated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Visual Strategist Dan Goods and Mars Public Engagement Outreach Coordinator David Delgado, features numerous works that express scientific data in creative visual (and auditory) ways, as well as some materials used in NASA missions, such as a material called Aerogel that is 99.8% air and was used to collect dust from a comet. The project gallery has colorful Scanning Electron Microscope images by David Scharf. In the back gallery, guests can don 3D glasses and ogle the Martian landscape captured by Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The three exhibits make for a thoughtful and intriguing -- okay, mind-blowing -- experience.

Movement or sound make many of the "Data + Art" works especially interesting. "Flight Patterns" is a constantly changing digital work using flight path information from the FAA; and an animated video, accompanied by an upbeat, rhythmic soundtrack, uses MRI data to explore the development of a quail inside an egg. A couple of works use classical music to make physical information audible. Radiohead fans will appreciate the DVD detailing the making of the band's "House of Cards" video with a robotic laser scanner, one of which will capture your body and movement on a large screen. Other items of note include a giant hundred dollar bill, miniature drawing robots, a tiny disk etched with 13,000 pages of information, and an incredible visual representation of the number of people imprisoned in the US in 2005.

Alex Dragulescu's architectural designs generated by computer programs using junk email as input (see photo) are spiky and impractical and, oddly enough, bear a resemblance to Scharf's images of ascorbic acid crystals or kidney stones magnified thousands of times their actual size. Scharf's digital images captured with the S.E.M. technology he developed include pollen grains, salmonella, and other natural subjects in prismatic color and enlarged to reveal interesting patterns and the unbelievable complexity sometimes invisible to the naked eye. Cannabis flowers magnified 400 times, for instance, look like a psychedelic landscape of mushrooms.

This is not the first meeting of science and art in Pasadena; the city's world-famous JPL and California Institute of Technology have collaborated with other local arts institutions, including the Armory Center for the Arts and Art Center College of Design. The PMCA's current exhibits succeed (as the shows at this modest, high-quality museum devoted to California art and design from 1850 to the present usually do) at being manageable in size, accessible, and stimulating.

Upcoming programs include a gallery walkthrough with the "Data + Art" curators on Feb. 7 and a panel discussion with the curators and artists on Feb. 28. For details and other events, visit www.pmcaonline.org.

PMCA, 490 E. Union St., (626) 568-3665, www.pmcaonline.org. Open Wed.-Sun., noon-5 pm. General admission $7, free first Friday of the month.