RHONDA KESS : JUGGLER OF MONEY AND MUSICIANS

Rhonda Kess and her offbeat New Music Settings Ensemble are at it again.

Since Kess founded the ensemble in 1981, four evenings of contemporary theater works have been staged: from Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Eight Songs for a Mad King” to Henri Pousseur’s “Trials of Peter the Hebrew”--all rather intense, heady stuff.

Kess’ next project, to be unveiled tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m. at El Camino College, is another Davies opus, “The Juggler of Notre Dame.” But this one’s different. Really different.

This one’s for the kiddies.

“The piece not only invites young people,” Kess says, “it involves them.” In addition to a mute juggler and a singing abbot, Davies’ hourlong children’s opera calls for a youthful on-stage band. So Kess augmented her chamber group with 10 players, ages 9-15, from the Torrance Area Youth Band.

“We call them the Renaissance Rascals,” the conductor comments during a visit in her Santa Monica apartment. “I started working with them three months ago and it was amazing to see how easily they got accustomed to the music.”

As one would expect from a gaggle of kids preparing for a stage show, energy has been high. “I simply gave my enthusiasm to them,” Kess says. Some of her charges, however, display a coolness beyond their years.

“One boy came up to me and said in all seriousness, ‘When this is over, are you going to take us all out for prime rib?’ ”

Only Kess knows how truly funny that is. “When we (the ensemble) started, we were living on half a shoestring. Now,” she says with a laugh, “we’re living on . . . a shoe.”

Kess takes advantage of the subject of money to shower praise on her benefactor, TRW. The story of the Torrance-based company’s involvement in the project (it has provided two grants totaling $4,000) sounds almost as fairy-tale-like as the legend of Davies’ opera.

In “Juggler,” the title character causes a miracle when the statue of the Virgin Mary he has just entertained suddenly comes to life. For Kess, the project itself came to life after a “what-the-heck” proposal to Dale van Natta, director of civic and community relations at TRW.

“I never made such an easy sell,” Kess enthuses. “Dale’s an enlightened guy. After I had gotten a little money from the National Endowment for the Arts, I wrote him at the suggestion of a friend. And Dale said, ‘Let’s do multiple performances. And let’s do it in our area, so we can involve the company and the community.’ ”

Contacted at TRW, Van Natta voiced nearly the same level of excitement for the project as Kess, explaining how employees of the company have been invited to bring their children to the performances.

“Corporations are beginning to realize they owe something to the community beyond merely training future employees. There’s an emerging emphasis on viewing the employee as a whole person,” says Van Natta, who’s “enlightened” ways (to quote Kess) stem in part from his tenure as the first general manager of the Roger Wagner Chorale.

“Corporation profits go only so deep,” he cautions. “If ‘Juggler’ lends itself to further performances, we’ll talk about it.”

Kess sees no problem there. “It’s a rare crossover piece, agewise” she says of the opera. “The visual elements will appeal to everyone, particularly the kids. The way I see it, this is the theater of the future.”

Performed, no doubt, by some of the players of the future.