How to Use Their Imagination

Splash on some watercolors, bounce to a steel drum beat or savor an orchestral performance.

But whatever you do, stick around till the end of this year’s Imagination Celebration, because the dozens of events lead up to a grand finale: a two-day calypso-themed free-for-all called the Imaginarium and multiple performances of “Pepito’s Story,” a musical created by director-choreographer Debbie Allen and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, narrated by Tony Award winner Hinton Battle and featuring 50 of the area’s top young performers.

Now in its 12th year, Orange County’s visual and performing arts blowout, Saturday through May 11, is presented by the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Orange County Department of Education. Festivities will span about 30 venues countywide, offering more than 50 public shows and events, school workshops and exhibits of more than 8,000 student artworks.

Most events under the Imagination Celebration umbrella are free. Some charge a few bucks (think Happy Meal range), and only a few of the splashier events reach the festival’s top ticket price of $6.

There are tons of events, but here’s how we’d approach the full slate:

Saturday

Start the Children’s Museum at La Habra’s Children’s Art Pow Wow. The event ties into the museum’s current exhibit, “The First Californians,” and is designed to “let children imagine themselves in another culture through its art and traditions,” says children’s museum assistant director Melissa Banning. About 15 Native American cultures from the Southwest and Mexico will be represented.

Performances on the outdoor stage begin about 10:30 a.m. with Aztec dances by Danza Azteca Xochipilli and continue about every 45 minutes with such artists as the Eagle Talon Dancers (northern grass dancing), Elk Whistle (traditional flute music) and the Traditional Cahuilla Birdsingers. Also be sand painting and craft workshops.

Next up: the Very Special Arts Festival and Exhibit at MainPlace Santa Ana, with 1,000 pieces of art on display and performances by child and adult artists with disabilities. Opening ceremonies are at 11 a.m., and hands-on art workshops for kids of all abilities continue throughout the day. The exhibit continues at the mall through May 11.

Sunday

In southern Orange County, children can experience the culture and music of 1830s sailors in an interactive program on board the Orange County Marine Institute’s brig, Pilgrim. The sessions in Dana Point are offered three times Sunday and again on May 4 for $4 each. Reservations are required.

Historic Mission San Juan Capistrano gets into the act with a day of art workshops, theater and dance performances and a hands-in-the-dirt archeological dig. Meanwhile, Laguna-area artists and craftspeople will be sharing their skills with youngsters in a day of workshops and entertainment at the Art-A-Fairgrounds in Laguna Beach.

Go north and you’ll find an outdoor arts fiesta at the Santa Ana Artists Village on Second Street, with dancing, art workshops and demonstrations. And in Cypress, a Sunday ARTS Delight features a children’s art pavilion, music, dance and art exhibits in and around Oak Knoll Park.

Weekdays

Through May 11, the focus on Mondays-Fridays turns to special performances and exhibit tours for school groups. Choose from among the following highlights:

Next week, the Pacific Symphony offers youth concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, while Cypress College has docent-led tours of its campus gallery exhibit, “Las (In)visibles: Women Artists of Uruguay.” There are performances and exhibits to take in at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s May Day Celebration in Fullerton, and a free dress rehearsal of Cypress College’s “Pirates of Penzance.”

The weekend of May 3-4 includes a day of animal-themed art programs at the Santa Ana Zoo; the Gogh van Orange Art and Music Festival in Old Towne Orange; a special performance of the children’s opera “Hansel and Gretel,” at the Irvine Barclay Theater; the ImagUtelling storytelling festival at the Westminster Mall; a parent-child photography workshop at the Huntington Beach Art Center; and nifty dance workshops for toddlers to teens at the DeFore Dance Center in Costa Mesa.

“Pepito’s Story” will be performed for the public at the Performing Arts Center on May 6, and again May 11. Based on the 1960 book by Eugene Fern, about a boy on a mythical Caribbean island who expresses himself through dance, the work was created in 1996 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

Meanwhile, over at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, you can check out the Pageant of the Arts, May 8-11. Imagine a pint-sized, animated version of Laguna’s venerable Pageant of the Masters and you get an idea. Except here, the fourth- and fifth-grade performers are encouraged to wiggle, dance and talk as they bring 10 pieces of art to life.

Events in the closing weekend stick close to the Performing Arts Center.

Outside the Performing Arts Center, there’s the massive two-day arts playground, the Imaginarium, where visitors will find themselves in a tropical fantasy land patterned after the mythical island setting of “Pepito’s Story.” Event designer Dwight Richard Odle will create a Caribbean fantasy beach from 40 tons of reddish-yellow sand trucked in from a Utah archeological dig.

There will be plenty of tropical-flavored art workshops, along with steel drum bands and three stages offering continuous performances by Ballet Pacifica, William Hall Master Chorale, juggler-storyteller Izzy Tooinsky and others. This year, audiences are encouraged to get off their duffs and join the artists onstage.

* Tickets for some activities may be limited or sold out. For the latest updated listing of events, call the Imagination Celebration hotline at (714) 556-2727, Ext. 888.