Briefly in Datebook

Orange County Fair gets soul

There’s a reason this season’s Orange County Fair will be themed “Hot!

Hot! Hot! We’re Spicin’ It Up!” It’s because of the musical lineup.

Some of the hot acts featured at this year’s fair will include Isaac

Hayes, “Weird Al” Yankovic, the Everly Brothers, Jose Feliciano, Taylor

Dane, Electric Light Orchestra, Steppenwolf’s John Kay, Rick Springfield,

Rain and the perennial Latin diva, Charo.

Each act will perform two shows nightly at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Shows are

free with Fair general admission and seating is first come, first served.

For more information, call (714) 708-3247 or visit www.ocfair.com .

Patti Page to appear with symphony pops

This weekend Patti Page will lend her honey-toned vocals to an evening of

timeless favorites with the Pacific Symphony Pops at 8 p.m. at the Orange

County Performing Arts Center.

The first half of the concert features conductor Richard Kaufman leading

the symphony in a program of Henry Mancini’s music. The Grammy

Award-winning vocalist will then take center stage to perform some of her

greatest hits.

Page will perform with the Pacific Symphony Pops at 8 p.m. Friday and 8

p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $23 to $54, $14 for student/senior rush

tickets. For more information, call (714) 755-5799 or (714) 740-7878.

James Newton closes jazz club season

The Orange County Performing Arts Center closes its 1999-2000 Jazz Club

season with flutist James Newton, who will make his debut in Founders

Hall at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. May 5 and 6.

Described as a “musician’s Renaissance man,” Newton’s is known for

experimenting with unusual flute techniques found in modern classical

music. He developed the art of humming and playing his instrument

simultaneously.

Some of Newton’s musical credits include a brief stint in Stanley

Crouch’s Black Music Infinity in the early 1970s, and

composer-in-residence at Studio Della Musica Afro Americana in Pescara,

Italy.

Newton is a member of the UC Irvine faculty and performs his classical

compositions worldwide. He also is completing a composition based on the

civil rights movement, which was commissioned by the Virginia Opera.

Tickets for the performances are $30 for the 7:30 p.m. performance and

$28 for the 9:30 performance. For more information, call (714) 740-7878

or (213) 356-3500.

OCC to hold auditions for summer shows

Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theater Company will hold auditions from

5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 15 for its “One-on-One Festival,” a pair of

mono-dramas directed by OCC theater professor Alex Golson.

The mono-dramas -- Jane Martin’s “Talking With” and Eric Bogosian’s

“Drinking in America” -- will run Wednesdays through Sundays, July 26-30

and Aug. 2-6 in the Drama Lab Studio. Rehearsals begin mid-June.

Martin’s “Talking With” is a show about 10 women who discuss their

twisted view of the world. “Drinking in America” is about 12 men who are

problem drinkers and share the need to be “special.”

Both plays contain adult material. For more information, call OCC’s

Theatre Arts Department at (714) 432-5640.