"If you compared us to De Niro's operation, we're a struggling, dirt poor festival," he said, seated in a Broadway office in Tribeca. "We're little people doing a lot of little things that add up to a big effort."

But if Evans were to fulfill all that he has promised, the Tribeca Arts Festival would be anything but modest, with plays, poetry, dance, comedy and runway fashion shows as well as art exhibits, luncheons, gala dinners and more, in venues around Manhattan, from Dec. 3 to 19. "Now it looks like it will spill over into January as well," he noted.


Those plans seem especially ambitious for a man who calls himself a "broken down actor" and former web designer from Los Angeles who most recently sold his pen-and-ink drawings on New York City streets. This summer he launched a web site for pet owners-newyorkpets.com-that soon turned into the "sponsor" of the Tribeca Arts Festival.


In an email blitz that began in August, Evans solicited participants of every artistic bent, from dancers, hip- hop artists and actors, to graphic artists, poets and belly dancers. Many of those who signed up were lured by the offer of a "merit grant" that would pay for air fare, accommodations and, in some cases, performance fees.

Some who were chosen declined to accept, saying they had grown suspicious of the event, which asked for a $100 registration fee (U.S. postal money orders only) for each member of a group that performed. Others ended up listed on the festival web site as participants by virtue of merely submitting material about themselves.

Still others were wary, but as recently as late last month remained hopeful.

Josie Walsh is a Los Angeles-based choreographer whose Myo Dance Company was one of those told she would receive a grant. Thrilled at the prospect of performing in New York, she complied with Evans's request for $100 for each of the 25 performers in her company. Although she questioned how Evans could pull off such a costly and complex festival, Walsh was optimistic that the show would go on and Evans would honor his commitments, including paying her company (at $640 per dancer) $16,000 to perform.

"You want it to be so true that you fill in the blanks," she said in a telephone interview. "And that's what I've been doing for him."

At the same time, poet and playwright Pam MacLean, who works as a librarian at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, was awaiting word on the festival venue and casting for her play, "Her Father's Barn." She also was expecting to get confirmation of the flight and hotel reservations promised for her and six friends and family members. Each had paid $100 to register with the festival.

In Miami, fitness model Elana Hernandez was excited to be chosen as a "spokesmodel" for the festival. She was told she would receive $2,000 as well as expenses. "He seems very legit," Hernandez said.

Seated in a small conference room shared by a long row of offices on the fourth floor of 349 Broadway, near Leonard Street, and accompanied by a volunteer assistant, Evans sipped a soda and shrugged off questions about the viability of his festival and the suggestion by some that he may be running a scam.

"I mean, good luck to you. If you don't want to, I have no problem with it. When someone registers and they don't want to do it, they get a refund."


For those who worried that there was not enough time to do all that he planned, Evans insisted that he was on schedule. "Later on in the month when they get their reservations, they'll be jumping up and down. But we can't do anything faster than we do it. It wasn't scheduled to be any faster than that."