Send in a clown, and you get sweet humanity.

French mime Julien Cottereau, a former Cirque du Soleil clown who has entertained children in Afghanistan and Palestinian territories, said of young refugees: "They want to fill their bellies, and they want to fill their hearts. That's the contradiction of a clown's life. With one eye he laughs, and with the other he weeps."

Send in a Samuel Beckett character, and you get raw humanity.

In Beckett's little-known novella "First Love, " the narrator, a Dublin vagrant, says, "What I understand best, which is not saying much, are my pains those of the mind, those of the heart those of the soul (none prettier than these) and finally, those of the frame proper the corn, the cramp, the bunion."

Cottereau's beguiling clown act and Beckett's bleak comedy are both part of the Rubicon International Theatre Festival, which is all about being human.

Actress Linda Purl, festival co-founder and director, visited 14 countries to soak up global talent and select productions that will be part of the event.

"Theater has its pulse on the finger of the collective consciousness," she said. "It's a bellwether of universal concerns and joys. I have found it of great comfort that we share so much in common humanity."

The 10-day festival, a bold effort to introduce theater from around the globe to Ventura via performances, readings of new plays, workshops, a parade, concerts and other creative activities, isn't scheduled until next July, but organizers are offering a preview season this summer featuring an opening ceremony July 18 and performances of six shows throughout the month. The lineup of plays, from Venezuela, Israel, Africa, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom and the U.S., includes Cottereau's award-winning "Imagine-toi" clown-mime act and a staged reading of Beckett's "First Love" by Irish actor Conor Lovett.

Lovett, a member of the Gare St. Lazare Players of Ireland, is returning to Ventura after his 2004 appearance in Rubicon's BeckettFest, a celebration of the Irish playwright's work that featured performances, symposia and film screenings.

BeckettFest, which brought together artists from Ireland, France, Germany and England, planted the seed for the Rubicon International Theatre Festival, Purl said.

"It was a thrilling experience for people on both sides of the footlights," she said. "We all left with a deeper understanding of each other and got hungry for more of those kinds of experiences."

BeckettFest participant Michael Colgon, director of Dublin's Gate Theatre, told Purl and festival co-founders Karyl Lynn Burns and Jim O'Neil, artistic directors of the Rubicon Theatre Company: "You should do this on an annual basis."

That prompted talk of another festival, again under the auspices of the Rubicon, but this time, the founders' vision wasn't wrapped around a single playwright.

An international angle "was always in my mind," Purl said. "We wanted 10 summer days of plays brought in from around the world." The passion behind the effort, she said, came from "the global reality we're now in, with its challenges. We felt there was a real value in being part of an effort that would abet cross-cultural understanding."

The Southland isn't lacking in international entertainment. David Sefton, executive and artistic director of UCLA Live, offers "the most wonderful international programming in Los Angeles" at the university (including an International Theatre Festival from October through December), Purl said, but "his schedule is spread out across the school year. Ours is a concentrated summer dose."

"Clearly, there's an appetite for and curiosity about international work," she said.

And for audience members who need a little nudging to taste international theater, Purl dangles what she calls "ambrosia" — Ventura's scenic beauty.

According to Purl, luring performers and directors to Ventura from other countries hasn't been difficult: "The sea and sand on the Pacific Rim in the middle of summer is appealing to everyone."

Purl also emphasized the festival's "dynamic community partnerships" with the city of Ventura and local businesses and organizations that are donating goods and services. California State University at Channel Islands, for example, is providing housing and classroom space. Ventura College is donating the use of its theaters. The Southern California Gas Co. gets the biggest "sponsored by" rights — and credit for encouraging the festival to go green with such environmentally and globally aware practices as limiting printed materials, purchasing recycled items and donating excess food.

O'Neil, too, talked up Ventura's coastal charms, speaking of the city in terms worthy of inclusion in a chamber of commerce brochure. But the festival's true beauty — and the founders' motivation — lies in discovering "the real value of theater in the world, for us to be able to tell stories to each other, communicate with each other, know each other," he said.

"You can't walk away from a well-produced play that has human ideas and values and not be a more tolerant person. The way the world is today, we really need that — knowing other people's stories, knowing in ways we're all the same."

@TO-1-Text Subhed:Trial run of plays

The six shows in this month's preview season, which won't be a part of the main 10-day event next year, offer organizers a trial-run opportunity to stage a mini-festival.

The preview season also coincides with the festival's apprentice program. Until the end of July, 18 apprentices ages 18 and older are participating in workshops on international theater disciplines led by Juilliard instructors Moni and Mina Yakim. The students — most are local, but seven come from other states or countries — are living and learning at CSU Channel Islands. Most have a background in theater, Purl said, whether it's performance, writing, technical support or set design. At the end of the festival, the students will present an "apprentice showcase" — a revue performance of what they've learned.

The preview season, meanwhile, "ended up being much bigger than we thought," Purl said. "It was like a box of chocolates: too many delicious things to bring over and try."

To avoid a See's Candy blind-tasting scenario, here are descriptions of each of the preview productions. Pick just one or try the whole box. A festival pass, which includes admission to all shows and the opening reception, is a bargain at $200; tickets to most individual shows are $47, with discounts for seniors and students.

@TO-1-Text Subhed:Opening ceremony

"Opening" is a bit of a misnomer — two plays will already be under way before the July 18 ceremony at The Majestic Ventura Theatre, which will feature a concert by U.S. singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop and other performances, plus a reception with international food.

Headline singer Bishop doesn't have a strong international pedigree, Purl acknowledged, but is "an American star" who has two gold albums, plus a couple of Grammy and Oscar nominations (for his song "Separate Lives").

Alfred Molina was scheduled to host the ceremony, but got called away to Morocco to work on a film, Purl said. He's one of many noted actors on the festival's Artistic Advisory Council; others include Joe Mantegna, Bruce Davison, Olympia Dukakis, Richard Thomas, Julie Harris, Stacy Keach and Michael York. Also on the council are directors of noted Southern California theaters such as Sheldon Epps (Pasadena Playhouse) and Michael Ritchie (Center Theatre Group). Some council members will attend the opening, Purl said.

More in keeping with the global theme, the ceremony will feature words written by a genius who tapped into humanity's universal pulse via iambic pentameter: William Shakespeare. Actors will read Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech in Hebrew, Finnish, Spanish, English and "an African tribal language I won't even try to pronounce," Purl said.

Ay, there's the language rub.

Actually, for anyone worried that language will be a barrier at any of the preview performances, do not fear: Supertitles, English and/or silence are here. Of the six productions, four will be presented in English, and one ("Imagine-toi") contains no dialogue. "Tu Ternura Molotov" ("Your Molotov Kisses"), opening this weekend, will be presented in Spanish with English supertitles.

@TO-1-Text Subhed:

"Tu Ternura Molotov" ("Your Molotov Kisses")

Oxnard's Teatro de las Americas will stage "Tu Ternura Molotov" on Saturday and Sunday at the Bell Arts Factory. Tickets are $10 for the festival's "featured community event."

"We absolutely wanted something from Latin America," Purl said.

Venezuelan playwright Gustavo Ott's black comedy, which is not recommended for children, is about a Latin American urban couple — TV journalist Victoria and lawyer Daniel — who leave work one day to "make a baby" at the exact moment that will coincide with Victoria's prime ovulation time. Instead, they discover a mysterious package that brings up details about their past, including Victoria's never officially dissolved wedding to a Muslim and Daniel's shameful days as a social worker.

@TO-1-Text Subhed:"Eye of the Cyclone"

The American premiere of Luis Marques' "Eye of the Cyclone," from Africa's Ivory Coast, runs Wednesday through July 19 at the Rubicon Theatre and "delves into the emotional ravages of individuals who have lived in a war-torn society," Purl said. "Even as removed as I am from any war, it felt familiar. It's a hard-hitting work."

The play takes place in Africa, where a 26-year-old rebel guerilla who grew up as a child soldier — a "killing machine" — has been taken prisoner. His court-appointed female attorney, who's had a far more comfortable urban life, tries to "unearth the man trapped behind a lifetime of violence." Don't make judgments too quickly about who the "criminal" is in this scenario.

@TO-1-Text Subhed:"Conviction"

"Conviction" earns its universal badge. The play is part detective story, romance and history lesson; takes place in Spain during the 1500s and Israel during the 1960s; and has been translated from Hebrew to English. It's also deeply relevant to modern U.S. audiences.

The one-man (but not one-character) show, to be performed by Israeli-American actor-director-playwright Ami Dayan on July 19-21 in Ventura and Calabasas, was written by Oren Neeman from Yonatan Ben-Nachum's novel "Confession."

The National Theatre of Israel premiered "Conviction" in 1996 for the country's prestigious TeatreNeto festival.

"Conviction" is based on the real Inquisition file of Spanish priest Andres Gonzalez, who was accused and convicted of being a Jew in hiding.

Dayan, in an interview from his home in Boulder, Colo., explained that in the 1960s, Hebrew University of Jerusalem sent scholars to Spain to research Inquisition files. One of those scholars, Ben-Nachum, then wrote "Confession," which won the Prime Minister Prize for Hebrew Literature. Another writer turned "Confession" into a one-person play (and changed the title).

"I got in touch with the playwright early last year, and I've been developing the piece since," said Dayan, who saw "Conviction" in Israel.

There are two timelines, Dayan said. One plot follows an Israeli scholar in 1960s Spain who is caught stealing the priest's Inquisition file. The director of the archive tries to figure out the thief's intentions. The action then shifts to the Inquisition era, where we learn that Gonzalez was persecuted because he married a Jewish woman.

"It's a beautiful love affair that's doomed; they're willing to risk everything for their love — it's Romeo and Juliet,'" Dayan said.

The emphasis is on persecution of all kinds, not just religious persecution, he said. "I hope audiences will make the reference to persecution going on today, whether it's two women sharing a love, or two men, or whatever."

@TO-1-Text Subhed:"First Love"

The narrator in Beckett's novella "First Love" has a morbid case of the gloomies: He's obsessed with funerals and hangs out in graveyards ("the smell of corpses, distinctly perceptible under those of grass and humus mingled, I do not find unpleasant," he says).

Irish actor Lovett, known for his interpretations of Beckett's plays and prose, will play the unnamed narrator in "First Love" on July 23-27 at Ventura College.

The homeless young man sits on a bench by a canal, where he meets a woman who takes him home "with comically disastrous consequences," Lovett said.

When BBC Radio produced a dramatized reading of the play in 2001, producer Rebecca Stratford wrote that she was "immediately shocked by the darkly comic and shocking story."

Written in French in 1945, the novella wasn't translated into English until 1973. The story is prose meant to be read on the page, not as a play. But many of Beckett's first-person works, including "First Love," Lovett said, "lend themselves very well to being addressed by an actor to the audience. We haven't abridged the text. We do it in its entirety."

@TO-1-Text Subhed:"Imagine-toi"

"I want people to be more nourished. I am using my character to make them think and be more open in their hearts, and be more in touch with life," said French actor and mime Cottereau, who played Eddy the clown in Cirque du Soleil's "Saltimbanco" before creating his solo show, "Imagine-toi."

Cottereau, who draws comparisons to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, will present his one-man vaudeville act July 24-27 at Ventura College.

"It's very physical and funny," O'Neil said of Cottereau's act. "I think people will really gravitate to it."

Cottereau won a 2007 Moliere Award (the French equivalent of a Tony) for "Imagine-toi." When in character, he doesn't say a word, but that doesn't mean that he's silent.

He's a paradox: a loud mime.

The mischievous Cottereau is known for creating sound effects using his voice — squeaks, squawks, snores, clicks, purrs, whistles.

"A clown is a very particular fellow," Cottereau said. "He's like a combination of a tramp, a child and a wise philosopher. He also has a particular talent to transform tragedy with twists to make people laugh."

Cottereau, Purl said, simply "speaks the language of pure joy."

@TO-1-Text Subhed:"Cabaret"

Purl said she could have picked one of many talented French, German and Latin cabaret singers to perform for the festival, "but being sensitive to the language issue, we were fortunate to find Giselle Wolf from London," she said.

The English cabaret singer and actress will perform jazz standards and show tunes July 25 at the Elks Lodge Theatre.

According to one London theater expert, Wolf's voice speaks a universal language.

"Great cabaret singers are rare," said Glynn MacDonald, master of movement at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. "They have to let the emotion they are feeling pass from their heart to yours. Giselle Wolf is an interpreter, whose consummate skills can deliver these messages of love, joy, sadness, regret, loss and just being human."

Send in a cabaret singer, and get in touch with your humanity.