Unfamiliar shows mark OCC’s new season

Tom Titus

Chances are, with the exception of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” the

lineup of stage productions in Orange Coast College’s 2004-05 season

will be totally unfamiliar to the average theatergoer. Which is

precisely what OCC’s drama department and its increasingly ambitious

repertory company have in mind.

The Costa Mesa college’s theater department has come up with a

schedule of plays that chairman Alex Golson dubs “challenging and

exciting.”

OCC will kick off its new theater season Sept. 10 with an offering

entitled “Poetry 101” in the Studio Theater of the Drama Lab, which

will run through Sept. 19. Featuring the familiar voices of favorite

poets, the show will mark the opening of the 20th season of the

student-operated OCC Repertory Theater Company.

The Rep will be back later in the month with its annual “Ten or

Less Festival,” running Sept. 30 through Oct. 3, also in the Studio.

The program will offer a collection of plays that are 10 minutes in

length or shorter with students selecting, directing and acting in

the plays.

“View of the Dome,” a new satire by Theresa Rebeck, will be the

college’s first major production in the Drama Lab, running Oct.

21-24. Golson will direct the play, which he describes as “a

memorable comic journey through the sexual politics and intrigue of

Washington, D.C.”

A student work, still unannounced, is next on the OCC program. The

Rep players will stage the show Nov. 12-21 in the Studio Theater.

Come the yuletide season, OCC’s familiar but popular

“Old-Fashioned Christmas and Ice Cream Social” will take the stage of

the Drama Lab Theater, also under the auspices of the Rep Company.

Scheduled for Dec. 4-12, the show includes Christmas carols,

vaudeville acts and a traditional melodrama. Those attending will be

treated to ice cream and cookies.

“Fractured Fairy Tales,” a collection of short comedic plays, will

be staged by the Rep company for a brief engagement March 4-6. OCC

students will direct the shows, which will be on view in the Studio

Theater.

Dora Hand -- a dance-hall girl and singer of sad songs for cowboy

audiences in the brawling Kansas frontier of the 1870s -- is the

subject of a new play scheduled for March 10-20 in the Drama Lab.

Directorial duties for this one have yet to be announced.

Another full-length Rep production, which will be announced later

this fall, is ticketed for an April 15-24 engagement in the Studio

Theater.

The big one arrives May 5 and runs through May 15. That would be

“Othello,” Shakespeare’s tragedy about love and jealousy, which will

be offered at special performance times for high school audiences.

Golson will be in the director’s chair for this one.

The college’s annual Spring One-Act Play Festival is planned for

May 18-22 in the Studio Theater. More than a dozen student-directed

one-acts will be presented, including classic and modern works, along

with original pieces by OCC students.

In addition to the regular schedule, OCC’s Touring Company will

offer a production during the spring semester that will tour local

schools. An evening of comedy also will be scheduled in the spring,

with performance dates to be announced later this fall.

The Orange Coast College theater program is open to members of the

community. For information about the season or about theater classes,

contact the OCC Drama Department at (714) 432-5640.

*

CALLBOARD -- Orange Coast College will conduct auditions for

playwright Theresa Rebeck’s sharply written comedy “View of the Dome”

on Monday and Tuesday in the Drama Lab Theater on campus.

The show features a cast of 11 men and 11 women, ages 18 to 40.

Auditions begin both days at 6:30 p.m. The play will be directed by

Alex Golson and will be staged Thursdays through Sundays, Oct. 21-24

and 28-31, in OCC’s Drama Lab Theater. For audition information, call

the above number.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.