OCC goes solo with many voices

Theater doesn’t always involve interaction. Occasionally, an actor or

actress can command the stage all by him- or herself.

Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theater Company will be out to

prove that premise this weekend and next with its annual production

of “Solo Voices,” a festival of student-directed, one-person plays

and monologues billed for mature audiences.

The company, now in its 21st season of productions, is a

student-run, faculty-advised campus theater company, which annually

showcases its performers in single-handed presentations.

“The monologue play has burgeoned in the last 20 years of world

theater,” faculty advisor Cynthia Corley said. “This festival of

monologues presents some very exciting student performances.

“OCC’s Rep has become the proving ground for many up-and-coming

professional theater people. In its 21 years of existence, the

company has become a respected educational theater force that allows

students to be completely creative. Students regularly have an

opportunity to try their wings in all aspects of the theater.”

Some of the monologues to be presented are scripted, while others

are originals created by the actors who perform them. OCC audiences

will see Amy Abbascia, Martin Elias, Jaime Ballesteros, Sean Coutu,

Sabrina Ianacome, Lauren Kushin, Adam Ferry, Laura Flores, Samantha

Wellen and Sean Engard, who has written several of the scripts for

the production.

The production opens tonight and runs Fridays through Sundays

until Oct. 9 in OCC’s Drama Lab Studio. Curtain is set for 8 p.m.

Friday and Saturday evenings, and 2:30 and 7 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets, priced at $7, may be reserved by calling (714) 432-5880.

Tickets will be sold at the door for $8. Seating is limited.

*

Friends and fans of Amy Decker -- the Costa Mesa native who sang

the leading roles in four Estancia High School musicals (1994 to

1997) -- can catch her act as a professional this weekend at the

Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Decker has the female lead as Will’s wife in “The Will Rogers

Follies,” which plays tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8

p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets may be ordered by calling (800)

300-4345 or (562) 916-8500.

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

appear Fridays.