OCPAC to offer free performances

The Orange County Performing Arts Center underwent its largest expansion in history last year, opening a lavish concert hall, a theater and an education center — all for more than $200 million.

Now, center President Terry Dwyer has his sights on another expansion, but this one won’t involve any money.

The center, which charges upwards of $20 for most shows, plans to launch a first-ever program this summer called “Free For All.” Starting Sunday, patrons can view dance performances on the outdoor plaza, watch movies projected on the side of Segerstrom Hall and listen to the Pacific Chorale in the center’s indoor venues — all without paying a penny.

For Dwyer, the former managing director of the La Jolla Playhouse and the Alley Theatre in Houston, the Free For All program is a chance — and an experiment — to tighten the center’s bond with the community. He spoke with the Daily Pilot Wednesday about his mission to create, in his own words, a performing arts center without walls.

At the previous venues where you’ve worked, have you done anything like a Free For All program?

No. The Performing Arts Center was really interested in reaching more and more members of the community with a wide range of programs. We thought a good way to make a gesture toward the community in that regard was a program like Free For All. We want to invite as many people as we can to the center and show them what we offer.

There’s a lot of economic diversity in Costa Mesa, let alone Orange County. Was that a consideration when you conceived the program?

I am aware of those issues, but I wouldn’t say it was specifically targeted in that direction. We’re interested in the idea of a performing arts center without walls. We wanted to have evening programs, afternoon dance parties, free movies, performances at different times, and vary prices anywhere from zero to the current prices we charge for regular performances. We certainly hope that what we have to offer will be attractive to the most diverse audience possible.

How do you decide which events to offer for free?

This is the first year of the program, so we wanted to do a number of performance genres that we thought would be interesting and relatively accessible to the general public. This is kind of a dialogue between the center and the audience. So we picked certain art forms — choral music, a free movie series, these kind of dance parties on the plaza — that we thought would be generally accessible.

Whether we continue in those directions will be up to the audience and how they respond to the program.

For a calendar of events in the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Free For All program, visit www.ocpac.org/freeforall .