LAFPI

In its ninth season, OC-centric: Orange County’s New Play Festival stages four compelling works from Orange County playwrights – plays that tell stories you don’t typically see in local theatre, stories that need to be told featuring 50% women playwrights.

OC-centric, which has been awarded the honor of Orange County’s “Best New Play Festival” by the OC WEEKLY, is the only theatre festival fully producing new works from dramatists who live in or hail from Orange County, and it features actors and directors who have worked in theatres in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County and the Inland Empire. This year’s festival (August 15-25, 2019) is devoted to one-acts, and you can see all four of them at each performance.

The Plays by women are:

The Plays

Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies by Joni Ravenna
Directed by Allison Bergman | Featuring Rayshawn C. Chism

True story: a much-loved university music professor is abruptly fired after a white student complains about his frequent use of profanity and his decision to show a graphic image of a lynching in class. As Professor Thomas tries to figure out “what’s next,” he also looks back at his life and his Detroit childhood in the context of the Motown, jazz, and classical music he loves.

Thump in the Night by Lydia Oxenham
Directed by Katie Chidester | Featuring Vercylanne Bustos, Ryan Goldsmith, Hayley Jackson, Kim Kiedrowski, Melinda Oschmann, Grayson Richmond and Paisley Vaughn
Is investigating whether your elderly upstairs neighbor died in the middle of the night the best way to meet the rest of your neighbors? In this dark comedy, it is.

The festival also includes plays by Jordan R. Young and Ben Susskind.

Show Schedule (all plays can be seen at all performances):

8 evening performances:
Th-Sat, August 15-17 and Th-Sat, August 22-24 @ 8pm
Sun, August 18 and Sun, August 25 @ 7pm

4 afternoon performances:
Sat-Sun, August 17-18 and Sat-Sun, August 24-25 @ 2pm

OC-centric is produced by Tamiko Washington and Eric Eberwein and sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance at Chapman University.

More info: www.oc-centric.com