This year OC-Centric: Orange County’s New Play Festival is celebrating its 10th year of showcasing the work of playwrights who call Orange County Home. The festival has found a home on the Chapman University campus, where it will stage its one-acts and full-length productions in the O. L. Halsell Foundation Studio Theatre this summer, thanks to a partnership with the College of Performing Arts and the Department of Theatre. This August the festival will be mounting three plays: LOL by Craig Holland, Marcello and Musetta Break Up for Good by Gillian Gonzales, and One Second Chance by Desiree York.

Professor Tamiko Washington, who is the Artistic Director and Co-Producer of the festival, is passionate about nurturing talent and artistry in the Southern California theatre scene. In addition to the opportunities for local playwrights to collaborate with SoCal actors, directors, and production staff, OC-Centric also offers invaluable hands-on training opportunities for students. These emerging professional theatre artists can apply for internships and director observerships, and audition for character roles.

This year, students seeking production experience can apply for an internship in sound/audio or in stage management.  Students looking for artistic opportunities to “shadow” a professional stage director can apply for a directing observership, where they will be paired with a professional director for mentorship throughout the festival, or a directing internship, where they will have the opportunity to direct the 10-minute one-act play LOL.

Fifty-eight CoPA theatre students and alumni have taken advantage of this invaluable opportunity before! Most recently, BFA Theatre Performance major Ruth Burgess completed a directing observership in Summer 2019, where she assisted director Allison Bergman on the production Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies by Joni Ravenna. “Assistant directing at OC-Centric New Play Festival was a very informative experience, in which I got to freely observe the joys and responsibilities of the director,” says Burgess. “The artistic team, staff, actors, and producers were a pleasure to work with, and I highly recommend considering the OC-Centric internship program in your theatre pursuit!”

Students who are interested in applying for an internship or observership can learn more on Handshake.

To learn more about OC-Centric, please visit https://www.oc-centric.com/.

If you have any questions, please contact Professor Tamiko Washington at washingt@chapman.edu or  (714)-628-7219.