Tomorrow’s produced plays start with today’s table reads & staged readings.

We are a dues-paying membership organization that exists primarily to develop and workshop the plays of our 30+ members. We develop plays through

• Table reads in our twice-monthly meetings (some of the best actors in OC sit in and read roles for us)
• Our Discoveries staged readings series (primarily featuring one-acts)
• Our OCPA Studios @ Hunger Artists series (featuring new full-length plays)

These are all steps toward the goal of a fully realized production, whether it happens here in Orange County or elsewhere. When you hear your play interpreted by actors, it helps you see what works and what doesn’t – you see the pacing and structure of scenes on their feet, you see how well the audience is getting caught up in the story.

Actors, directors and progressive theatres like working with us because we provide new, fresh plays – the lifeblood of any good theatre scene. The OC theatre scene has really changed in the last 15 years and we have been proud to be part of that change.

16 YEARS OF NEW WORK

OCPA started in 1995 when a group of students in South Coast Repertory’s Advanced Playwriting Workshop got the idea to create a self-sustaining playwrights organization in Orange County.

In September 1996, OCPA presented the first installment of the Discoveries series at Fullerton’s Vanguard Theatre, presenting new works from OC playwrights in staged readings. It continues to this day.

Leslie Joyce, Kyle Spiller & Luis Kelly-Duarte in the Discoveries staging of John Lane's Welcome to Puerto Seco! @ STAGEStheatre. Photo: Geoffrey Gread

In 1998, Chapman University‘s theatre department produced a collection of ten-minute plays from OCPA; we were welcomed back for two more productions. Later, we co-produced two shows with Vanguard Theatre Ensemble (The Writes of Spring in 2000 and American Stories in 2004), and presented a free lineup of comedies at the Orange County Theater Festival in 2004.

More recently, OCPA plays were featured in the two Laguna Beach New Play Festivals produced by Gallimaufry Performing Arts. Holiday Stimulus Package - our co-production with STAGEStheatre – drew packed houses in 2009.

In summer 2009, the OCPA Studios series started to keep an ongoing stream of worthy full-length plays from the Alliance in the public eye. Now it is OCPA Studios @ Hunger Artists – a collaboration with the Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton.

We have been a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization since 1998.