Orange County Teenager Creates THE ACT ONE PROJECT

As the curtains open in Orange County for live-theatre, Kyle Stafford, Founder of The Act One Project, announces the opening for in-person theatre produced by his theatre company. In September 2021, the first live show by The Act One Project will start rehearsals.

With plans to produce blueprint: A New Musical, Stafford has been collaborating with composer Matt Copley, who was awarded with the 2020 Write Out Loud award. As a high-schooler, Stafford is relying on the theatre community of Orange County to help fundraise for the opening of The Act One Project.

Kyle Stafford states, "I opened up Act One because I saw a gap in the RSM theatre market." The Rancho Santa Margarita theatre is saturated with classic musicals like The Music Man, Into The Woods, and Singin' in The Rain. The lack of contemporary, new works of theatre in this area of Orange County hinders the teenage audience in Rancho Santa Margarita. This absence of exposure limits the type of work teenagers can create. High-schoolers want to be in new and fresh works they resonate with. While other Orange County theatre companies produce modern musicals like Heathers, Be More Chill, and Avenue Q, theatre kids in Rancho Santa Margarita are yet again tasked with the repetitive shows of Oklahoma!, The Wizard of Oz, and The Sound of Music. The Act One Project has plans to originate new works of theatre, along with producing absurdist/dark works of theatre that are not seen with the typical Rancho Santa Margarita audience.

The Act One Project is a student-led theatre company with the goal of providing teenage actors with a place to explore unconventional performance and contemporary forms of theatre. Founded in January 2021, The Act One Project has been a long-term goal of Kyle Stafford since watching his school's production of Our Town in 2017.

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