Sarah Pierce News

Nominees for the inaugural OC Theatre Awards were announced on Saturday, January 22, 2022 during OC Theatre Guild’s annual membership meeting. The awards ceremony has been scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at the outdoor amphitheater of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton.

Live Theater is back at Chance Theater with the first musical by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the award-winning songwriters of Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, Dogfight, and so many more!

This clever and charming musical is directed by Resident Artist James Michael McHale and music direction is by Resident Artist Robyn Manion.

Chance Theater will present the Orange County premiere of Pasek and Paul’s musical, Edges as the third show in its 23rd Anniversary Season, and the first show presented live and in-person since shutting its doors on March 13, 2020. This clever and charming musical is directed by Resident Artist James Michael McHale and music direction is by Resident Artist Robyn Manion. The show is performing July 9 - August 8, 2021. 

Chance Theater is excited to announce that the Orange County premiere of Pasek and Paul's musical, Edges will be the third show in its 23rd Anniversary Season, and the first show presented live and in-person since shutting its doors on March 13, 2020. This clever and charming musical is directed by Resident Artist James Michael McHale and music direction is by Resident Artist Robyn Manion. The show is performing July 9 - August 8, 2021. 

A sweeping, grandiose, and emotionally-searing stage musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's expansive 1975 novel, RAGTIME is a gripping, multi-character, and multi-story theatrical experience that uses era-authentic specificity to depict America's past during a time when its increasingly diverse population has been forced to adjust to the ramifications of new technological, social, political, and economic changes that are spreading throughout the nation. Of course, one can't help but observe that, eerily, many of these very same issues are somehow still top-of-mind today, particularly in recent years with the surge in anti-immigrant policies and sentiments, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and, of course, the horrific rise of racist sentiments and, worse, racist acts against people of color. Perhaps this overarching motif---that many of these era-specific issues that RAGTIME's characters struggled with in 1906 are still alarmingly present in 2019---is the true motivator behind director Casey Stangl's impressive, 'intimate' theater reimagining of RAGTIME for Chance Theater, which continues performances in Anaheim through August 11, 2019.

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is delighted to produce the award-winning musical Ragtime: The Musical. Based on the novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime: The Musical is written by Terrence McNally, and composed by Stephen Flaherty with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Ragtime: The Musical will preview from June 28th through July 5th; regular performances will begin July 6th and continue through July 28th on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center.

Effie Marie Sojak Rosene passed away early Mother's Day morning, May 12, 2019. She was born November 10, 1932 to Frank Sojak and Christine Lezak Sojak, Czech immigrant farmers, in the Frydek/Simonton area of Texas. She grew up in the Rio Grande Valley with 15 brothers and sisters and graduated from Rio Hondo High School. She attended St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing in Houston. She was working as a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital when she met the love of her life, Willard George (Bill) Rosene.

As difficult as it may be to comprehend, Nashville's Nutcracker - Paul Vasterling's beautiful and evocative holiday gift to his adopted hometown - first debuted in 2008 and its return in 2018 only enhances the already stellar reputation of Nashville Ballet as the city's leading arts entity and adds more luster to the glittering resume of its artistic director, who this season celebrates his 20th anniversary leading the company.

Always finding unique ways to tell the stories of the world, the Nashville Ballet offered the SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the second year in a row, artistically exploring the darkest depths of our souls.

Bravo to Chance Theater for taking on this mainstream hit and making it actually feel like a fresh, awesome little indie. Now playing through August 9, the latest offering from Orange County's bold, award-winning regional theater company is their own 'intimate' theater re-staging of HAIRSPRAY, the 2002 hit Tony Award-winning musical comedy. The results? Quite simply a more compact production that is an absolutely undeniable, all-around rousing winner. Under the direction of Kari Hayter, the celebratory production's immersive, semi-theater-in-the-round minimalist approach actually thrusts the show's outstanding music and comedy out front, wonderfully blanketing the audience in the show's pro-integration, pro-acceptance storyline about a rotund young lady with big hair and big dreams who sets off to change the world.

Hairspray will run through August 9 on the main stage at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center. Check out BroadwayWorld's photos below!

Chance Theater will present the third show of its 16th Anniversary Season -- the groundbreaking 21st century musical, IN THE HEIGHTS. Written by Pulitzer Finalists Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, the musical will feature direction by Chance Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, choreography by resident artist Kelly Todd and music direction by Robyn Wallace. IN THE HEIGHTS opens tonight, July 11, and continues through August 3 at Chance Theater at Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

Chance Theater will present the third show of its 16th Anniversary Season -- the groundbreaking 21st century musical, In The Heights. Written by Pulitzer Finalists Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, with direction by Chance Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, choreography by resident artist Kelly Todd and music direction by Robyn Wallace. In The Heights will preview from tonight, July 3 through 10, regular performances will begin July 11 and continue through August 3 at Chance Theater at Bette Aitken theater arts Center.

Chance Theater will present the third show of its 16th Anniversary Season -- the groundbreaking 21st century musical, In The Heights. Written by Pulitzer Finalists Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, with direction by Chance Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, choreography by resident artist Kelly Todd and music direction by Robyn Wallace. In The Heights will preview from July 3 through 10, regular performances will begin July 11 and continue through August 3 at Chance Theater at Bette Aitken theater arts Center.

When Anne Frank wrote in her diary, she was not just expressing her honest and true feelings about her daily observations and experiences. She was recording for posterity a harrowing tale of how a group of people tried against all odds to survive one of the most terrible times in history. Anne's family and friends hid in an attic for just over two years while the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. While living in constant fear of being discovered and captured, Anne and the others did all they could to attempt a normal existence and hold on to some semblance of optimism and hope. Ocean State Theatre Company's production perfectly creates those moments of hope while at the same time truthfully revealing how these people's resilience and courage were tested every day.

Ocean State Theatre Company (OSTC), currently celebrating its first full season in its new state-of-the-art theatre in Warwick will present the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, The Diary of Anne Frank from tonight, March 26 - April 13.

Ocean State Theatre Company (OSTC), currently celebrating its first full season in its new state-of-the-art theatre in Warwick will present the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, The Diary of Anne Frank from March 26 - April 13.

'You're in unorganized territory . . .It's not an actual town, technically . . . .See, to be in a town you gotta get organized . . . .' The New York Post aptly described 'Almost, Maine' as 'The Twilight Zone meets Thornton Wilder.'

On a cold winter's night in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine, it seems everyone is busy falling in and out of love. The mysteries of the human heart are explored in vignettes where the characters respond to the joys and woes of romance in unexpected ways.