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About OCC Theatre

OCC Theatre

​OCC is home to one of th​e finest community college theatre departments in Southern California. OCC’s Theatre Department produces more than 20 productions in the Drama Lab and Drama Lab Studio theatres each year.

Our students have gone on to attend such prestigious schools and conservatories as UCLA, USC, NYU, Yale School of Drama, Julliard, Circle in the Square, and ACT. Our graduates work in film, television and theater across the nation, and have founded or led multiple successful theatre companies.

OCC’s Theatre Arts Department productions provide nearly 300 roles for students each season.

With 500 students enrolled in theatre courses, and with 180 declared majors, OCC’s Theatre Arts Department provides the most diverse and comprehensive theatre experience in Orange County.

THE OCC REPERTORY THEATRE COMPANY (THE REP!)

occ pirates comedy drama

Starting in 1985, theatre professors Bill Purkiss, Alex Golson and Rick Golson and the OCC theatre department created a revolutionary new class providing students with a theatre company of their own. Since then the very busy student members of The Rep (THEA A131-134) and of the Directing Class (THEA A181-182) have created a full season of plays, incl​​​uding many original works, every year.

Many Rep alumni have gone on to found their own theatre companies, to become published playwrights, or to run or work in professional theatre companies from California to Broadway, as well as in film and in television.

We believe the hands-on training a dedicated Rep member receives in their time with us is a vitally important part of a comprehensive theatre training program. Working collaboratively, organizing and managing the many aspects of a theatre season, and learning to set and meet goals in a professional manner are essential skills for any student to learn.

Today the Rep is led by professors Tom Bruno and Cynthia Corley, continuing the Rep tradition of empowering students and building skills, experience and confidence. 

SEE OUR UPCOMING SHOWS

Contact Us

Department Co- Chair: Cynthia Corley     Professor    ccorley@occ.cccd.edu

Department Co-Chair Pete Uribe   Instructor   puribe@occ.cccd.edu

Tom Bruno    Professor       tbruno@occ.cccd.edu

Theatre Department Office: (714) 432-5640

For tickets, visit OCC Tickets

Office Hours

Mon to Fri, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sat & Sun, Closed
Group of people playing the scene from Peter and the Starcatcher
Peter and the Starcatcher, May 2019 photo by Sabrina Hernandez
3 actors playing in Radium Girls
Radium Girls 2019
Woman in dress lying on the floor
Cabaret, May 2018
3 women sitting and standing on stage
The Threepenny Opera 2013
An actor pointing in the air and yelling with group of people working in the background
An actor pointing in the air and yelling with group of people working in the background
2 actors in costume couching side by side.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Nov. 2015
3 actors on standing in a triangle formation
The Elephant Man 2013
2 actors sitting together
Apil 2010, two actors in The Importance of Being Earnest
Man holding a sword
Theatre Nouveau 2018 Scene from Henry V
Cynthia Corley and Rick Golson in a dumpster
Professors Rick Golson and Cynthia Corley hard at work - professors pose in a dumpster prop onstage
A group in posing in halloween costumes
Something Wicked 2018 - Cast of Halloween play
Joon Hur speaking at class meeting
Rep Class Meeting 2011, Rep student Artistic Director Joon Hur leads the meeting.
2 actors dressed as surgeons
Spring 2019 Take Five play
2 students painting a stage
Painting the stage for Something Wicked 2017, Student Artistic Director Emerald Nguyen and director Jill Johnson
a large group of students posing a photo on stage
One Acts cast and crew 2018
A rep reunion group posing for photo on stage
Rep 30th reunion
A child sitting on Santa Claus' lap
Holiday Melodrama 2004 - child meeting Santa
5 actors posing on stage
Holiday Melodrama 2011
3 actors expressing hear, see, and speak no evil
3 actors in All in the Timing, 2014
The cast of Holiday Melodrama on stage
Holiday Melodrama -- One of Santa's Reindeer is Missing!
The cast of holiday Melodrama 2015 on stage
Holiday Melodrama 2015. Awesome moster costumes by student costume designer Sara Egger.
The cast of Christmas at the Lodge of the Slender Pine on stage
Christmas at the Lodge of the Slender Pine, December 2019
An actor raising his arms to the sky
Joey in Too Much Light maskezs the Baby Go Blind 2020
4 techs and designers at rehearsal
Tech time in the Drama Lab Studio Theatre, techies and designers at the table during a technical rehearsal
A person in pig head costume on a Zoom call
The Rep's online performance of A Midzoomer Night's Dream in Spring 2021, Actor in donkey mask on a laptop