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Travel Costa Mesa Blog

Celebrate the Best in Performing Arts at the Off Center Festival in Costa Mesa this January!

Posted on January 19, 2012 | 12:00pm | Travel Costa Mesa

Segerstrom Center for the Arts, located in the heart of the Orange County Theatre & Arts District in beautiful Costa Mesa, CA, is kicking off 2012 with a brand-new, bold project that combines the best of contemporary theater, music, dance and performance art into one amazing arts festival. The Off Center Festival is a nine-day festival (January 13 – 21, 2012) that features dozens of performers making their Segerstrom Center for the Arts stage debut!

Costa Mesa is home to the incomparable Segerstrom Center for the Arts (formerly Orange County Performing Arts Center), one of the most thriving performing and visual arts campuses in the world! The Off Center Festival is the latest addition to their impressive performing arts lineup – and a special treat in celebration of SCFTA’s 25th anniversary.

The Costa Mesa festival kicks off with Chautauqua!, a vaudevillian-influenced variety show packed with music, comedy and short lectures by local guests. The festival will continue with indie band Lord Huron; a one-of-a-kind set by explosive comedian/musician Reggie Watts with opening band BLOK, winner of OC Music Awards’ Best Electronic Band 2011; and an examination of our automobile-obsessed society in The Car Plays, which puts actors and audiences together in actual parked cars for a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience.

The festival lineup also features ReEntry, a story based on the experiences of soldiers returning home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Word Begins, a mashup of poetry, hip-hop and comedy, is being presented in association with South Coast Repertory’s Studio and experimental dance performed on the smallest dance floor ever in Ten Tiny Dances, including new works by local choreographers Melanie Rios of The Wooden Floor, Jennifer Backhaus of Backhausdance and L.A.’s Meg Wolfe. The Off Center Festival is also proud to showcase Indie Music Award winner for Best Dance/Electro Album, Mexican Institute of Sound.

Tickets to the Off Center Festival can be purchased online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787.

Interested in learning more about the Costa Mesa performing arts scene? Click to download a PDF of the Costa Mesa Performing Arts section of the Costa Mesa visitor guide, or check the calendar of events on TravelCostaMesa.com.