2016 Best of Orange County Winners
Places To Go & Do: Live Theater
1. Segerstrom Center for the Arts
2. Laguna Playhouse
3. South Coast Repertory
CRITIC’S CHOICE: Chance Theater
CRITIC’S CHOICE: Chance TheaterWhen it opened in 1999, the Chance Theater was just another addition to Orange County’s crowded storefront theater scene. But thanks to the vision and hard work of its founders, the Anaheim Hills theater company has grown into a local powerhouse whose substantial budget and busy, varied season place it among the county’s top-ranked cultural institutions.
Chance always has been known for its savvy programming philosophy that combines offbeat musicals, mainstream and popular seasonal fare and challenging new work. But two years of ambitious expansion have transformed it completely. It’s a storefront theater only in spirit now.
In February 2014, the company opened its new Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, which is twice the size of its predecessor and includes a flexible main stage that can expand to as many as 150 seats.
To fund all this growth, Chance’s founding artistic director, Oanh Nguyen, and his colleagues wooed some big-money donors. The jewel in Chance’s funding crown was a $250,000 gift from philanthropist and attorney Wylie Aitken and his wife, Bette.
In all, 230 people made substantial contributions to Chance’s two-year expansion campaign.
Chance has received some impressive accolades over the years, including five Ovation Awards and an honor from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle; it twice was chosen as Orange County’s outstanding arts organization by Arts Orange County. The theater will announce its 2017 season Oct. 29.
– PAUL HODGINS/STAFF WRITER
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