Meet Lori and Mitch Atkins of Musical Theatre Orange County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori and Mitch Atkins.

Musical Theatre Orange County was born out of a desire to give the youth of our community a chance to experience professional theatre, and learn from working industry directors, choreographers, musical directors and technicians. We wanted to create a kind of Civic Light Opera that focuses on youth. Partial age appropriate casting will allow certain roles to be cast with seasoned professionals, giving the younger actors the opportunity to work with and learn from these artists. We will showcase these actors in major musicals with exceptional production values giving our young artists a taste of Broadway. Musical Theatre Orange County strives to instill our passion for live theatre into our performers, and show them why this wonderful art form has been around for so long.

This is our 15th year producing shows. We recently opened at Studio which now will allow us to be a year round presence in the community.

We want to give our artists a strong foundation in the Arts. We offer private vocals, piano and acting lessons.

We are getting ready for our Fall classes which will include, Acting, Improv, puppetry, Musical Theatre Showcase and more.

Has it been a smooth road?
I wish I could tell you it’s been easy but no it hasn’t been a smooth road, but I’ve learned nothing that’s worthy comes easy.

We have to have those valleys to enjoy the pecks.

Real talk, there have been times, I’ve wondered if we were nuts. In our early years money was always a struggle, we had to build all of our sets, props and costumes at our home. It was crazy!

You couldn’t escape the process, we graduated to storage units but realized once you put a set inside of it, you can’t rent it out or do much with it.

Now that we have a warehouse we are able to rent sets, props and costumes. Mitch also has some real cool special effects that we are able to rent out as well. One of his passions is building special effects.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
What I’m most proud of is the production value of our company.

We bring in some amazingly talented people on our creative team.

Our directorial staff is top notch and are so dedicated to the process.

Britany Callahan, Kevin Gasio and Karie Seasock are seasoned professionals.

Since Mitch worked for the Disneyland resort for 28 years, he’s meet some pretty cool friends along the way.

Many of those friends are techs, lighting designers, costumers, artists and sound operators.

They volunteer their time and even use their own vacation time to help put up a show.

Matthew Cotter is our projection designer this year, he’s an Emmy award winning lighting designer from Dancing with the Stars.

We feel incredibly blessed to have him part of our world this summer.

What sets us apart from the others is, this isn’t about the money for us, it’s about the passion and love for the arts.

We are touched by the people that believe in our vision and help us achieve it.

We always say…”it takes a village.”

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, LA & Orange love the Arts. There are so many people here that support the Arts and want it to grow and stay here in California.

Pricing:

• Tickets $25 and up!

Contact Info:

• Address: 3309 Miraloma Ave # 105, Anaheim, CA 92865
• Website: MTOC.org
• Phone: 714.637.0186
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @MTOCFans
• Facebook: Musical Theatre Orange County
• Twitter: @MTOCFans
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/musical-theatre-orange-county-anaheim

Image Credit:
Dawn Malone

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