OC Performing Arts Center Visits
OCPAC is local to us, about 10 miles away, so we go there quite often. We have season tickets to the Broadway series and usually go about 10 times a year, often with our family or guests.
See our Daily Diary for our visits.
Orange County Performing Arts Center Open House 2007
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex located in Costa Mesa, California. It is the home of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Opera Pacific, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale. It has also served as the host to many touring Broadway productions, international dance companies and opera troupes.
In 1969 the first group was formed to initiate plans to bring a major cultural center in Orange County, California. The group, called the Newport Harbor Foundation conducted studies and determined that Newport Beach would not be a suitable location for a complex. Three years later in 1972, another group based in Santa Ana conducted a separate and more extensive survey in determining a location. The group believed that any major center had to be located next to freeways for ease of accessibility. Over the next 6 years, they researched 19 different sites and despite the fact that three made the short list of potential sites, none were subsequently selected.
It wasn't until February of 1979 when Elaine Redfield, a patron and activist of the performing arts in the county suggested that an open 5 acre parcel near the growing shopping center of South Coast Plaza would be a perfect solution to the location question. The Segerstroms, a strong supporter of the arts to whom the land belonged to, were impressed by the proposal made by Redfield. They made their own proposal in offering the land to the Board of Directors of the performing arts center. The proposal was eventually accepted on May 15, 1979. Over the course of the next few years, the Segerstroms donated millions of dollars to the funding of the center.
