THE MORTICIAN'S WIFE Will Be Performed as Part of OC-Centric: Orange County's New Play Festival 

In its twelfth season, OC-centric: Orange County’s New Play Festival produces a full-length play from an Orange County playwright, focused on an Orange County story that needs to be told. Callie Prendiville's The Mortician's Wife, a story of love, loss, hope and dreams, takes us into the Orange County of the 1930s, to a time when racial discord and the politics of hard times affected families and communities in Fullerton, La Habra, Brea and elsewhere in north Orange County.

Blending drama and romance, The Mortician's Wife tells a story touching on the old Orange County citrus industry and the Bastanchury Ranch in 1930s Fullerton, and the intersection of Anglo, Basque and Latinx communities. Sokratis Alafouzos, a Chapman University professor and Fulbright Scholar, directs the play. The actors are Bianca Nicasio Singer, Andrew Laughery, Matthew Rodriguez Kleeburg, Judy Jones, Shalom Gineri and Nora Lavin. Katherine Sharpless is the production's scenic designer; Caleb Wildman is the lighting designer; Christopher Metzger is the costume designer; Oscar Garcia is the sound designer. Kaelin Tester is stage manager, and Loren Morris is assistant stage manager.

OC-centric, which was awarded the honor of Orange County's "Best New Play Festival" by the OC WEEKLY, is the only theatre festival fully producing new works exclusively from dramatists who live in or hail from Orange County. 

The Mortician's Wife - Plot Synopsis

Orange County, 1933. Ysabel's husband just lost their house in a poker game and moved them into the apartment above the family business: the mortuary. She is losing her ability to believe in miracles when another possible future begins to emerge - but can that future come true in the time of California's illegal repatriations of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans?

Show Schedule

6 evening performances:

Th-Sat, August 10-12 and Th-Sat, August 17-19 @ 8pm

2 afternoon performances:
Sat, August 12 and Sat, August 19 @ 2pm