Sad day for the Orange County theater scene – long-tenured local company Hunger Artists, most recently located in Fullerton, is closing its doors after 16 years. I was invited to perform in one of their “Missed Connections” staged readings of Craigslist ads once, but was unable to participate, which means that I never got the chance to work with the company itself, although I have collaborated with many of their regulars. I shared the stage with their co-founder Mark Coyan earlier this year in Picasso at the Lapin Agile at STAGES, and his work ethic and stage savvy are peerless among Orange County actors.
It is a shame to lose not just a venue, but their artistic profile. They supported a wide mix of re-imagined classics, challenging contemporary material, and original work. That’s not an easy schedule to maintain in any regional theater; and in Orange County, where all but a few theater companies are probably one bad season (if not one bad show) away from life support, it’s a tribute to all the artists who gave to that place that Hunger Artists can look at 16 years as a body of work.