Oakland Theater Project (OTP) specializes in productions involving crimes, misdemeanors, courage, collaboration and chutzpah.
During the mid-size theater company’s every season since its founding in 2012, crimes of the heart, history, society, governments, nations and the “misdemeanors” of power-hungry monster-leaders play out across stages in the East Bay and beyond. Re-imagined classic works and contemporary premieres clobber expectations and capture hearts. Behind the more uplifting stories are people and communities that suffer but refuse the downward slide of avarice or violence and instead choose commitment to the greater good of all.
When Michael Socrates Moran, William Hodgson and Colin Mandlin formed OTP, it was a site-specific, tiny entity named Ubuntu Theater Project. Summer-only and early mainstage seasons hooked onto unusual locations matched to themes and continue to be a signature feature—a local auto body shop, church basement, urban infill lot, industrial hangar, art gallery and more. Eventually establishing its home base, a diminutive black-box theater inside FLAX Art & Design building in downtown Oakland that’s accessed after passing by rows upon rows of art supplies, the company’s ambition and imagination continue unabated.
Artistic director Moran and managing director Mandlin, with co-artistic directors Hodgson and Lisa Ramirez, have recently expanded the artistic team, adding resident dramaturg Dr. Phillipa Kelly. With a stellar reputation established at the California Shakespeare Theater and other regional theater groups, Kelly is respected for her keen insights and deep knowledge of theater history from Shakespeare to the backgrounds of today’s rising playwrights, and well-known for dazzling panache as a public speaker.
In 2025, highlighting just a few years from their convention-shattering seasons, the company took on seven plays under the themed title, “Ghosts of Past, Present and Future.” In the mix? Among others, Martyna Majok’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Cost of Living; a queer love story and world premiere of Red Red Red by Amelio Garcia; Tony Kushner’s award-winning American epic, Angels in America, Parts I & II, a first-ever co-production with Marin Shakespeare Company; and the world premiere of A Thousand Ships by Marcus Gardley.
Jumping with equal verve into the following season, entitled “Reckoning,” OTP thrust audiences backward and forward simultaneously, with productions such as Cabaret, Hamlet, Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blanc and others.
The seven productions in 2026’s “The Land of the Free” season began with The Mountaintop by Katori Hall; Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Assassins; Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba; and Taylor Mac’s The Fre, a queer, all-ages play set in a mud pit. August brought Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending, presenting a rousing, rambunctious defense of freedom. In October, Shakespeare’s King Lear features a largest-ever cast of 25 performers and original music by Paul Drescher that threads throughout the play and will be performed live.
The season closes Nov. 20–Dec. 6, with the world premiere of co-artistic director Ramirez’s newest play, She Se Puede (A Chorus of Huertas), about Dolores Huerta and her fight for labor rights and true freedom.
Demonstrating a commitment to providing people of all economic circumstances access to relevant, rigorous professional theater, OTP continues its low ticket pricing and a longstanding pay-what-you-can option. Educational programs support the local community through acting fellowships, the Luminaries conversation series, book and film clubs, workshops, and courses led by OTP’s professional artists and production teams.
For more info, visit oaklandtheaterproject.org.
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