Outside Circle Theater Project Shares Your Voice

The Outside Circle Theater Project (OCTP) will encourage, nurture, and champion works focused on history, social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion discussions. OCTP gives women, girls, and under-represented voices an opportunity to express themselves in their own words in a safe, non-judgmental, and inclusive space.

OCTP endeavors to educate and generate discussions by producing and casting live theater works that reflect the community's diverse voices. Participation is open to women and girls and community members of all ages, ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds, genders, and national identities.

OCTP is living up to its purpose and vision. In March, we produced our first award-winning play, "The Downside" by Molly McFadden, to a sold-out crowd. Next season, we will produce our second award-winning work, "Nine Dinners In October," by Cleveland playwright Rachel Zake; tentatively scheduled for April 2025. 

Rachel is a Cleveland-based writer, actor, and director. Her work has been presented on stage throughout Ohio and has performed on numerous stages for over 30 years. Nine Dinners In October follows the lives of four women over nearly a decade. They help each other examine and navigate friendship, love, and loss as their lives change.

OCTP plans to raise funds to support venue costs, costumes, lighting, marketing, and various other production expenses. Funds will also support writing workshops to encourage aspiring playwrights in Lorain County. Funds raised will also continue to provide opportunities for local actors to join us in working on and in this production.

Outside Circle Theater Project (OCTP) is dedicated to supporting the art of storytelling by producing live theater works for and by under-represented voices in the community. We endeavor to educate and generate discussion amongst the community by producing and casting live theater works that reflect the community's diverse voices. Participation is open to women and girls and community members of all ages, ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds, genders, and national identities. 

At a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are under attack, book-banning efforts are rampant, and when the teaching of revisionist history has become the focus of legislators across the country, OCTP believes community theater goals can lend a hand in redirecting the shift away from ignorance and silence and push the trend toward diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging, one small theater project at a time.