OCC Repertory Theatre Is a Hard Act to Follow : Stage: Few other programs give students freedom and support to try anything, including fail; many return even after graduation.

For some of the student writers, directors and performers in Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theatre Co., the ability to make mistakes is one of the program’s many draws.

“You get to do things here that you would not get to do anywhere else,” said Shannon McCormick.

“Which is not necessarily a good thing,” Kelly Flynn joked quickly. McCormick is directing Flynn’s play, “Stasi,” in the college’s five-day Original Play Festival opening today.

In most college theater departments, undergraduates are rarely given the chance to direct, except in workshops, McCormick said. In OCC’s “Rep,” students are responsible for everything from selling candy and sweeping the theater to directing and, often, writing.

“They give us just enough rope to hang ourselves, and we have more than a few times,” Flynn said, adding quickly that the successes far outnumber the noble failures.

Mark Coyan, the lead actor in “Stasi” and a five-year veteran of the Rep, was recently accepted into American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, one of the nation’s most prestigious acting programs. The best things about his OCC Rep experience, he said, have been “the people, the support and the ability to fall on our faces.”

Coyan’s long tenure in the program is not unusual. Students often return to enroll in the program long after they’ve graduated from OCC.

McCormick and Flynn have moved on to Cal State Long Beach, but continue to come back. Likewise Michael Hebler, who has written and directed 10 plays in his 4 1/2 years in the program, including “Bad News,” part of the current festival.

“I stick around because I get to do a lot of things that I won’t be able to do anywhere else,” said Hebler, who recently earned his associate in arts degree at OCC and is now looking for acting work. Moving into the real world from the anything-goes environment of the Rep is “scary,” Hebler admits.

Rich Valente is a relative newcomer to the OCC program, but he’s already getting into the spirit of things. In addition to directing the festival’s third play, “Transfusion,” he is acting in “Bad News.” “Transfusion,” a short work about AIDS, was written by San Diego resident Janet S. Tiger, who is not an OCC student.

The Repertory Theatre Co. is a class offered through the college’s drama department, but it operates more as a theater club. “It’s a chance for students to work on their own shows,” said Rick Golson, the program’s faculty adviser.

During the regular school year, the company produces a steady stream of plays in the college’s 60-seat Drama Lab Studio. About two-thirds are published works, the rest original plays by students.

Shortly after coming to work at OCC, Golson started the festival three years ago when he learned that many students had written plays they wanted to produce. The first year’s Original Play Festival featured nine works, which has dwindled to this year’s three (a fourth production was canceled at the last minute when students realized they wouldn’t have enough time to do it justice, Golson said).

He believes that many of the school’s drama students were too busy with the recent production of “South Pacific” to take part in the festival this year. Also, he worries that higher class fees next year may preclude future students who “can’t afford to take a summer-school class just for fun.”

The program is still a busy one, however, so much so that rehearsal space is always at a premium, Golson said. More than two dozen students are involved in this year’s festival.

Students say that Rep productions are more than workshops. In addition to giving students experience in all aspects of theater production, “it’s taught us how to keep things simple,” McCormick said. “We’ve done productions for less than $20 here. . . . You learn how to do things at a minimum.”

“And still do quality work,” continued Flynn, who said that some of the productions are surprisingly lavish, given the shoestring budgets. “We won’t be doing ‘Les Miz,’ but . . . “

* The Orange Coast College Original Play Festival will be presented at 8 tonight through Sunday at the school’s Drama Lab Studio, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Schedule: Tonight, “Bad News” and “Transfusion”; Thursday, “Stasi”; Friday, “Transfusion”; Saturday, “Stasi” and “Bad News”; Sunday, “Transfusion.” Free (donations are accepted). (714) 432-5880.