It’s Nothing Short of Tennessee Williams : Theater: OCC students will stage five little-produced one-acts that shed light on the writer’s point of view and style.

Most theater-goers are familiar with such Tennessee Williams’ masterworks as “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But titles such as “Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry” and “Hello From Bertha” may leave even some Williams fans puzzled.

That’s probably because they’re one-acts, drama’s equivalent of the short story. Williams wrote dozens during his long career, but few have been staged regularly, especially in the years following the playwright’s death in 1983.

Orange Coast College’s student-run Repertory Theatre Company breaks with convention today and Sunday by offering a quintet of Williams’ playlets.

All five will be presented in each of four performances, giving audiences the chance to see the range in Williams’ small-form style. Two (“Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen” and “This Property Is Condemned”) are fairly well known, but the others (“The Case of the Crushed Petunia,” “Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry” and “Hello From Bertha”) occupy the obscure section of the Williams library.

It’s the obscurity that gives the shows a special flavor, said Rick Golson, the OCC theater-arts instructor who oversees the company.

“They were certainly obscure to me until we got involved with this,” Golson said. “I hadn’t had that much experience with his one-acts until now, and I found them illuminating. The students really wanted to do them, and I thought it would be a good idea, a good way (for them to become acquainted) with one of our greatest playwrights (and) a good way to introduce the public to some of his lesser-known works.”

Golson said that the playlets were chosen for what they reveal about his point of view and writing style.

“Most are about people living on the fringe, trying to find some dignity in their lives, which is a (common) theme of his,” Golson said. “These plays should add a dimension to anybody’s grasp of Williams.”

They also provide challenges for the cast of 14. Golson said they were naturally drawn to Williams because of his romanticism and the intense emotions of the roles.

“Being young, they tend to identify with (the deep feelings) of his characters,” he explained. “Of course, the goal they have during staging is being able to make those characters real, to make life out of the poetry of his language while not overacting.”

In describing the one-acts, Golson started with “The Case of the Crushed Petunia,” which centers on an older woman who runs a small shop. Her barren days seem to have no end until a young man enters the scene and “arouses passion in her life,” he said.

“Hello From Bertha” is about a dying prostitute and the poignant letter she writes to a friend. The experience, Golson explained, allows her to “relive her memories of a man who was nice to her and a time that was better.”

In “Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry,” a young couple sees their marriage collapsing after the wife gives birth and the demands of parenthood settle in. “Williams takes us through their disillusionment with their dreams and with the romance they had, but the ending is happy,” Golson said.

He described “Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen” as the most poetic play of the program. Two lovers just talk, trying to communicate what they mean to one another.

“It’s really a mood piece, very hard to put into words,” Golson said.

“This Property Is Condemned” is more straightforward. One of the best known of Williams’ one-acts, it focuses on two adolescents as they reveal the hardships of their lives to each other.

* Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theatre Company presents five one-acts by Tennessee Williams today and Sunday in the campus’s Drama Lab Studio, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. 2 and 8 p.m. $5. (714) 432-5932.