On Theater:

When the new theater season gets underway next month, playgoers looking for something new and different need venture no further than UC Irvine.

The university’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts’ drama department is collaborating with the Academy for New Musical Theater in North Hollywood to present a pair of staged readings to launch UCI’s New Music Theater Festival in late September.

The readings are scheduled for 8 p.m. Sept. 18 and 19 and 5 and 8 p.m. Sept. 20 in the Winifred Smith Hall on campus, and may culminate in a new program for the university.

“We are hopeful that this will be an annual collaboration, with some works in development, some in concert and some in performance,” said Eli Simon, who heads the UCI drama department.

The two new musicals to be unveiled in September are “Aging Out” and “e-$cape.”

“Aging Out” is loosely based on the 2005 PBS documentary of the same name. “It’s about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of several young people who have spent their lives in foster care and have aged out of the system with no emotional and financial support in a world that doesn’t want them,” Simon notes.

The tempo quickens with “e-$cape,” which Simon describes as “a rock musical about a virtual-world game player who invests his life savings in cyber real estate only to have his new virtual friends pursue him for money and revenge.”

The Academy for New Musical Theater offers one of only three professional programs in the country for writers, composers and actors in musical theater. Over the past four years, more than 50 musicals have been developed for producers and theater companies across the nation.

UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts — named for the Oscar-winning local actress who lent her support to its development — has been recognized as one of the top 10 drama programs in the United States. Many of its alumni have gone on to professional stage careers.

Tickets to the New Musical Theatre Festival are $6 for admission to either play or $10 for both. Additional information may be obtained by calling the theater’s box office at (949) 824-2787.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.