This story was produced by the OC Theatre Guild as part of a community media partnership with Culture OC. It was written and edited independently by the Guild’s selected contributors. This collaboration supports our effort to celebrate and amplify the vibrant arts and culture scene in Orange County.

‘Is Ignorance Bliss? What We Pretend Not to Notice’ At Irvine Theater Company — Artwork courtesy of Irvine Theater Company.

By OC Theatre Guild

November 4, 2026

Written for OC Theatre Guild by Anne Reid

Irvine Theater Company

‘Is Ignorance Bliss? What We Pretend Not to Notice’

When: Nov. 6 – 14, 2026

Where: Canvas, 17332 Von Karman Ave., #115, Irvine

More Info: 949-422-6896, http://www.IrvineTheaterCompany.com

Irvine Theater Company (ITC) will present six world-premiere short plays in “Is Ignorance Bliss?: What We Pretend Not to Notice,” which explores the things people overlook to preserve their comfort and what happens when they can no longer look away.

Moving between comedy and drama, the original works reveal how selective blindness shapes our relationships, communities and the stories we tell ourselves..

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“Human beings depend upon shared stories about who we are and how our families, workplaces and institutions operate,” said David Ihrig, artistic director and founder of Irvine Theater Company. “Sometimes functioning together requires us to soften a contradiction, leave something unsaid or behave as though we accept an explanation we privately question.”

Ihrig is also the creator of the Brain-Based Collective, which uses his approach to teaching and coaching acting, directing and playwriting. Members of the ITC group meet regularly to explore acting techniques and develop original work around questions and experiences that resonate within their community. For this production, they were invited to write plays exploring one question: What do we pretend not to notice?

The resulting stories range from artificial intelligence and office romance to dating, parenting, family identity and food-fueled paranoia. Each play runs approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

Dan Meyers, a former middle school teacher who joined the group about two years ago, wrote and directed “Parental Guidance Suggested,” a comedy-drama about parents who choose to remain unaware of what their children are doing.

Meyers said Ihrig also incorporates cinematic theater into his productions, combining live performances with projections that sometimes interact with the actors and influence what’s happening onstage. The technique creates another dimension to the storytelling, allowing the projected images and live action to work together.

In Meyers’ play, a single mother watches as her son’s behavior at school grows increasingly troubling. What begins with relatively minor incidents, such as making obscene gestures at teachers, escalates to burning library books and more serious problems. As his behavior spirals, so does his mother’s life. For years, she’s excused his actions, convinced that love and attention are all he needs. Eventually, however, she must face the terrible consequences of what she’s chosen to ignore.

While Meyers explores a parent’s unwillingness to confront her child’s behavior, fellow ITC member Jenna Lee Nguo takes a lighter approach to the theme with “Between Colleagues and Confessions,” an office romantic comedy about two coworkers struggling to acknowledge (or not) their feelings for each other.

“One pretends not to have feelings, while the other pretends not to notice them,” Nguo said. “The main character is trying to navigate personal and professional feelings at work, but something funny happens that makes pretending no longer an option.”

Nguo, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Riverside, has worked in higher education for the past two and a half years. Although relatively new to theater, she has volunteered with New Filmmakers Los Angeles for three years and joined ITC about two years ago. After working with ITC and Ihrig she feels she might have finally found her calling and creative outlet.

“Honestly, working on my show right now is the only thing keeping me sane,” Nguo said. “I haven’t done much writing before, other than some poetry as a kid, and although I’d taken a few acting classes, I never really pursued theater. Now I’m learning so much from everyone, the actors, the tech crew, David and the other writers. It’s a total collaboration.”

In addition to writing her play, Nguo is directing for the first time and taking on an acting role, something she hadn’t originally planned. She also helped coordinate auditions through Actors Access, reviewing submissions, scheduling actors and assisting with casting.

For Annie Young, another member of the group, ITC offered something she hadn’t expected: a chance to return to theater while sharing the experience with her daughter.

Young, who performed in theater during high school and college, had been away from the stage for years when she discovered the ITC about two years ago. Her daughter, attending college in New York, had developed an interest in acting, and Young hoped to find something they could enjoy together.

“I wanted to find something we could do together that we’d both enjoy,” Young said. “David was teaching his approach to acting, and I was really open to it because it had been so long since I’d done theater. I liked his style and how supportive everyone was. We collaborate, write together and see where it takes us. There’s a lot of great discussions, and I felt alive again.”

Their first production was “Disconnected,” with Young’s daughter working backstage as a stage manager. The experience renewed their shared interest in theater, and the two began attending live performances together.

“David’s approach is really about becoming more authentic as an actor and paying attention to your lines, your environment and what’s happening in the scene,” Young said. “I’ve worked in special education my whole career, and I’d love to find ways to bring more of those students into theater.”

For the upcoming production, Young wrote “How May I Help You?,” a satire set in a call center where the operators are modeled after four major artificial intelligence platforms, including ChatGPT and Claude. Combining the feel of a 1990s sitcom with modern technology, the comedy explores the misunderstandings and miscommunication that arise when people turn to AI for advice and companionship.

“David challenged me to write a comedy because I usually write about raw emotions and disappointment,” Young said. “I realized how much of my own life I was pouring into these AI models, almost like having someone to talk to. It can become addictive because they remember your patterns and start to feel like they know you. Sometimes I’d even ask another AI to check whether what the first one told me was true. They all seem to have their own personalities, so I turned them into characters.”

For Young, returning to theater has been as much about rediscovering herself as it has been about writing and performing. Sharing the experience with her daughter has made it even more meaningful.

“Theater helped me find myself again,” she said. “There’s a real sense of ownership and teamwork here, and everyone brings a different perspective. But getting to do this with my daughter has been especially wonderful. Seeing her work as a stage manager and watching what she could do made me so proud. It just felt really good.”

While each play offers a different take on what people choose to ignore, the production also reflects what ITC is all about: bringing people together to take creative risks, share their experiences and discover something new about themselves along the way.