Off Center Festival at Segerstrom looks to entertain and provoke

Since becoming president of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in 2006, Terry Dwyer has been on a mission to make the venue affordable, intriguing and inviting — even a little off once in a while.

While the center delivers well on the popular standard musical and theatrical fare, once a year, Dwyer gets to experiment, walk on the wild side, take some paths less traveled, show the center’s edgy side, be a little out there.

He does this by staging the appropriately named Off Center Festival. The bold project, now in its fourth year, represents an 11-day celebration of contemporary theater, music, dance and discussion

The center also takes the opportunity to lower ticket prices to entice people to take a chance on artists Dwyer describes as “exciting, ambitious and risk-taking,” who are willing to dive headlong into topical issues.

Tickets to the event range from free to $35, down from the center’s usual $65 to $80.

“There’s no excuse to miss it,” Dwyer said. “We have a lot of great series, but I wanted to add contemporary performances that responded to the passions and topics of the day. And this is a way to attract new community members that haven’t come to the center.”

The festival will feature nine avant-garde events or performances spread over two weekends, beginning Jan. 21.

They include Iranian-based theater company Mehr Theatre Group, making its West Coast premiere with a performance in Farsi with English supertitles; choreographer Amy O’Neal’s dance moves; Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox performing present-day music in the form of 20th-century song styles, and more.

“You’re in for a treat... There will be moments you won’t forget,” Dwyer said.

On the lineup is writer and comedian Kristina Wong, who will share her experience of becoming a hip-hop performer in northern Uganda. Her one-woman show is titled “The Wong Street Journal.”

Wong, a third-generation Chinese-American who went to Uganda to understand global poverty, was constantly referenced as a white person. She met locals who invited her to check out their music studio, and from there, she recorded a rap diary that played on the nation’s radio station.

“You’re getting a rap show, whether you like it or not,” she joked about her performance Jan. 29 to 30, which will preview a later engagement in San Francisco. “I hope everyone goes in and reconsiders everything about their identities and realizes the privileges we have.”

Wong’s previous touring show, “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” looked at the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian-American women. She took the show to more than 40 venues and made it into a film. She has also been a commentator for PBS, CNN, the blog Jezebel and Huffington Post Live.

Huntington Beach native Nick Waterhouse will perform songs off his 2014 album “Holly,” with sounds rooted in rhythm and blues, on Jan. 24. Waterhouse is currently at work on his second album as well as doing production work with American rock band Allah-Las on its sophomore release.

“I take a jazz approach to my music,” said Waterhouse, who counts Van Morrison as one of his heroes. “I play a lot of originals and a lot of new songs from songwriters I admire.”

The series will also present a historical performance with actor, director and writer Roger Guenveur Smith discussing Rodney King in his solo show Jan. 27 to 30. Smith, who has appeared in the HBO series “Oz” and in the film “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, will tackle the life of King, from his time in the national spotlight as the victim of police brutality that ignited the Los Angeles riots to his death at the bottom of a swimming pool.

Smith, who has taken the show from Los Angeles and New York to Amsterdam and the Bahamas, explained Wednesday why King, whom he never met, keeps catching his attention.

“When Rodney King passed in June of 2012, I was very moved and I wanted to know why his loss mattered to me and to my potential audience,” Smith said. “I’ve taken Rodney King around the world now, and it’s a particularly relevant time in America to present this work. I hope the play is a reconsideration for who this man was.”

During his presentation, Smith said, he becomes an “anonymous narrator” who poses questions to the audience, asking how King’s reaction to the acquittal affected him and how it reformed and deformed the rest of his life. He wants to know why King ended up dead in a pool. Smith will also interpret King’s question to the world, “Can we all get along?”

“He expressed confidence in our ability to come together, and that’s an extremely insightful moment,” Smith said. “His speech was just as effective as that other King.”

After each performance, guests will be invited to Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall to meet the artists and discuss their experiences and reactions to the works. The restaurant has created a late-night, low-cost menu for audiences.

All tickets are $25 except those for Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which are $25 to $35. The Nick Waterhouse concert on the Arts Plaza is free. Also, $10 student rush tickets will be given out based on availability one hour before each performance.

“I encourage everyone to check it out and take advantage of what we have to offer to the entire Orange County community,” Dwyer said. “It’ll be an adventurous ride.”

If You Go

What: “Off Center Festival”

When: Jan. 21 to 31

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: Tickets from $25; one event is free.

Information: (714) 556-2787 or scfta.org