The Octarine Accord is a production company that believes prioritizing our people means we create greatness with every project.

Our mission is to:

Transform the way audiences and artists think about live theatre,

Grow speculative fiction storytelling in live performance,

Become evangelists for reckless kindness, and

Normalize healthy artistic practices.

We Value:

Reckless kindness

Dignity and lived experience

The voices of those on the margins

Working to become accomplices, not just allies

Our History

The Octarine Accord was first conceived by founder and Lore Keeper Andrew Roblyer (they/he/any) in the fall of 2021.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrew rediscovered their love of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), a game they first played over a decade prior. When storytellers like Andrew were suddenly unable to gather to tell stories in a theatrical space, Andrew dove head first back into D&D, at one point running five 3-4 hour groups per week as the Dungeon Master (DM), time that would usually have been filled with rehearsals. They were struck by the similarities to devised and immersive theatre, two types of theatre that they had fallen in love with during their decade away from table top role playing games (TTRPGs) like D&D, and realized that their skills as a producer and director made the transition to being a DM easy and fun.

As the pandemic restrictions began to lift and live theatre became possible again, Andrew wrestled with how to stay connected to the nerd-tastic world of speculative fiction and collaborative storytelling they had rediscovered, while also rejoining the theatre community they loved so deeply.

The Octarine Accord was born. Kind of. Having started and run the first-ever professional theatre company in Bryan/College Station from 2013-2018, Andrew knew first-hand the challenges that come with launching and running a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and didn’t want to launch something without a specific and clear sense of vision, mission, and structure.

In the summer of 2022, Andrew made the decision (at the urging of a close friend and collaborator) to launch a Kickstarter to fund production of a play they originally wrote and performed in 2015, Uncle Eb. An alternate-universe sequel to A Christmas Carol, Uncle Eb was funded via a successful Kickstarter and the first-ever production of The Octarine Accord. That same summer, Andrew applied for a Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant from the City of Houston to partially fund an epic production of the science fiction trilogy, The Honeycomb Trilogy by Mac Rogers in summer 2023, having no idea if they would see it as worthwhile. Spoiler: they did.

At the same time Uncle Eb was in production and Andrew was waiting to hear from the Houston Arts Alliance about the grant application, they were applying to MFA directing programs, leaving their future in Houston uncertain after the following summer. But in the spring of 2023, after earning an interview with the Yale University MFA directing program and being one of 24 directors from around the world invited to audition for Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick at Columbia University’s MFA program, Andrew accepted an offer of admission to Randolph College’s innovative, low-residency MFA program; meaning they would get to stay and keep creating in Houston for the foreseeable future.

That decision, combined with the need to formalize a production company under which to produce The Honeycomb Trilogy, Andrew began working on The Octarine Accord in earnest. Deciding to eschew the typical structure, Andrew formally founded The Octarine Accord as a single-member LLC in the spring of 2023, trading tax-exempt status for agility and fewer restrictions on how the company could be organized. Andrew is committed to maintaining a non-profit mission and focus for the company, and looks forward to bringing on other Houston artists as Co-Operators (and legally, co-owners) of the LLC in the future to further diversify the perspectives that move The Octarine Accord forward.