Mission Viejo is a bedroom community of 94,000 located in the Saddleback Valley in South Orange County. The city has been historically well known for its sports culture and tourism, having produced multiple Olympians and their impressive array of training facilities for youth sporting events and competitions. In 2016, the City commissioned an arts and culture master plan so they could begin balancing capital investments into this sector. The outcomes of this study included the creation of the Potocki Center for the visual arts and the creation of a new Cultural Arts division that was added under the Library Department. 

TheatreDNA was hired to conduct the next phase outlined in the master plan, which was a feasibility study for a theatre and the development of performing arts at large within the community. The study consisted of community engagement events and a survey that received nearly a 1,000 response as well as one-on-one stakeholder interviews with local art groups, civic leaders, and administrators from Saddleback College and the Saddleback Valley USD. Additional research included a market study, competitor profiles, venue benchmarking, and site analysis of eight locations. 

The conclusion of the study found that Mission Viejo could carve out a niche in the highly competitive market of Orange County with a 600-seat performing arts center that was owned and operated by the City. But for their first step, TheatreDNA recommended a smaller 300-seat flexible theatre with an art gallery be developed from a vacant shopping center to reduce the initial capital investment, activate the downtown core, and allow the City to slowly build up its new performing arts division.