LILY JANIAK’S THEATER PICK

If your concept of community theater is limited to endless productions of well-worn standards like “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music,” prepare to have your mind expanded by Contra Costa Civic Theatre. To open its 2018-19 season, the 59-year-old company is mounting the Bay Area premiere of “Allegiance,” a musical about the World War II internment of Japanese Americans based on the true story of actor George Takei. When the future “Star Trek” actor was 5 years old, his family was forcibly relocated from its Los Angeles home to various internment camps, including the one in Tule Lake. Lily Tung Crystal directs a cast of 20, most of whom are local Asian American actors.

“Allegiance”:

7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 28-29. Through Oct. 21. $15-$38. Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 510-524-9012. www.ccct.org

Ben Krantz / Contra Costa Civic Theatre Dennis Yen plays Ojii-Chan (left) and Vinh Nguyen is Sammy in Contra Costa Civic Theatre’s “Allegiance.”