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Coastal Food and Wine

Dining Adventures along the Coast of So Cal
with Christopher Trela and Stasha Surdyke


Laguna Beach Foodies

Videos and articles about the Laguna Beach dining scene
with Christopher Trela and Stasha Surdyke

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Christopher Trela is an award-winning publicist, writer, editor, photographer, and playwright, and the author of Newport Beach Centennial: Celebrating a Century, a coffee-table book published in 2006. He is the co-writer and editor of Coastal Food and Wine, an internet-based food and wine magazine.


Writing & Editing

Christopher has had more than 1,500 articles published in various newspapers and magazines over the past 20 years. He has contributed arts, food and wine, health, fitness, business and travel articles to OC Metro, Metro Menus, OC Family, Coast Magazine, Performing Arts Magazine, Westways Magazine, Dining Out Magazine, and many others. He also spent several years as a writer under contract with Disneyland's Special Events department.  

In addition to writing the Slice of Orange column for Coast Magazine as well as performing arts articles (under the pen name Kris Allen), Christopher is the writer and editor of OC Wine Magazine, Christopher is working on a new book project called FAST PR: A 60 Minute Guide to Getting Publicity. 

Publicity

Christopher has provided public relations services for a variety of clients. Current clients include Laguna Playhouse (oldest professional regional theater on the West Coast), Long Beach Symphony, Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles, Chance Theater, MiMedia Productions, Overture, Young Singers of OC, and several others.

He spent four years as the Director of Public Relations & Publications for Orange County’s Pacific Symphony (the third-largest orchestra in California), and was the PR Liaison for the Newport Beach Centennial Celebration. He has provided public relations and marketing services for the Balboa Performing Arts Theatre, Emilio & Modern Gypsy (flamenco guitarist), One Earth/One Dream EcoFest, OC Fair, Discovery Science Center, Southern California Home & Garden Show, Imagination Celebration, and many other arts-related clients.  

Photography

As a photographer, his work has appeared in the L.A. Times, The Orange County Register, OC Weekly, OC Metro, OC Wine/OC Menus, Coast, and many other publications throughout Southern California. He has provided press photography services for professional theaters, and has many years of special event, corporate and wedding photography experience.

Playwriting

In 1997, Christopher founded New Voices Playwrights Workshop & Theatre, a consortium of playwrights, actors and directors who regularly present productions of new works at various theaters in Orange County. Christopher has written and directed more than 20 of his own short and full-length plays, and has directed plays for other theater groups. His plays have been produced at theaters in Orange County, Los Angeles and New York, including a series of special science-theater shows for Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana.

Christopher studied playwriting at South Coast Repertory with Cecilia Fannon, and took a masters class in directing from SCR Associate Artist Mark Rucker. For his efforts in promoting and developing new plays and playwrights, The Daily Pilot newspaper named Christopher “Man of the Year in Theater” for 1998.