Hard work is an essential part of any artistic or financial success.

Actor-singer-producer Brad Surosky, of Transcendence Theater Company, has learned that from personal experience – but he’s also learned that hard work is often not enough. Success also requires an additional little thing called luck.

“So many things have had to line up perfectly for us,” Surosky says of the rise of Transcendence, the rapidly expanding nonprofit arts-and-performance organization he co-founded, and for which he serves as Chief Operating Officer.

“We’ve all worked very, very hard, yes,” he says. “But we’ve also been incredibly lucky, and incredibly well-supported by this community. There have been a lot of steps and choices along the way, and if any of those choices had been different, this all might have turned out another way.”

“Broadway Under the Stars,” the company’s signature performance series, opens its 2016 season this weekend. Starting out the summer with a three-weekend show called “This Magic Moment” – the first of four separate programs between now and September – the open-air performances will once again be staged within the old winery ruins at Jack London State Historic Park.

“We’re really trying to up the volume on the event side of our performances this year,” Surosky says, “from what people experience when they arrive at the park, to what they see and hear on stage.” That, he acknowledges, is part of the challenge and the excitement of putting these shows together. “We don’t want people to think they are coming to the same show over and over,” he laughs.

One thing that will be new for 2016, he reveals, is the onstage appearance of not one, but two pregnant performers.

“This first show is called ‘This Magic Moment,’ right?” he says. “The idea is to explore all of those magical moments that happen throughout life. Motherhood is one of those moments so, yes, audiences will see two pregnant women, both of them a month or two from giving birth. There will be songs about that experience, and songs about every other kind of magic moment we experience in life.”

Surosky is married to Transcendence’s energetic Artistic Director Amy Miller, co-founder of the company along with Stephan Stubbins. Known as a hard behind-the-scenes worker, Surosky has also earned acclaim for his onstage knack for drawing a laugh with a single wide-eyed glance or perfectly-timed bit of physical comedy.