South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.
Address
655 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, California
United States
Regional theatre
Segerstrom Stage: 507
Julianne Argyros Stage: 336
Nicholas Studio: 94
1964
Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Paula Tomei. SCR is widely regarded as one of America's foremost producers of new plays. In its three-stage David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center, SCR produces a wide range of theatre, ranging from classics, to modern masterpieces, contemporary hits and new plays on the leading edge. It also produces Theatre for Young Audiences and Families plays, and offers year-round programs in education and outreach. SCR is the home to the Pacific Playwrights Festival, an annual three-day new play festival.
Background[edit]
SCR's extensive new play development program consists of commissions, residencies, readings, and workshops, from which up to five world premieres are produced each season. Among the plays commissioned and introduced at SCR are Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen, Collected Stories, Brooklyn Boy, and Shipwrecked! An Entertainment; Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, Everett Beekin, Hurrah at Last and The Violet Hour; David Henry Hwang's Golden Child, José Rivera's References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon and Freedomland and Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. These plays were commissioned by SCR and developed through its Pacific Playwrights Festival, an annual workshop and reading showcase for up to eight new plays, attended by artistic directors and literary staff members from across the country.
Forty percent of the plays SCR has produced have been world, American or West Coast premieres. In 1988, SCR received the Regional Theatre Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, particularly in the area of new play development.
Recent history[edit]
2011 marked a major leadership transition for SCR: Marc Masterson became the theatre's new Artistic Director, with Managing Director Paula Tomei serving as his co-CEO. Emmes and Benson moved into the roles of Founding Artistic Directors, from which they continue to share the wisdom and knowledge gained in their 47 years at the theatre's helm.
Beginning in 2012, SCR launched "Studio SCR," a series that partnered the theatre with a variety of Southern Californian artists to create an eclectic, edgy and contemporary theatre experience. The series went on hiatus in 2016.
In 2013, Paul Folino requested that his name be withdrawn from the Theatre Center and that it be renamed the David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center, to honor SCR's founders. The unveiling of the building's new name took place on January 22, 2014.
The 2015-16 season brought the world premiere of Qui Nguyen's Vietgone—in association with Manhattan Theatre Club. The production moved to Manhattan Theatre Club for its 2016–17 season. Vietgone earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award for Best World Premiere of the Year, along with the prestigious Harold and Mimi Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award and a Lucille Lortel Award in New York for Outstanding Projection Design.It also was a finalist for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. In addition, SCR's 52nd season included world premieres by Sandra Tsing Loh (The Madwoman in the Volvo), Bekah Brunstetter (Going to a Place where you Already Are) and Eliza Clark (Future Thinking).
The 2016-17 season featured four world premieres: The Siegel by Michael Mitnick; Yoga Play by Dipika Guha; Flora & Ulysses by John Glore; and A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath (an SCR commission), which had a nearly simultaneous second production on Broadway. SCR's annual showcase of new works, the Pacific Playwrights Festival, celebrated its 20th year.
The 2017-18 season included the musical Once, as well as Shakespeare in Love, The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein and Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson. The season featured five world premieres including Amos & Boris by Sofia Alvarez; Curve of Departure by Rachel Bonds; SHREW! by Amy Freed; Little Black Shadows by Kemp Powers; and Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee, commissioned through SCR's CrossRoads Initiative. Yee's Cambodian Rock Band received the prestigious Harold and Mimi Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association Award in 2019.[2] Masterson stepped down as Artistic Director at the end of the season.
David Ivers was named as the theatre's Artistic Director on Sept. 20, 2018.[3] In April 2019, he directed a concert-reading of Prelude to a Kiss: The Musical, with book by Craig Lucas, music by Daniel Messé an lyrics by Sean Hartley, during the Pacific Playwrights Festival. The 2019–20 season, the first he programmed, included the musical She Loves Me by Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (directed by Ivers), American Mariachi by José Cruz González, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley, Aubergine by Julia Cho and Fireflies by Donja R. Love. SCR's 56th season also had four world premieres scheduled: The Canadians by Adam Bock; The Scarlet Letter by Kate Hamill; I Get Restless by Caroline V. McGraw; and the young audiences play Dory Fantasmagory, a play by John Glore adapted from the book by Abby Hanlon.
In late 2019, SCR re-branded, expanded and deepened its new-play development program by launching The Lab@SCR. As part of The Lab@SCR, the theatre is developing Threshold by Amy Brennerman, Beatrice by Lauren Gunderson and a musical adaptation of Prelude to a Kiss, with book by Craig Lucas, music by Daniel Messé an lyrics by Sean Hartley. Among the new features of the theatre's renowned play development program was the creation of the Pinnacle Commission for major American playwrights. The inaugural commission—given in partnership with Playwrights Horizons (New York)—was $60,000, with the selected playwright scheduled to be named in 2020, and was one of the largest theatre-granted commissions in the nation. The theatre announced its 2020-21 season in March 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 subsequently led SCR to cancel the final five productions of its 2019–20 season (Outside Mullingar, The Scarlet Letter, I Get Restless, Arcadia and Dory Fantasmagory) as well as cancel that year's Pacific Playwrights Festival. SCR's Theatre Conservatory classes (kids, teens and adults) moved online.
While its stages went dark during the pandemic, SCR continued its work to deepen engagement with Orange County, Calif., communities through various avenues including SCR commUNITY, launched in August 2020. This new digital platform is dedicated to amplifying the artists and narratives of the region by producing stories inspired by or about the rich diversity of people living in Southern California. Using “virtual/digital” platforms, SCR commUNITY creates free play readings, interviews, radio plays and original innovative content. The first three SCR commUNITY events included MASA, a live reading of works by four playwrights, as well a live interview with playwright Octavio Solis.
With the pandemic leading to a cancelation of the spring productions in the 2019-20 season—and the suspension of a full 2020-21 season—SCR shifted to online offerings to engage with audiences. The Conservatory adapted its classes to be taught online. In 2021, a Spring/Summer season was offered, running April through August. It included a digital Theatre for Young Audiences family show, Red Riding Hood by Allison Gregory (offered free to Orange County public schoolchildren); five professionally filmed readings for the Pacific Playwrights Festival, including works by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis (Harold & Lillian); Shayan Lotfi (Park-e Laleh); Charlie Oh (Coleman ’72, directed by Artistic Director David Ivers); Christine Quintana (Clean); and York Walker (Covenant). In July and August, the new summer series Outside SCR debuted with performances of American Mariachi by José Cruz González and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown live, under the stars, at the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano.
In October 2021, SCR returned to live in-person performances at the Emmes/Benson Theatre Center with COVID-19 vaccine/testing and masking requirements. The on-site season featured a total of seven plays, opening with the world premiere of A Shot Rang Out: A Play in One Man by Richard Greenberg, featuring David Ivers. The Pacific Playwrights Festival returned to its traditional live, in-person format in the spring of 2022, showcasing one full production, five readings and an excerpt of a new musical-in-progress. In July and August 2022, SCR went offsite for a second summer of Outside SCR at Mission San Juan Capistrano, this time featuring the musical Million Dollar Quartet.