Performing Arts Center, SCR Open Mailing Lists to South Coast Plaza

For the second straight year, South Coast Plaza has received free access to a mailing list of tens of thousands of names, compliments of South Coast Repertory Theatre and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Those on the list will receive a brochure touting South Coast Plaza restaurants, complete with maps showing their location.

South Coast Plaza is owned by the Segerstrom family, which years ago donated the land for both SCR and the Center, and which remains a large contributor to both.

The Center’s list normally is made available only to nonprofit performing arts entities, according to Richard Bryant, the Center’s director of communications and marketing, who would not say how many names the list contains.

Bryant said that gratitude toward the Segerstroms had nothing to do with making the list available to their shopping center. Rather, he said, the arrangement was made because theater patrons will get information on a multitude of restaurant choices, which, he said, “enhances the theatergoing experience.”

The SCR mailing list of 23,000 names can be purchased for $1,380. John Mouledoux, the theater’s director of marketing and communications, said the fee was waived for South Coast Plaza because it “has been a generous benefactor to SCR for more than 10 years.” The mall also has “provided promotional opportunities to us, and we’re just paying back a small part of the debt that we owe,” Mouledoux said.

The release of the names also is beneficial to SCR patrons because it informs them of restaurant possibilities in the theater area, Mouledoux said.

Gary Taylor, manager of Reuben’s restaurant near South Coast Plaza, said he isn’t concerned by the link between the mailing lists and plaza restaurants with which he is in competition. “To be realistic . . . I think most restaurants are on a huge number of lists,” Taylor said. “Just to be on another mailing list, I don’t think it’s going to be a big thing one way or the other.”