Author Assails SCR for Dropping Play

Playwright Ellen McLaughlin of San Francisco has lashed out at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa over its recent cancellation of her play, “Infinity’s House.” The world premiere had been scheduled for spring as the centerpiece of South Coast’s first annual California Play Festival.

“The play is large and unconventional, and I think they lost their nerve,” McLaughlin said in an interview from her home. She accused the South Coast leadership of being--among other things--sexist, patronizing and better at getting corporate grants than at dealing with writers, despite its reputation for developing plays.

The play is a sprawling, 36-character drama about the westward migration of the pioneers, the building of the railroads and the creation of the atomic bomb.

“This has been a real blow for me, personally and financially,” the 31-year-old playwright said. “The theater has put out an official line that I didn’t get the rewrites ready. But they dropped the play without ever seeing the rewrites. I don’t think they would have liked them anyway. And they have dealt with me as if I’m this hysterical woman, a loose cannon. They were paternalistic about everything.”

South Coast literary manager Jerry Patch, who brought McLaughlin to the theater’s attention, said he was saddened by her accusations and attributed them to her disappointment.

“I certainly don’t feel that way toward her, and I don’t think anybody else here does either,” Patch said. “I never saw her near hysterical about anything. She’s a very thoughtful and considerate woman and one of the finest writing talents in the country. It’s purely and honestly a difference of opinion on the play.”

South Coast artistic co-director Martin Benson said, “We wanted rewrites and the rewrites kept not happening.” Dropping “Infinity’s House” from the season was “a totally positive thing,” he added, precisely because the script was not ready for production.

McLaughlin reiterated some of her charges in a letter to the Washington-based Fund for New American Plays, which in June awarded South Coast $64,000 to help underwrite the cost of staging “Infinity’s House.” It was the largest grant awarded by the fund this year. South Coast officials have said they will return it.

Why did McLaughlin take the commission in the first place? “I’m an actor and a playwright and I don’t earn much,” she said. If the play had been produced she stood to earn $17,000, she explained, “more than I’ve ever earned from anything.”

The theater commissioned “Infinity’s House” about two years ago. McLaughlin was paid $5,000 at that time to come up with a script. The production would have been the largest in South Coast’s 25-year history.

McLaughlin, who is also an actress, has a reputation among theater insiders as “a hot young playwright,” according to several sources. She has written five other plays and is best known for “Days and Nights Within” and “A Narrow Bed,” both widely produced.

The former was co-winner of the 1985 Great American Play Contest sponsored by the Actors’ Theater of Louisville. The latter also premiered at Louisville and is co-winner of the 1987 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.