Nine Theaters to Get Grants for Works : Funding: Program recipients include South Coast Repertory, which will use its money to commission a musical, ‘The Great Buenaventura Christmas Party.’

Nine U.S. theater companies will share $422,750 in grants to develop theater works for young people and their families.

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, awarded $30,000, is the only California company chosen in the first round of grants from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund’s New Works for Young Audiences pilot program.

“The philosophy of the fund is that art enriches your life,” said M. Christine DeVita, president of the fund. “And since it is the fund’s mission to try to create connections between artists and audiences and to help create vibrant communities of which the arts are an integral part, exposing children, who will be our future audiences, to theater and other art forms is a self-interested strategy.

“Works specifically focused for children are often not very good. One of the needs that was identified as we did our research for the program was the real dearth of quality material out there--we often tend to talk down to young children, but they are actually more sophisticated than we give them credit for.”

So, “we looked for proposals that recognize the need to strengthen overall artistry in addition to the actual script--the actors, the directors and the designers.”

Another requirement was to “expand and deepen the audience reach, especially to economically and ethnically diverse populations,” DeVita said.

The theaters submitted proposals based on the fund’s published guidelines. They were screened by fund staff and an advisory panel of “experts in the theater field,” DeVita said. “Our board made the final decisions.”

The New York City-based fund will provide selected theaters with an anticipated total of $2 million through 1994 to support works-in-progress, full productions and the commissioning of new plays.

South Coast Repertory is using its $30,000 share to commission a new musical by playwright Octavio Solis and composer Marcos Loya. “The Great Buenaventura Christmas Party” will be a contemporary play with music, steeped in Latin American mythology.

“We did not specify subject matter except that it be oriented to Christmas,” said John Glore, literary manager at South Coast Repertory. “We knew from the get-go that we wanted to create a Christmas show for the Second Stage that would come from the Latino culture. This is something that (artistic directors) David Emmes and Martin Benson have wanted to do for a long time.

“This is a family show as opposed to a children’s show,” Glore added. “We’re hoping we’ll come up with something to appeal to all ages, just as our production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ does on the main stage each year, and that it will appeal to everyone.

“We really do hope we can premiere this piece in December of ‘93, which will make it a highlight of our 30th season.”

South Coast has six months in which to have a draft of the play ready. If it meets the grant’s deadline, the theater will “seek further support (for the play) under the fund’s development/production category,” Glore said.

(A fund spokesman said that all theaters may apply for second- and third-round grants, not just the nine first-round winners.)

Also sharing in the first-round grants are Maurice Sendak’s the Night Kitchen/A National Children’s Theater in New York, which will receive $75,000 for a work-in-progress by Bill Irwin and Arthur Yorinks.

In addition, $70,750 will go to the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis for play development, Theatre IV in Virginia will have $60,000 for the creation of a new musical, the Seattle Children’s Theatre will receive $55,000 to commission a new script, Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s $50,000 will help stage a new play and Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company will use its $45,000 for a new piece by playwright John Henry Redwood and video artist Ulysses Jenkins.

The Metro Theater Company of St. Louis and Childsplay Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., will jointly receive $37,000 to collaborate on a new musical by James Still and composer Michael Keck.

The fund, originally established in 1956, provides more than $30 million in grants annually to programs in the arts, adult literacy and urban parks.