SCR Gets Surprise Gift for Latino Christmas Play : Stage: Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund will award $80,000 to help finance the world premiere of ‘La Posada Magica.’

“La Posada Magica,” a Latino Christmas play to open nextmonth at South Coast Repertory, has been awarded $80,000 by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to help finance the world premiere, theater officials will announce today.

Written by Octavio Solis, with a score by Marcos Loya, “La Posada Magica” tells the story of a teen-age girl who no longer feels the Christmas spirit but who finds a surprising renewal of hope. The play is loosely based on the Latin American tradition of the posada , a neighborhood procession to commemorate Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn on the night she gives birth.

The windfall comes on top of an earlier $40,000 grant from the fund. That money was used to underwrite commissions for the script, the original music and development of the material supervised by Jose Cruz Gonzalez, head of SCR’s Hispanic Playwrights Program, who will be directing the play on the troupe’s Second Stage.

“The latest grant is a great boon,” Solis said upon learning of the award. “We would have had only two weeks of rehearsal without it, and frankly I wouldn’t have been able to do what needs to be done. More time has freed up greater avenues for creativity. We’ve only been in rehearsals a week, and I’m already making a tremendous amount of revisions.”

Solis, 36, a prolific playwright based in San Francisco, has had two plays developed through the Hispanic program: “Man of the Flesh,” which received its 1990 premiere on the SCR Second Stage (mounted since then in Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and San Diego), and “La Illuminada,” which SCR commissioned but did not produce. His “Scrappers” has toured secondary schools in Orange County as part of SCR’s community outreach program.

In February, Solis will direct another of his plays, “El Paso Blue,” at San Diego Repertory. And in April, the Dallas Theatre Center will produce his “Santos & Santos,” which recently won an incentive grant from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

“ ‘La Posada Magica’ requires a childlike imagination to buy into it,” Solis explained. “There’s something at work, a kind of magic, that takes us all by surprise. I think the play transcends specific religious connotations, the whole Christian thing, because it has a universal resonance. So people of other religious persuasions can relate to it.”

But despite all the religious imagery, he says, he has aimed for a secular tone.

“This is a play for people who feel they’ve been left behind by Christmas,” he added. “It’s for people who feel they don’t have anything to be happy about. There’s such pressure at this time of year to be joyous, it’s not a healthy thing. Terrible things still happen. Some families don’t get along. Some people are lonely. Some don’t have the money to buy presents. This is a play for them.”

Loya, a Los Angeles composer, has written 10 songs (with lyrics by Solis) for “La Posada Magica.” He will perform them with guitarist Lorenzo Martinez and other members of the company. Loya’s music combines Latin and jazz influences and has been featured in various films, including “Stand and Deliver,” “The Waterdance” and “Born in East L.A.”

Despite the original songs and a few traditional Spanish carols, Solis said the show “works like a play with music” rather than a full-fledged musical.

The production will be designed by Cliff Faulkner (scenery), Shigeru Yaji (costumes) and Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz (lighting). Gonzalez will direct a cast of Edna Alvarez, Christine Avila, George Galvan, Ruth Livier, Phillip Daniel Rodriguez, Ruben Sierra, Vic Trevino and Teresa Velarde.

“La Posada Magica” begins previews Dec. 9 on the South Coast Repertory Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The regular run is Dec. 14 to 24. $14 (Dec. 9-11); $15-$19 (Dec. 13-18); $18-$22 (Dec. 20-24). (714) 957-4033.