SCR’s Mark Rucker Wins Grant of $100,000 for Local Theater Projects

Newport Beach native Mark Rucker, an associate artist with South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Theatre Artist Residency Program, South Coast Repertory officials announced Thursday.

The money will allow Rucker to help lead the Pacific Playwrights Festival, June 10-20, and participate in other season and long-range planning for SCR.

Rucker is slated to direct two SCR productions in the 1999-2000 season and two in 2000-01. He will also create a theater piece using an extensive workshop process.

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Rucker staged his first SCR production, Alan Ayckbourn’s “Intimate Exchanges,” in 1993. Since then, he has directed a number of plays at SCR and directed at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre. At the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Rucker directed the world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith’s “House Arrest.”

Rucker is one of 16 regional artists awarded a total of $1 million in grants from the National Theatre Artist Residency Program, an institution developed by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Theatre Communications Group. The grants are intended to foster artistic partnerships between individual artists and theaters.