2 Grants Help SCR Premiere

South Coast Repertory and playwright Howard Korder have won $40,000 in grants to help stage the world premiere of “The Hollow Lands” next year at the Costa Mesa theater.

The awards were among six theater-playwright pairs announced Tuesday by the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, based at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

“The Hollow Lands,” to be staged Jan. 17-Feb. 13, is the third SCR production to receive a Kennedy Center Fund grant; others were “Great Day in the Morning” by Thomas Babe (1992) and “Golden Child” by David Henry Hwang (1996).

Korder’s new play traces one immigrant’s half-century trek through untamed America, starting in 1815.

“[It] is one of the most ambitious world premieres we have ever undertaken,” David Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director, said in a prepared statement. “This grant will be invaluable in giving this premiere the production it deserves.”

An SCR spokesman estimated the total budget for “The Hollow Lands” at $700,000.

The Fund for New American Plays has awarded nearly $3.6 million over the last 13 years, assisting 77 world premieres. This year’s grant total was $200,000.