SCR Reaps New Crop of Plays

The third annual Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Repertory will introduce nine new works and again give theatergoers a window on something the Costa Mesa theater is acclaimed for: developing new plays and cultivating emerging playwrights.

The festival, from June 15-25, will consist of fully staged productions of two plays and staged readings, without scenery and costumes, of seven others.

Festival-goers will get a taste of SCR’s coming season. Four of the plays to be read already have been chosen for full productions in 2000-01. Three of the nine festival plays come from the Hispanic Playwrights Project, a program at SCR that fosters Latino authors.

A 10th play, “The Education of Randy Newman,” a music and dance narrative built around songs from the artist’s acclaimed pop-rock catalog, plays concurrently on SCR’s Mainstage as part of its May 26-July 2 run, thereby doubling as a showpiece for the Playwrights Festival.

The other festival plays are works in progress. Visiting actors, directors and dramaturges will combine with SCR’s creative staff to help the writers find their plays’ strengths and flaws and propel them along the path toward finished works.

The festival also is intended as a marketplace for new plays. SCR invites representatives from theaters around the country in hopes they will like what they see and go on to produce works emerging from the festival.

Festival director Jerry Patch, SCR’s longtime dramaturge, hopes to nurture “a sense of an artistic community” in gathering theater folk in a collegial atmosphere.

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The Festival Schedule

WORKSHOP PRODUCTIONS (on the Second Stage)

* “The End of It All,” by Cusi Cram: June 15, 17, 21, 23 and 25, 7:45 p.m.

* “Fighting Words,” by Sunil Kuruvilla: June 16, 18, 22 and 24, 7:45 p.m.; June 25, 2 p.m.

READINGS

* “Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams,” by Nilo Cruz: June 17, 2:30 p.m.

* “Vieques,” by Jorge Gonzalez: June 18, 2:30 p.m.

* “Kimberly Akimbo,” by David Lindsay-Abaire: June 23, 1 p.m.

* “The Butterfly Collection,” by Theresa Rebeck: June 23, 3 p.m.

* “The Beard of Avon,” by Amy Freed: June 24, 10 a.m.

* “Modern Orthodox,” by Daniel Goldfarb: June 24, 1 p.m.

* “Tom Walker,” by John Strand: June 25, 11 a.m.

“Kimberly Akimbo,” “The Beard of Avon,” “Modern Orthodox” and “Tom Walker” will also be staged during SCR’s 2000-01 season.

The two previous Pacific Playwrights Festivals yielded five plays that were developed in workshops or readings and went on to be chosen for full productions at the theater. They include “The Beginning of August,” by Tom Donaghy, premiering at SCR April 25-May 28, and “Everett Beekin,” by Richard Greenberg, which will open the 2000-01 season in September.

Tickets to workshop productions cost $12 to $18. Staged readings cost $8. (714) 708-5555.