Another Coup for the Arts

The award of a three-year, $300,000 foundation grant to South Coast Repertory to develop new plays is deserved recognition of the good work done by the Costa Mesa theater and is a significant boost for the development of the arts in Orange County.

Since it opened more than 30 years ago, and especially after moving to its present location in 1978, South Coast Repertory has grown into a centerpiece of Orange County’s arts scene. Among its triumphs was serving as the launching pad for the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Wit,” which arrived unsolicited and was shaped by the playwright Margaret Edson with help from SCR’s artistic staff.

Now the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has announced it will give the three-year grant to SCR to continue the Pacific Playwrights Festival. The foundation underwrote the first two festivals as well, helping playwrights come to SCR to work on their plays in private workshops with directors and other creative advisors.

After the workshops, the plays are staged, either in dramatic readings, with actors in street clothes and reading from scripts, or in full-fledged productions with costumes, scenery and lines duly memorized. Out of 18 plays presented in the first two festivals, 10 were produced in full runs at SCR or other theaters around the country. That’s an impressive record. Last month SCR staged the world premieres of two plays, one at each of its theaters, that had first been presented at the three-week festivals.

An official of the Mellon Foundation said the renewal of the grant and the increase in money from $87,500 a year to $100,000 was a vote of confidence in the progress of the playwrights’ festival.

With arts museums, opera and symphony companies and theaters in a number of cities, Orange County’s artistic development has grown with its population in recent decades. That’s a tribute to those who write the plays and music, to those who stage the performances and to the audiences who demand top-notch work.