Foote Steps In, Event Steps Out

South Coast Repertory aims to create an artwork within an artwork come June, when it will use the “California Scenario” sculpture garden in Costa Mesa as a backdrop for five short plays, called “California Scenarios,” about the Latino experience in the state.

The six outdoor performances will bring a literal breath of fresh air to the fourth Pacific Playwrights Festival, South Coast’s annual gathering of playwrights, actors, directors and theater managers who come to work on or scout new plays in their formative process.

The festival runs June 22 to July 1; eight plays besides “California Scenarios” will receive workshop productions or staged readings in the more conventional setting of South Coast’s Mainstage and Second Stage. They include three scripts already chosen for full productions at the Costa Mesa theater during its 2001-02 season, which opens in September. Those three are “Getting Frankie Married--and Afterwards” by Horton Foote, the 85-year-old Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winner from Texas; “Hold Please” by Annie Weisman; and “Nostalgia” by Lucinda Coxon.

Other festival plays include “Eye to Eye” by Kevin Heelan, “Scab” by Sheila Callaghan and “The Falls” by Hilary Bell. Folded within the Pacific Playwrights Festival is South Coast’s 16th annual Hispanic Playwrights Project. The Hispanic project plays are “Sweaty Palms” by Alejandro Morales, “Our Tight Embrace” by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas and “California Scenarios.”

The idea of turning the famous, 19-year-old sculpture garden into a stage began with Juliette Carrillo, director of the Hispanic Playwrights Project. Sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed his garden of stone, water and vegetation as a tranquil refuge amid the hubbub of Costa Mesa’s high rise business district.

The Japanese-American artist sought to evoke desert regions, agricultural lands, waterways, mountains and forests in a 1.6-acre space surrounded by restaurants, office buildings and a parking garage. For Carrillo, it has been a favorite spot for nighttime strolls.

“It’s got a lot of mystery, it’s got a lot of poetry to it,” she said. She long had mulled the possibility of using this “very theatrical” setting as a stage for theater.

“California Scenarios” draws on the talents of five playwrights who have past credentials with the Hispanic Playwrights Project: Luis Alfaro of Los Angeles (who is co-director of the Mark Taper Forum’s Latino Theatre Initiative); Joann Farias; Anne Garcia-Romero; Jose Cruz Gonzalez, who preceded Carrillo as director of the Hispanic Playwrights Project; and Octavio Solis, the Texas-bred, San Francisco-based author of South Coast’s Second Stage Christmas staple, “La Posada Magica.”

South Coast commissioned the playwrights and enlisted the help of CommonWealth Partners, the real estate developer that owns the garden and is letting the theater use it rent free for the rehearsals and performances, according to Carrillo. About six weeks ago, she gathered the playwrights and her cast of eight actors at the Noguchi garden so they could soak up the atmosphere and, she hoped, be inspired by it.

The plays, each 10 to 15 minutes long, will take place in different, as-yet undetermined sections of the sculpture garden, Carrillo said. Each member of the audience--limited to 99 playgoers because of Actors’ Equity union contract guidelines--will be given a lightweight folding chair to carry from spot to spot as the sequence requires.

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The Pacific Playwrights Festival Schedule:

Workshop Productions (which include costumes, scenery and actors who have memorized their lines):

“California Scenarios” by Luis Alfaro, Joann Farias, Anne Garcia-Romero, Jose Cruz Gonzalez and Octavio Solis, June 22-24 and June 29-July 1, 8 p.m. in the Noguchi Garden, Costa Mesa. $10.

“Nostalgia” by Lucinda Coxon, South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. June 28-30, 7:45 p.m., July 1, 2 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. $18.

Play Readings (all $8)

“Sweaty Palms” by Alejandro Morales, Second Stage, June 23, 2:30 p.m.

“Our Tight Embrace” by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas, Second Stage, June 24, 2:30 p.m.

“Hold Please” by Annie Weisman, Mainstage, June 29, 1 p.m.

“Eye to Eye” by Kevin Heelan, Mainstage, June 29, 3 p.m.

“Getting Frankie Married--and Afterwards” by Horton Foote, Mainstage, June 30, 10 a.m.

“Scab” by Sheila Callaghan, Second Stage, June 30, 2 p.m.

“The Falls,” Hilary Bell, Mainstage, July 1, 11 a.m.

Information: (714) 708-5555 or https://www.scr.org.