SCR Breaks Ground on New Theater

South Coast Repertory has raised 82% of the money it needs to build a new stage and to nearly double its endowment, officials of the Costa Mesa theater said Wednesday as they broke ground on a 336-seat theater set to open next fall.

David Emmes, South Coast’s co-founder and producing artistic director, said at a ceremony featuring champagne, confetti and a brass quartet that he is “immensely pleased” with the progress of the $40-million fund-raising campaign, which began in late 1998. The drive has focused on large donors to date; next comes a community campaign to raise the remaining $7.2 million in smaller increments.

Among new gifts announced Wednesday was a $500,000 grant over four years from the South Pasadena-based Whittier Family Foundations to help launch a youth theater series aimed at bringing new, professionally produced works for children and families to the stage. Along with plays for adults, South Coast aims to schedule three children’s shows each season on the new $19-million Judie Argyros Stage. The children’s series will start in October 2003.

Emmes and South Coast’s other founding artistic director, Martin Benson, have commissioned acclaimed playwright Donald Margulies to write a play for the youth series. Margulies has had three plays produced at South Coast, including “Dinner With Friends,” which had its West Coast premiere there in 1998 and went on to win the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Speaking Wednesday from his home in New Haven, Conn., Margulies said he had been thinking of branching into plays for all ages when South Coast called to propose the youth theater commission. He said he was motivated partly by the lack of plays suitable for his son, Miles, who is 9.

“I teach young people, and when I ask, ‘Have you ever seen a play?,’ they say, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen “Cats.” ’ That’s not drama, something that involves watching human behavior in ways that reflect real life. I want to create a kind of G-rated theater that invites everybody in,” Margulies said.

He said he hopes to write something “that is timeless and speaks to everyone.” Margulies cited Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and the film “Babe” as models for the kind of experience he hopes to provide.

SCR officials also announced the naming of the Folino Family Education Center, named for the family of board President Paul Folino. Classrooms will be housed on the third level of the Judie Argyros Stage building.

Emmes said that he and Benson hope to open the Argyros theater and the renovated Mainstage (to be renamed the Segerstrom Theatre) next year with new plays by major writers who have had several works produced at South Coast and helped the theater gain its national reputation as a leading incubator of new drama.

Among them could be Margulies (with an adult play called “Brooklyn Boy”) and Pulitzer finalists Amy Freed and Richard Greenberg, all of whom are working on commissions from South Coast.

“This vision has grown beyond our wildest imagination,” said Emmes, referring to South Coast Repertory’s early days. Emmes and Benson recounted tales of living on adrenaline, having no money to pay actors and rehearsing in a garage.

“A number of times when one of us got down, the other would say, ‘We can do it. Buck up,’ ” Emmes said.

Those who turned out Wednesday to congratulate SCR included Costa Mesa Mayor Libby Cowan, arts leaders such as Orange County Performing Arts Center President Jerry Mandel and Pacific Symphony President John Forsyte, and a cadre of arts supporters including Henry and Elizabeth Segerstrom and Stacey Nicholas.

Attendance and budget figures for South Coast’s 2000-2001 season, which just ended, were also announced Wednesday. Attendance was 162,592, down from the previous year’s 167,401.

Theater spokeswoman Madeline Porter said that the eight extra performances of “The Education of Randy Newman” last summer accounted for most of the extra attendance. Mainstage shows this season ran at 86% capacity, and Second Stage productions played to 88% capacity, Porter said. South Coast finished with a $90,000 surplus on its $8.2-million operating budget.

The fund-raising campaign will boost the endowment to $26 million from $15 million. Another $10 million is earmarked to cover regular operating expenses over five years.

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Times staff writer Vivian Letran contributed to this report.