Kresge Gives SCR $750,000 Challenge Grant for New Theater

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa has won a $750,000 grant to help build a 336-seat theater under construction and expected to open in October.

The money, from the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation, leaves the nonprofit troupe $2 million shy of the $24 million budgeted to expand, renovate and maintain its facilities.

David Emmes, South Coast’s producing artistic director, said in a prepared statement that the grant “comes at a critical point [because] the last gifts to a major campaign are the most challenging to raise.”

South Coast is in the end game of a $40-million, four-year fund-raising campaign that has three prongs.

The first, construction, for which the Kresge money is earmarked, requires $19 million to build the new theater and renovate the two existing ones, plus a $5-million endowment for building maintenance. The second is a $6-million endowment for developing plays suitable for family audiences, and the third is $10 million to help cover general operating expenses over five years.

With the Kresge grant--a challenge grant contingent on South Coast’s raising the rest of its construction budget from other sources--the overall campaign has reached $33.55 million, $6.45 million short of its goal.

The new theater’s designer is Cesar Pelli, who is also the architect for the planned expansion of the nearby Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The Kresge Foundation was established in 1924 by department store magnate Sebastian S. Kresge, whose retail chain eventually became Kmart Corp. The foundation, which is independent of the retailer, issued $132 million in grants last year.

Kresge also gave money to South Coast in the late 1970s to build its existing theaters, and again in 1988 for its endowment fund.

Mike Boehm