New playwright to have premiere

Rolin Jones, an unknown, L.A.-raised playwright who is still in graduate school, will get a prominent showcase as South Coast Repertory stages the world premiere of his “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow,” May 2-18 on its Julianne Argyros Stage.

The play concerns Jennifer Marcus, a 22-year-old genius who lives as a shut-in because of a psychological disorder. She reaches out to the world via the Internet, forging an alter-ego for herself as she searches for her Chinese birth mother.

Jones, 30, a graduate of Cal State Northridge, is a second-year student in the playwriting program at the Yale School of Drama. His play and another world premiere, “Intimate Apparel” by Lynn Nottage, will be featured productions during South Coast’s annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, May 16-18. Seven works-in-progress, including new ones by South Coast veterans Amy Freed (“Freedomland,” “The Beard of Avon”) and Howard Korder (“Search and Destroy,” “The Hollow Lands”), will be offered during the festival in six staged readings and a workshop production.

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Mike Boehm