THEATER:Originals come to South Coast Rep

The arrival of spring may mean sunshine, flowers or Angels games to many local people, but at South Coast Repertory, it heralds the blooming of new plays.

Ever since Laguna Beach playwright Ian Bernard’s play “Chocolates” was produced at South Coast Repertory’s first home on the Newport Beach bay front in 1966, original plays have been a staple of the company’s diet.

It’s doubtful that even the hardiest South Coast Repertory patron recalls some of those 1960s entries — “Last Day of the Year,” “Pictures From the Walls of Pompeii,” “Adventures in a Paper Bag” — but they started the trend of world premieres that reached 100 with the opening of Julia Cho’s estimable “The Piano Teacher” last month.

They also laid the groundwork for the Pacific Playwrights Festival, which offers its 10th annual incarnation the first weekend of May. This event will feature seven productions in three days, including two fully staged shows — the current “My Wandering Boy” and the upcoming “System Wonderland” — along with four staged readings and a workshop production.

Six of these seven plays were commissioned by South Coast Repertory, including new plays by South Coast favorites Richard Greenberg and Donald Margulies. Other creators offering their latest works will be Jose Rivera, John Strand, David Wiener and Kenneth Lin.

Greenberg in particular has found a home at South Coast Repertory, which has presented a number of his plays for the first time — “Three Days of Rain,” “The Extra Man,” “Night and Her Stars,” “Hurrah at Last,” “Everett Beekin,” “The Violet Hour” and “A Naked Girl on the Appian Way.” His latest creation, “Our Mother’s Brief Affair With David Greenglass,” is scheduled for a staged reading at 10:30 a.m. May 5.

Margulies has had three plays commissioned and premiered by South Coast Repertory — “Sight Unseen,” “Collected Stories” and “Brooklyn Boy.” His Pulitzer Prize-winner, “Dinner With Friends,” had its West Coast premiere here.

His new one, set for a staged reading May 4 at 1 p.m. is titled — are you ready? — “Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself) — An Entertainment.”

Other staged readings include Rivera’s “Boleros for the Disenchanted,” at 3:30 p.m. May 4, and Strand’s “An Italian Straw Hat,” 10:30 a.m. May 6. The workshop production is Lin’s “Po Boy Tango,” scheduled at 7:45 p.m. May 4, at 2:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. May 5, and at 2:30 p.m. May 6. Familiar cinema faces Jill Clayburgh and Adam Arkin (whose dad, Alan Arkin, just won an Oscar) will be featured in the Greenberg play reading, while Margulies’ offering will be read by Gregory Itzen and Charlayne Woodard. John Vickery headlines the Strand selection.

Tickets for the festival — at $12 each for the readings, $20 for the workshop performance, and $31 to $60 for “My Wandering Boy” and “System Wonderland” — can be reserved by calling the theater box office at (714) 708-5555 or going to www.scr.org.

The Newport Beach Repertory Theater will hold auditions Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon for the stage version of the movie comedy “Alfie” at the Carroll Beek Community Center, 115 Agate Ave., Balboa Island.

Roles are open for teens, adults and seniors.

The production will run from June 21 to 23. Call (949) 633-1580 for more information.