Bill Cain's How to Write a New Book for the Bible: A Play for an Older Actress will have a staged reading March 8 at 7:30 p.m. as part of South Coast Repertory's NewSCRipts series. (Please note that the date has changed since the series was first announced.) Bible is the 111th play to receive a staged reading in SCR's venerable play reading program.
It will be directed by
Jessica Kubzansky, an Artistic Director at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
Cain is the author of Equivocation, which recently concluded a successful run at the
Geffen Playhouse. His new play features a central character named
Bill Cain, who, like himself, is a writer and Jesuit priest. Bill has come home to care for his dying mother - a funny, tough, maddening woman.
The Situation stirs up memories both sweet and bitter from the days when his father was still alive and his brother lived closer to home. Moving swiftly from past to present and back again, How to Write a New Book for the Bible examines what it means to be a family.
Cain is also the author of 9 Circles, which had a staged reading at the 2009 Pacific Playwrights Festival. His widely produced play Stand-Up Tragedy earned six L.A. Critics Awards in its premiere at the
Mark Taper Forum and went on to productions in Washington, D.C., and on Broadway. He is the recipient of a
George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement for the series "Nothing Sacred," which he co-created, wrote and produced for ABC. He also wrote the screen adaptation of Nightjohn, which was named the best American film of the year by The New Yorker and given a special citation of excellence by the National Society of Film Critics. He is the founder of the Boston Shakespeare Company, where he was the artistic director for seven seasons.
The annual NewSCRipts series of three Monday evening play readings by emerging and established playwrights was launched in 1985 as a way to bring the audience into the process of creating new work. After the readings, which take place on the Argyros Stage, audience members engage in lively exchanges with the playwright and become active participants in the play's development, providing invaluable feedback for the writer. Plays selected for the NewSCRipts series have earned six Pulitzer Prize nominations, with
Margaret Edson's Wit winning the prize in 1999.
South Coast Repertory's NewSCRipts series of play readings is generously underwritten by Elaine J. Weinberg.
TICKETS to the NewSCRipts reading of How to Write a New Book for the Bible can be purchased online at
www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office. NewSCRipts tickets are $12 each and include audience discussions with the playwright and dramaturg.
LOCATION:
South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.
COMING UP: In a Garden, a world premiere from
Howard Korder (March 7-28); The Language Archive, a world premiere from
Julia Cho (March 26 - April 25); Pacific Playwrights Festival (April 23-25).
ABOUT SCR: Tony Award-winning
South Coast Repertory, under the artistic direction of
David Emmes and
Martin Benson, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theaters in the United States. Founded in 1964, SCR is committed to theater that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theater, SCR is renowned for its extensive new play development program, including the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Of SCR's more than 440 productions, 112 have been world premieres, with subsequent stagings achieving enormous success across America and around the world. SCR-developed works have garnered eight Pulitzer Prize nominations with
Margaret Edson's Wit winning the prize in 1999 and
David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole in 2007. Located in Costa Mesa, California, in 2002 SCR opened the Folino Theater Center, an expanded three-theater complex that includes the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.
