SCR Announces 13th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival Lineup, 4/23-4/25

South Coast Repertory's 13th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) will shine the spotlight on seven new plays written by America's finest writers, including five who will be familiar to SCR audiences and two who are making their SCR debuts. This year's festival, which takes place April 23-25, will feature fully-produced world premieres by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Julia Cho and staged readings of brand-new works by Amy Freed, Itamar Moses, Bathsheba Doran, Sofia Alvarez and David West Read.

"Itamar Moses and Amy Freed, two SCR favorites, have written some of the funniest, sharpest plays in recent American theatre, so it's great to have both of them contributing plays to this year's festival," said PPF Co-Director John Glore. "And Bathsheba Doran, who has gotten the attention of a lot of theatre people with the subtle truthfulness and layered complexity of her writing, brings a very different sensibility to the mix."

Festival Co-Director Kelly Miller said she's also thrilled about the talented newcomers making their debuts this year: "We're very pleased to introduce PPF audiences to two exciting, distinctive new dramatic voices in Sofia Alvarez and David West Read, who've written extraordinary plays about young people in a markedly contemporary world."

Since its creation in 1998, PPF has grown into one of the most important festivals of new scripts in the United States. SCR's 12 previous festivals have introduced 83 new plays to the national stage, including Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon, Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics, Rolin Jones' The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole.

Anchoring the 13th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival are productions of The Language Archive, a romantic comedy by Julia Cho about a brilliant linguist who knows what to say to everyone but his wife; and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Doctor Cerberus, the funny coming-of-age tale of an overweight teenager who dreams of becoming the assistant to Doctor Cerberus, host of a late-night, local-access horror movie program.

Kicking off the festival is Itamar Moses' Completeness, in which megabytes and microbes collide in a 21st-century romantic comedy about the timeless confusions of love.

Then comes Happy Face from David West Read, about orphaned siblings Wendy and Poots. Poots wears a Phantom of the Opera mask and lives in a refrigerator box in the back yard; Wendy is a would-be actress with dwindling funds and bleak prospects. But she's also a spitfire with a plan, and no one should bet against her.

Playing Friday and Saturday in the Nicholas Studio is Between Us Chickens by Sofia Alvarez, the story of two 20-somethings newly arrived in L.A. from small-town Pennsylvania. Meagan is the party girl; Sarah is the quiet one - that is until couch-crashing Charles arrives and their roles begin to shift.

Saturday gets started with Bathsheba Doran's Kin, in which a couple meet online, fall in love and move in together. But before they can begin their future together, each must reconcile with the past and navigate the unpredictable currents of family and friends.

Closing out the staged readings is Right to the Top by Amy Freed about a superstar architect who steals a minor remodeling job from a pair of fledgling architects, leading to some shocking revelations about his past.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Julia Cho is the author of The Piano Teacher, Durango, The Winchester House, BFE, The Architecture of Loss and 99 Histories, which have been produced at SCR, The Vineyard Playhouse, The Public Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, East West Players and The Theatre @ Boston Court, among others. An alumna of the Juilliard School and NYU's Graduate Dramatic Writing Program, Cho is a member of New Dramatists. This month, her play The Language Archive won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best new English-language play by a female writer.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's play King of Shadows was featured as a NewSCRipts reading at SCR in 2007. His other plays include Good Boys and True, Based on a Totally True Story, The Mystery Plays and Dark Matters. He is a Harvey Award winner for his work for Marvel Comics, which includes writing for Sensational Spider-Man, Marvel Knights 4 and The Stand. Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the completely revised book for the Charles Strouse/Lee Adams musical It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, which will premiere this summer at Dallas Theatre Center, and is currently working with Duncan Sheik on a musical adaptation of American Psycho and writing for HBO's "Big Love."

Bathsheba Doran's play Ben and the Magic Paintbrush will receive its world premiere at SCR in June, and her play Parents Evening will receive its world premiere at The Flea Theater in April. Other plays include Living Room in Africa, Nest, Until Morning and an adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations. She is a 2009 recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and three Lincoln Theater Center's Lecomte du Nouy Prizes. She studied at Cambridge and Oxford universities, holds an MFA from Columbia University and was a playwriting fellow of The Juilliard School.

Amy Freed is the author of You, Nero, Safe in Hell and The Beard of Avon, which were commissioned by and had their world premieres at SCR. Her play Freedomland, also commissioned and premiered by SCR, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Psychic Life of Savages was the recipient of the Joseph Kesselring Award and the winner of the Charles MacArthur Award. An earlier version of the play was first developed and performed in San Francisco under the title Poetomachia and received a Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Outstanding Achievement Award for an Original Script. In its earlier version, it was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Freed is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University.

Itamar Moses is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach at Leipzig (performed at SCR in 2006), Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back and The Den, a collection of short plays titled Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to It), as well as various one-acts. He is presently adapting Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude for the stage with composer Michael Friedman, and director Daniel Aukin. His work has appeared Off-Broadway and at regional theatres across the country; and in Canada, France and Brazil. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU.

Sofia Alvarez is currently a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School. She is an alumna of The Royal Court Theatre's Young Writer's Program in London, where she developed her play Life Drawing. She was recently awarded Lincoln Theater Center's Lecomte du Nouy Prize. She received her BA in Drama from Bennington College. She has worked as an assistant to Christopher Hampton, Adam Guettel and in the theatre department at CAA.

David West Read is currently pursuing his MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts on a full Departmental Fellowship. His plays have been produced at numerous festivals, including the Toronto Fringe, SummerWorks, the North Jersey New Found Theatre Festival (Winner-Best Play) and NYU's Festival of New Works. His short play Double Penetration was selected as a finalist at the 2009 Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, and his full-length play The Dream of the Burning Boy will be produced at the Roundabout Theater Underground as part of its 2010-2011 season. Happy Face was first developed as a playwriting thesis project at NYU under the guidance of Marsha Norman.

The Honorary Producers of the Pacific Playwrights Festival are Sophie and Larry Cripe, Yvonne and Damien Jordan, Sue and John Murphy, Thomas B. Rogers and Sarah J. Anderson and Linda and Tod White. The Pacific Playwrights Festival is made possible by support from The Shubert Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation for supporting the development of new plays. The Honorary Producer of The Language Archive is The Playwrights Circle. The Honorary Producers of Doctor Cerberus are Laurie Smits Staude and The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

Coast Magazine is the Media Partner and The Wyndham Orange County Hotel is the Official Hotel of the Pacific Playwrights Festival.

TICKET PRICES for the 13th Pacific Playwrights Festival are $12 per individual reading, and $31-$65 for The Language Archive and Doctor Cerberus. The festival runs April 23-25. Tickets can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

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.

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, 113 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.
# # #

13TH ANNUAL PACIFIC PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL LINEUP

Fully-Produced World Premieres

THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE
by Julia Cho
directed by Mark Brokaw
(Previews March 26 - April 1; Runs April 2 - April 25)

PPF Schedule:
Friday, April 23, at 8 pm; Saturday, April 24, at 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 25, at 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.

George is a brilliant linguist. But things aren't going his way. He's concerned that every two weeks a language vanishes from the face of the earth. Now his wife is about to vanish-from his life-leaving cryptic notes around the house as she goes (Husband or throw pillow? Marriage or old cardigan?), and he doesn't have the words to stop her. His assistant has strong feelings for him and has finally decided to open up, but believes she could better express herself in Esperanto, which she hasn't yet learned. To top it off, George is about to record the last two speakers of a long-lost language, but they've stop talking to each other!

DOCTOR CERBERUS
by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
directed by Bart DeLorenzo
(Previews April 11-15; Runs April 16 - May 2)

PPF Schedule:
Friday, April 23, at 7:45 p.m.; Saturday, April 24, at 2 p.m. & 7:45 p.m.; Sunday, April 25, at 2 p.m. & 7:45 p.m.
In the suburbs of Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s, 13-year-old Franklin Robertson is trying to survive. His parents don't understand him. His older brother torments him non-stop. He'd rather write stories than go on dates. His great comfort comes from the horror movies he watches every Saturday night at midnight, on a black-and-white TV set in his basement, introduced by the enigmatic Doctor Cerberus. In fact, Franklin feels certain that Doctor Cerberus can save his misfit life-if only Franklin could get on his show. A coming-of-age comedy with a twist of terror, Doctor Cerberus is the latest from this "intelligent, compassionate writer" (Variety).

Staged Readings
(schedule subject to change)

COMPLETENESS
by Itamar Moses

Friday, April 23, at 1 p.m.

How does a computer scientist hook up with a molecular biologist? He uses the algorithm method, of course. But when Elliot offers to build a computer program to help Molly with her latest research project, they discover that megabytes and microbes might not be compatible - and even the most sophisticated algorithm may freeze in the face of life's infinite possibilities. From the author of Bach at Leipzig, a 21st-century romantic comedy about the timeless confusions of love.

HAPPY FACE
by David West Read

Friday, April 23, at 3:30 p.m.

Wendy has a lot on her plate. A force of nature in the form of a 20-year-old karate-chopping gamine, she has been the sole provider for her troubled younger brother, Poots, ever since their parents died in a tragic canoeing accident. While Wendy lives in the family house, Poots lives out back in a refrigerator box and wears a Phantom of the Opera mask to hide his disfigured face. Now their funds are dwindling and prospects are bleak, but the indefatigable Wendy has a plan - and no one should bet against her.

BETWEEN US CHICKENS
by Sofia Alvarez

Friday, April 23, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 24, at 2:30 and 8 p.m.

Meagan and Sarah are small-town girls new to L.A. Meagan's all about the retail, the scene and the celebrities; Sarah's a computer-surfing homebody. When a smooth-talking opportunist named Charles crashes on their couch and takes Sarah out on the town, he threatens to upset the balance of a lifelong friendship - especially when Sarah's secret life comes to light. This smart, savvy comedy by a promising new playwright surprises turn-by-turn as it asks how well you really know your friends.

KIN
by Bathsheba Doran

Saturday, April 24, at 10:30 a.m.

Adam and Anna have fallen in love. Now it's time to meet the family. Thousands of miles separate Adam from his agoraphobic Irish mother, and the emotional distance between Anna and her well-meaning but awkward father is just as great. Before they can begin their future together, each must reconcile with the past and navigate the unpredictable currents of family and friends. A wonderfully wry drama about the inevitable influence of kin.

RIGHT TO THE TOP
by Amy Freed

Sunday, April 25, at 10:30 a.m.

He's a giant of the architecture world: Gregor Zubrovsky, whose buildings rise like post-post-modern megaliths out of the center of the earth. So why has he decided to take on a project to remodel a decaying boathouse in a remote backwater? That's what up-and-coming architects Dieter and Rita want to know - especially since that project was supposed to be theirs. But nothing prepares them for the truth about Gregor, whose past is far more checkered than anyone might have imagined. Another outrageous outing from the author of The Beard of Avon and You, Nero.

# # #

13TH ANNUAL PACIFIC PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
(schedule subject to change)

Friday, April 23

1 p.m. Segerstrom Stage COMPLETENESS by Itamar Moses (staged reading)

3:30 p.m. Argyros Stage HAPPY FACE by David West Read
(staged reading)

7:45 p.m. Argyros Stage DOCTOR CERBERUS by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(full production)

8 p.m. Nicholas Studio BETWEEN US CHICKENS by Sofia Alvarez
(staged reading)

8 p.m. Segerstrom Stage THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
(full production)

Saturday, April 24

10:30 a.m. Argyros Stage KIN by Bathsheba Doran (staged reading)

2 p.m. Argyros Stage DOCTOR CERBERUS by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(full production)

2:30 p.m. Segerstrom Stage THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
(full production)

2:30 p.m. Nicholas Studio BETWEEN US CHICKENS by Sofia Alvarez
(staged reading)

7:45 p.m. Argyros Stage DOCTOR CERBERUS by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(full production)

8 p.m. Segerstrom Stage THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
(full production)

8 p.m. Nicholas Studio BETWEEN US CHICKENS by Sofia Alvarez
(staged reading)

Sunday, April 25

10:30 a.m. Segerstrom Stage RIGHT TO THE TOP by Amy Freed (staged reading)

2 p.m. Argyros Stage DOCTOR CERBERUS by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(full production)

2:30 p.m. Segerstrom Stage THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
(full production)

7:30 p.m. Segerstrom Stage THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
(full production)

7:45 p.m. Argyros Stage DOCTOR CERBERUS by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(full production)

For more information, visit http://www.scr.org/

Need more Costa Mesa Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...