Studio SCR’ Showcases Small, Innovative SoCal Arts Companies

South Coast Repertory is partnering with some of SoCal's most intriguing artists to present a series of eclectic, Contemporary Theatre in its intimate Nicholas Studio.

Studio SCR (formerly the Studio Series) will feature an array of adventurous artists, including:

Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews
Four Clowns
Poor Dog Group
Monkey Wrench Collective
Theatre Movement Bazaar
Robert Cucuzza and Transit Authority

The line-up will also include SCRamble, a late-night cabaret featuring short pieces by eight or nine local acts.

"We're looking forward to partnering with such a talented group of artists," said SCR Artistic Director Marc Masterson. "These sorts of collaborations provide exciting opportunities. They give us the chance to forge new artistic relationships, and give audiences a chance to enjoy the incredible diversity of Southern California's performing arts scene-all under one roof."

Leading the project is Oanh Nguyen, SCR's producing associate and the artistic director of the Chance Theater, whose production of Jesus Hates Me in the Nicholas Studio two years ago kicked off the pilot program that has evolved into Studio SCR.
"It's an exciting mix of genre-smashing work from local artists," Nguyen said. "We have everything from hip-hop theatre to physical theatre, from irreverent clowns to ensemble-driven modern adaptations of classic works."
Tickets for the series will be available through SCR, either online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Prices vary by production, and range from $15 to $35.

THE SERIES
The Word Begins
Written and performed by Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews
Directed and developed by Robert Egan
8 p.m. Jan. 19-21
Nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards and named L.A. Weekly and BackStage West Critic's Picks, The Word Begins follows the hilarious and provocative journey of two men discovering the power of words to define love, faith, race and humanity in America. Mashing up theater, spoken word, comedy and hip-hop, Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews deliver a high-energy performance in this fresh new satire that examines the current cultural landscape.

The Word Begins is presented in association with the Off Center Festival of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Four Clowns
Jeremy Aluma
8 p.m. Feb. 17, 2 and 8 p.m. Feb. 18, 2 p.m. Feb. 19
Four Clowns is a physical, musical and emotional journey into what it means to be human. The four clowns-Sad, Mischievous, Angry and Nervous-reminisce about their pasts in a show fueled by audience interaction. As the old adage goes, "laughter is the best medicine," so come witness how the most tragic moments in one's life can give rise to the biggest laughs. As the clowns tell their tales of woe and elation from childhood to adulthood, we discover that they are all the same...and so are we.

SCRamble
Various artists
10 p.m. Feb. 18

Grab a drink and settle in for a bold new blend of alterNative Theatre, comedy, dance, music and interdisciplinary collaborations as some of SoCal's most interesting artists serve up unforgettable theatrical delights in 10-minute increments.

The Internationalists
Poor Dog Group
8 p.m. March 2, 2 and 8 p.m. March 3, 2 p.m. March 4
Unaware of the mounting threat of Sputnik, the first Russian satellite to orbit the Earth, America finds its global dominance in question. Vintage newsreels, NASA's flight records and modern, user-generated information delivery systems all collide to give a glimpse into our cyber-reality. The Internationalists investigates the race to outer space through the lens of a youthful generation brought up in the Technology Age.

pool (no water)
Monkey Wrench Collective
8 p.m. May 4, 2 and 8 p.m. May 5, 2 p.m. May 6
A famous artist invites several old friends to her luxurious new home and, for one night only, the group of artists is back together. Celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers a horrific accident and an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: Could her suffering be their next art project? This is Monkey Wrench Collective's revival of its critically-acclaimed 2010 U.S. premiere of Mark Ravenhill's play.

Anton's Uncles
Theatre Movement Bazaar
8 p.m. June 8, 2 and 8 p.m. June 9, 2 p.m. June 10
A fresh, funny, and physical look at Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. In this original work-winner of an Outstanding Theatre Award at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival-only the men remain, wrestling with their desires and pressed to examine a life unlived. Los Angeles-based Theatre Movement Bazaar explodes this classic play, merging the original text with new writing, movement, dancing and singing to emphasize the unspoken, unseen and unexpressed.

Cattywampus
Robert Cucuzza and Transit Authority
8 p.m. June 22, 2 and 8 p.m. June 23, 2 p.m. June 24
In this darkly comic reinvention of Strindberg's Miss Julie, writer/director Robert Cucuzza distills an essential tale of class and sexual power dynamics and transports it to modern-day Pittsburgh. Cattywampus traces the story of Julie as she tries to escape the clutches of her disinterested husband. She seduces an unsophisticated co-worker, Donnie, determined that he's her escape out of married misery, gambling it all on his cracked plan to relocate to Florida. But in a world that is so economically out-of-whack, she finds that her dreams of flight are no match for fate.

THE ARTISTS
Steve Connell is an acclaimed actor, renowned playwright and a national poetry champion. His work has been featured on ABC, MSNBC, HBO, SHOWTIME, BET and MTV, and hailed by critics as "powerful theatre," "hilarious" and "brilliant." He has performed privately for Oprah Winfrey, Norman Lear, Quincy Jones, Maya Angelou, Julie Taymor and President Barack Obama and shared the stage with Black Eyed Peas, Robin Williams and Stevie Wonder.

Sekou Andrews is a recording artist, actor/voiceover artist, two-time national poetry slam champion and international event speaker. His unique brand of motivational poetry is sought by Fortune 500s, global not-for-profits, leading conferences and individuals from Oprah to Deepak Chopra. He has been featured on "Good Morning America," HBO, and "ABC World News," has shared the stage with artists from Jay-Z to Carlos Santana, and has won a record-breaking list of Just Plain Folks awards, making him the most-awarded artist in the largest independent music organization in the country.

Four Clowns is a multi-award-winning, nationally-touring clown troupe based in Los Angeles. Its original show, titled Four Clowns, toured the nation in the summer of 2011 with performances in Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Phoenix. The show received numerous awards and accolades, including a 2011 Ovation Recommendation, 2011 San Francisco Fringe Award for Best of the Fringe, 2011 Minnesota Fringe Encore Performance Invitation and the 2010 Hollywood Fringe Award for Best in Physical Theater. Its second show, Four Clowns: Romeo & Juliet, won the Top of the Fringe Award at the 2011 Hollywood Fringe, beating out close to 200 other shows.

Poor Dog Group is a Los Angeles-based collective of like-minded performance and media artists committed to nurturing a distinctive aesthetic through adventurous collaboration. Its mission is to develop original theatrical expression through the creation of new work and radical reexaminations of existing texts; to redefine, educate and expand perceptions of performance and theatrical form; to have an accessibility for a new audience; to use experimental methods of the body, text and technology; to craft new American theatre; and to develop the cultivation of a limitless and periodic space.

Monkey Wrench Collective is devoted to producing U.S. premieres of European work, West Coast premieres of socially provocative new work, and vibrant productions of rarely-performed classics. Made up of former members of the critically-acclaimed Rude Guerrilla Theater Company (as well as a few new faces), this adventurous, button-pushing ensemble has worked together for more than a decade and now produces in Los Angeles.

Theatre Movement Bazaar is a company dedicated to creating original performance works
with an emphasis on physical action. Tina Kronis and Richard Alger are the principal artists of the award-winning company, and have collaborated for more than 10 years, creating 14 critically-acclaimed original works. TMB's unique approach to theatre explores the modes of expression through the body first, establishing a physical context in which to embody the text. The intent is to elevate the rigor and specificity of the performance style to that of dance.

Robert Cucuzza is an L.A.-based theatre artist and filmmaker whose work has been seen at major theaters and festivals in Los Angeles and New York City, across the country and worldwide. Deemed a "master of mayhem" by The New York Times, his writing and directing work is known for its controlled chaos, imaginative physicality, dark humor, heightened theatricality and high-stakes tension. He spent 16 years in New York producing work with his companies Hangdog Theater and ACME Acting Lab. As an actor, he is a 13-year company member of Elevator Repair Service (Gatz, Total Fictional Lie, Room Tone) and performed extensively with Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater (Panic!, Permanent Brain Damage, My Head Was a Sledgehammer). He is the artistic director of Transit Authority and holds an MFA in directing from CalArts, where he was the recipient of a Beutner Family Award for Excellence in the Arts.

ABOUT SCR: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. SCR is committed to theatre that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its wide array of education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theatre, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program, which includes the nation's largest commissioning program for emerging and established writers and composers. Each year, it showcases some of country's best new plays in the Pacific Playwrights Festival, which attracts theatre professionals from across the country. Of SCR's more than 450 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres, whose subsequent stagings achieved enormous success throughout America and around the world. Two SCR-developed works have won Pulitzer Prizes, and another eight were named Pulitzer finalists. In addition, SCR works have won several Obie Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, California, SCR's Folino Theater Center is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. Today, SCR produces 13 shows and eight public readings each season.