Martin Benson News

A testament to the transcendent power of love and music takes center stage as South Coast Repertory opens its 2017-18 season with the multi-award-winning Once. The musical-book by Enda Walsh; music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova-is based on John Carney's Academy Award-winning indie film of the same name. Kent Nicholson will direct Once on the Segerstrom Stage, Sept. 2-30, 2017. Tickets are available online at www.scr.org.

South Coast Repertory's Summer Players will present the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods on the Julianne Argyros stage, directed by Hisa Takakuwa, with musical direction by Erin McNally. Performances by SCR's Theatre Conservatory students run Aug. 12-20; tickets are on sale now at www.scr.org. 

South Coast Repertory has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Yoga Play, a comedy by Dipika Guha. The production is part of the 20th Pacific Playwrights Festival, the theatre's annual showcase of new work.

South Coast Repertory is producing the world premiere of Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 on the Julianne Argyros Stage, April 9-30.

Quirky and surprisingly unexpected, playwright Jen Silverman explores a delightfully fresh and edgy new take on the formulaic 'opposite personalities that live together' paradigm in the new dark comedy THE ROOMMATE, now continuing its West Coast premiere performances at Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory through January 22 in Costa Mesa. Consistently winsome and, at times, touchingly relatable, the play unveils two very complex, rather dysfunctional individuals you still ultimately want to root for and watch blossom into better people as we watch them long to transform their lives.

Can a person really change? And, once they break the mold, can they ever stop? Playwright Jen Silverman takes on these questions in The Roommate, a funny and dark comedy that has its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory on the Julianne Argyros Stage, Jan. 3-22. Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson directs. Tickets are available now at www.scr.org.

Can a person really change? And, once they break the mold, can they ever stop? Playwright Jen Silverman takes on these questions in The Roommate, a funny and dark comedy that has its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory on the Julianne Argyros Stage, Jan. 3-22. Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson directs. Tickets are available now at www.scr.org.

Nothing says the holidays like South Coast Repertory's production of A Christmas Carol, an Orange County family favorite since 1980. John-David Keller directs the Charles Dickens' classic, adapted by Jerry Patch, with performances on the Segerstrom Stage Nov. 25-Dec. 24. Hal Landon Jr. is Ebenezer Scrooge, the "Bah! Humbug!" miser who has a yuletide change of heart. Tickets are available at www.scr.org.

Nothing says the holidays like South Coast Repertory's production of A Christmas Carol, an Orange County family favorite since 1980. John-David Keller directs the Charles Dickens' classic, adapted by Jerry Patch, with performances on the Segerstrom Stage Nov. 25-Dec. 24. Hal Landon Jr. is Ebenezer Scrooge, the "Bah! Humbug!" miser who has a yuletide change of heart. Tickets are available at www.scr.org.

The tale of the naughty puppet hoping to become a real boy gets an infusion of music, clowning and fun when South Coast Repertory's Theatre for Young Audiences series presents Pinocchio by Greg Banks, based on the classic story by Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio runs Feb. 5-21 on the Julianne Argyros Stage and is directed by Jeremy Aluma. Tickets are on sale at www.scr.org.

Playwrights Project will produce its 31st annual festival of Plays by Young Writers, sponsored by the Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky Family Fund, at The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center at The Old Globe on January 21 - January 31, 2016. The festival will feature winning scripts from its California Young Playwrights Contest for ages 18 and under.

South Coast Repertory today announced that OFFICE HOUR, a commissioned work from Julia Cho, will receive its world premiere in performances April 10-May 1, 2016. Stage, film and television actor Sandra Oh will lead the cast for this production, which also is part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Neel Keller will direct OFFICE HOUR on the Julianne Argyros Stage.

It was 25 years ago when South Coast Repertory first staged the World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley's dark comedy ABUNDANCE. Fast forward to 2015, and Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater saw it fitting to once again revisit the property in a brand new production now viewed through 21st Century eyes, that has been beautifully directed by SCR Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson. The play continues performances in Costa Mesa through November 15.

South Coast Repertory will present ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, VIETGONE, ABUNDANCE, and more for the four-month period of September through December 2015.

South Coast Repertory's 2015-16 season will take audiences- theatrically speaking-from Brighton, England, in the swinging '60s (Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors) to 18th-century Austria (Peter Shaffer's Amadeus) to the American Wild West (Beth Henley's Abundance). In addition, the season will delve into the lives of artist Mark Rothko (Red by John Logan) and writer Sandra Tsing Loh (in her adaptation of her memoir, The Madwoman in the Volvo).

On Saturday, February 7, Chance Theater's Board of Directors, staff and resident artists held a special event to honor their major capital campaign donors and give them a literal standing ovation. The guest of honor at the event was community leader, Bette Aitken, whose husband Wylie surprised her last year with a $250,000 gift to the Chance to name the theater's new home after her.

The Pasadena Playhouse presents, in association with South Coat Repertory, Matthew Lopez's multi-award winning play THE WHIPPING MAN as the fourth production of the 2014-2015 season. THE WHIPPING plays through March 1, 2015 at The Pasadena Playhouse. Stage and television star Charlie Robinson (NBC's 'Night Court') plays Simon in this Obie Award-winning drama. The production also stars Adam Haas Hunter and Jarrod M. Smith and is directed by Martin Benson. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

In South Coast Repertory's excellent new production of Matthew Lopez's captivating play THE WHIPPING MAN---now playing at the Tony Award-winning Costa Mesa theater through January 25---an internal, theological tug-of-war is brewing just as the Civil War has come to an end. The absorbing, character-driven drama presents the uneasy return of an injured war veteran back to his family's home where two of his father's slaves---now free men under the law---have remained. The homecoming coincides with the Jewish holiday of Passover, which all three celebrate inside the war-torn ruins of this once grand Southern mansion.

The Pasadena Playhouse announced that they will present Matthew Lopez's multi-award winning play THE WHIPPING MAN, the fourth production of the 2014-2015 season. Watch the teaser below!

Do you believe in heaven? If so, what does it look like? That's what playwright Bekah Brunstetter explores in her new work, Going to a Place where you Already Are. It's up next for South Coast Repertory's NewSCRipts reading series on Monday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Tickets are available online at ?www.scr.org. The play is an SCR commission.