SCR gets $300,000 grant

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation announced

Thursday will fund the creative juices of nearly 30 new playwrights in

the next three years.

Two years ago, South Coast Repertory launched the PacificPlaywrights

Festival with the aid of a two-year, $175,000 grant from the foundation.

Now, the Mellon Foundation -- a New York-based nonprofit organization

that awards grants to selective institutions in higher education,

cultural affairs and the performing arts -- has donated $300,000 to

support the program for the next three years.

“This kind of money is hard to come by, so we feel particularly

fortunate,” said Jerry Patch, coordinator of the festival for SCR. “We

would have had to do some shuffling if they hadn’t come back to support

us.”

The Pacific Playwrights Festival runs over a three-week period in June,

during which new plays are developed. Each year, 10 new plays are presented. This year, the festival runs June 5-25.

“Three to four years ago, there was a decline in play development in the

western part of the United States,” Patch said. “A couple activities were

curtailed or stopped completely. We had never done a festival where we

shared with sister theaters, but it was time for us to step in and do

something for the cause of play development.”

At the festival, audiences can experience new productions during various

levels of completion.

Each year, the festival coincides with the final Mainstage production of

SCR’s season, providing one full production for audiences. This year, the

Mainstage production of “The Education of Randy Newman” will run from May

28 through July 2.

In the second and third weeks of the festival, there are two

works-in-progress being performed on the smaller stage of theplayhouse.

Those performances are workshop productions, which means they will be

without full sets or costumes.The third week includes about five or more

plays that are presented in the format of stage readings.

The most exiting part of the festival, Patch said, is what they call the

“big weekend.”

“From Friday at 1 p.m. until Sunday at 1 p.m. people can come and see 10

new plays all in two and a half days,” he said.

More than half of the budget for the festival comes from the Mellon

Foundation grant, Patch said.

Although the foundation is primarily a supporter of established art

institutions, Patch said, several organizations looking to launch new

programs -- including SCR -- have been invited to submit a grant proposal

during the past three years.

“It’s great to support the creation of a production, but to give to the

research and development, where there may not be a full production, is

really being philanthropic,” Patch said.