The 15th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival

Launched in 1998, South Coast Repertory’s annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) has become a major national showcase for new plays. The 15th Festival in April 2012 will bring the total number of plays presented in PPF to 99, representing the work of 78 playwrights. Each year’s three-day festival attracts theatre professionals from across the nation, who are drawn by the chance to be the first to see some of the best new plays in the country. These artistic leaders, along with SCR’s devoted new… Show more play audiences, take advantage of the opportunity to engage with seven new plays that traverse the theatrical spectrum. And along the way PPF becomes a convivial gathering place for the sharing of ideas with colleagues and friends, old and new.

This year’s festival takes place April 27 – April 29 and features seven plays during an action-packed weekend: five staged readings and two fully-staged world premieres.

The New York Times calls SCR “an incubator of major talent… South Coast has mounted an impressive list of acclaimed plays, long before the East Coast establishment got wind of them.” SCR’s 14 previous festivals have included such award-winning plays as Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics, Julia Cho’s The Language Archive, Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole.

READINGS

WARRIOR CLASS
by Kenneth Lin
directed by Evan Cabnet
Friday, April 27, at 1pm on the Segerstrom Stage
They're already calling him "the Republican Obama," but when Julius Weishan Lee makes a bid for Congress, he must decide how far he'll go to keep his past transgressions buried.

YOU ARE HERE
by Melissa Ross
directed by Matt Shakman
Friday, April 27, at 3:30pm on the Segerstrom Stage
In this fierce comedy of urban manners, six New Yorkers look for connection and fulfillment, as youth slips away and edginess begins to lose its edge.

I AND YOU
by Lauren Gunderson
directed Meredith McDonough
Friday, April 27, at 8pm and Saturday, April 28 at 2:30pm and 8pm in the Nicholas Studio
On the night before a class assignment is due, Caroline and Anthony plumb the mysteries of a Whitman poem...unaware that a deeper mystery has brought them together.

THE FEW
by Samuel D. Hunter
directed by Casey Stangl
Saturday, April 28, at 10:30am on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Four years ago, Bryan skipped town, leaving his girlfriend to run a failing trucker’s newspaper. Now he’s come back to discover everything has changed. Except the hurt that made him leave.

SMOKEFALL
by Noah Haidle
directed by Anne Kauffman
Sunday, April 29, at 10:30am on the Segerstrom Stage
This time-bending tale of an eccentric Midwestern family on the verge of upheaval is at times fanciful, at times ineffably beautiful—and always unpredictable.

Tickets for readings are $14 each.

A package to see all five readings is available for $60, or $50 for SCR Super Subscribers by calling the box office at 714-708-5555.

Theatre professionals: please contact Kimberly Colburn (kimberly@scr.org) at 714-708-5841 for industry packages and more information.

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