TOM TITUS -- Theater

They started on a shoestring, traveling from venue to venue, hauling

their props and costumes in a station wagon. Realists would give them

little chance of sustaining their lofty concept of world-class

professional theater.

Their growth was measured in carefully orchestrated steps: Step 1, a

mobile theater group, introducing itself to local audiences; Step 2, a

small theater converted from a marine swap shop in Newport Beach; Step 3,

a larger playhouse in downtown Costa Mesa; Step 4, a two-theater complex

in South Coast Town Center that would win worldwide renown and a Tony

award.

And today, three and a half decades after its humble beginning, South

Coast Repertory prepares to take its fifth step, a new, $19-million,

336-seat theater adjoining the existing two, as part of the envisioned

Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The Segerstrom family, agricultural pioneers and developers of the

Town Center and South Coast Plaza, has been in the forefront of SCR’s

development from 1978, when the present theater complex was built, to the

current campaign.

When the new project is completed, the mainstage will be re-christened

the Segerstrom Theater, with the Second Stage becoming the Nicholas

Studio Theater, honoring Broadcom founder and SCR patron Henry T.

Nicholas III.

It will mark the end of the rainbow for SCR and its artistic

directors, David Emmes and Martin Benson, who came up with the idea of

building a professional theater back in 1964 when they presided over a

three-play summer season in Long Beach.

Emmes and Benson, now in their early 60s, remain at the SCR helm,

guiding the theater and directing many of its productions. Local

audiences received their first taste of what would become South Coast

Repertory in February 1965 when the mobile troupe staged “Tartuffe” at

the old Laguna Playhouse, following the Moliere comedy with “Waiting for

Godot” and “Volpone.”

The official birth of SCR occurred March 12, 1965, when “Godot” opened

the 75-seat Second Step Theater at 2815 Villa Way, Newport Beach. Those

first three plays ran in repertory at the converted swap shop, followed

in the initial season by “The Glass Menagerie” and an original play, “The

Trial of Gabriel Kapuniak.”

But the theater’s artistic energies were being stretched to their

limit, and Emmes and Benson reverted to the traditional

one-play-at-a-time concept. The second season ignited the company’s

rocket boosters with back-to-back stagings of Shakespeare’s “Othello” and

Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party,” which brought SCR widespread

attention.

With the support of actor and Newport resident Buddy Ebsen, the troupe

launched plans for its third step, which culminated in the opening of the

downtown Costa Mesa venue. Highly praised productions such as “One Flew

Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “That Championship Season,” “A Streetcar Named

Desire” and “Death of a Salesman” launched the company into fully

professional status.

But it was the original rock-ecology musical “Mother Earth” by Ron

Thronson and Toni Shearer (now known as Toni Tennille) that energized the

company financially, triggering the plans to take the ambitious and

economically risky fourth step.

That move culminated in the opening in September 1978 of “The Time of

Your Life” on the mainstage of the present theater at 665 Town Center

Drive. The following year saw the birth of the smaller Second Stage with

a play called “Forever Yours, Marie Lou.”

In 1980, SCR sought to produce a Christmas-themed production for the

holiday season. Company member Jerry Patch came up with an adaptation of

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The play became a tradition that

will mark its 21st season next month with Hal Landon Jr. in the role of

Ebenezer Scrooge, a character he’s played from day one.

Another holiday tradition, the Hispanic-themed “La Posada Magica,” is

entering its seventh season on the Second Stage.

The new theater, scheduled to open in October 2002, will give SCR a

total of 943 seats, expanding the company’s education and outreach

programs, including youth theater initiatives that draw on SCR’s

nationally acclaimed play development program.

Plans are to commission scripts for a new youth theater series of

professionally staged productions in the new theater, as well as plays

performed by SCR’s youth and teen players in the Nicholas Studio Theater

(the current Second Stage).

The 37-year road from a station wagon to a multimillion dollar complex

has been a long and winding one, navigated by the steady hands of David

Emmes and Martin Benson.

In Saturday’s column, the founders will offer their perspective on the

incredible success story that is South Coast Repertory.

* TOM TITUS writes about and reviews local theater for the Daily

Pilot. His stories appear Thursdays and Saturdays.