What an extraordinary odyssey over 4 decades

Last Sunday night, my wife and I made our first visit to the new,

expanded and shimmering South Coast Repertory to see George Bernard

Shaw’s “Major Barbara.”

It was impossible not to ponder my beginnings with SCR almost 40

years earlier as I wondered at this new venue. But it speaks volumes

about the effect of SCR that once the play began, nostalgia was left

in the lobby. The play has always been the thing at SCR, just as it

was Sunday night.

Shaw’s acerbic tale of the emotional and intellectual debate

between a very rich munitions maker and a pair of soul-savers from

the Salvation Army was, of course, loaded on his side -- but with

such biting wit and astute observations his cynicism had to be

forgiven, something he doubtless neither wanted nor cared about.

But this piece I’m writing today is not a critique of the play. It

is rather a small bouquet to SCR. Because I am very old and have

lived around here for a long time, I was present at the birth of SCR.

I attended “Tartuffe” -- its first production -- in a funky

commercial building on the Newport Beach waterfront, grateful for

this infusion of art in an area where public displays of intellect

tended to be highly suspect. In the years that followed, my family

bought SCR season tickets when we could afford them and saw plays

selectively when we couldn’t.

Meanwhile, my stepson, Erik, launched his theatrical career as a

cast member of “The Christmas Carol” when he was 10, appeared in

multiple children’s theater productions at SCR and has now written a

play that will open in February at the Theatre of Note in Los

Angeles. So I’ve wandered along behind SCR founders Martin Benson and

David Emmes, marveling at the stability of their determination to

stick with their vision while they challenged all of us who watched

to catch up with them.

Benson and Emmes haven’t made many concessions from their original

vision, but they’ve implemented that vision with such skill, artistic

talent, critical judgment, patience and lack of personal ego that

they have attracted a powerful core of disparate supporters whose

bond is the commitment to art they share.

Differences outside this area are simply a distraction.

From a distance, it has looked almost painless -- a steady journey

that has picked up speed and national attention and respect en route

to its splendid new home. But Emmes recalled for me the other day

some pit stops on that journey.

“There were,” he said, “two or three occasions when youthful

enthusiasm -- which can’t be sustained indefinitely -- began to run

on empty. The worst time was in the early 1970s. That’s when some of

the original founders fell by the wayside, and Martin and I had to

reassert our leadership. That way, no one person ever had to carry

all the weight. We were a sort of tag team. When one of us was ready

to toss it in, the other said ‘suck it up.’”

So how did they manage to avoid conflict with the chaotic

political climate of the John Birch Society years in Orange County?

“We were young enough,” Emmes said, “and perhaps naive enough to

just do the work we wanted to do. We weren’t into giving doses of

anything to people or blazing new trails. We simply looked for

exciting plays.

“We started slowly so the community could find us,” he said.

“Someone coming in and risking a large investment would have to make

more calculating choices. But by starting very young and penniless,

we were slowly able to attract people who were artistically liberal.”

They also picked the right place and the right time, strongly

influenced by two external factors: the establishment of UCI and the

appearance of what is now the Anaheim Angels.

“I figured,” Emmes said, “there was a good chance for a theater in

a population that appealed to both a university and baseball.”

Will the partners coast a bit now in these splendid new quarters?

Or are there new goals to pursue?

“Every once in a while,” Emmes said, “Martin and I sit back and

realize what an extraordinary odyssey we’ve been on. We’ve always

wanted to be a resource to the entire community. The feeling that

fine theater exists only in 11 square blocks in New York is

preposterous. But the bar keeps getting raised. We now have a new

opportunity to serve artists and the community. The real challenge

will always be quality.”

Exhibit A in SCR’s four-decade commitment to serve artists was put

on display this week in the newest addition to the SCR complex: the

Julianne Argyros Stage, where Richard Greenberg’s sixth SCR world

premiere, “The Violet Hour,” is the inaugural centerpiece. The play

requires more effort to assess than the theater, a 336-seat wonder

that washes over the viewer with a kind of intimate warmth.

It’s a long way, indeed, from that Newport Beach storefront where

I watched “Tartuffe” so many years ago. But it makes one wonder if

perhaps the spark of that youthful enthusiasm has survived all these

years, after all.

I’m just glad I’ve been around to watch it happen -- and to thank

the two artistic entrepreneurs who made it happen for the pleasure

and stimulation they’ve given me over those years.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.