Breaking ground with the Rep

Tom Titus

Theatergoers who enjoy getting there first as new plays are being

born will have a wealth of opportunities to do so in the next few

months at South Coast Repertory.

As it prepares for the annual Pacific Playwrights Festival --

which officially opens tonight with the world premiere of Richard

Greenberg’s “A Naked Girl on the Appian Way” -- the Costa Mesa

theater also will be open Monday for the staged reading of Amy

Freed’s new work, “Restoration Comedy.”

This final event in the theater’s NewSCRipts series is the latest

project from the author of “Freedomland,” “The Beard of Avon” and

“Safe in Hell,” all of which were given birth at 550 Town Center

Drive over the past several seasons.

“Restoration Comedy” focuses on women’s roles on stage in late

17th century London, which -- as you might remember from the movie

“Shakespeare in Love” -- were nonexistent. Sharon Ott is directing

the play, which will be presented Monday at 7:30 p.m. on the Julianne

Argyros Stage.

A third unveiling is scheduled April 29 when Lucinda Coxon’s

“Vesuvius” arrives on the Argyros Stage. Coxon is remembered for her

world premiere of “Nostalgia” at SCR four years ago.

The Pacific Playwrights Festival continues May 6 to 8 with three

performances of “Tough Titty” by Oni Faida Lampley in the Nicholas

Studio, between the two main theaters. This play focuses on a young

wife and mother trying to survive breast cancer while holding down a

job, caring for her kids, cajoling her husband and conversing with

God.

In addition, four other new scripts will be offered in staged

readings during the early May festival:

* “Bossa Nova” by Kirsten Greenidge: This South Coast

Repertory-commissioned work concerns the formative years in the life

of an African-American woman searching for her true identity in the

halls of higher learning.

* “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler” by Jeff Whitty: Hedda,

who killed herself at the end of the Ibsen drama named for her, lives

on in the Neighborhood of Tragic Women, an alternative hell where

fictional characters are forced to endure until they are forgotten at

last.

* “Rabbit Hole” by David Lindsay-Abaire: The author of “Kimberly

Akimbo,” which premiered at the theater in 2001, has come up with a

play about a couple facing terrible loss and seeking the will to

continue.

* “Ridiculous Fraud” by Beth Henley, whose plays “Abundance” and

“The Debutante Ball” were introduced at South Coast Repertory, and

who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Crimes of the Heart”: With this play,

Henley returns to the old South with a comedy about three brothers

bonded by love and jealousy.

Tickets for the Pacific Playwrights Festival are $10 for the

readings and $15 for workshop performances.

For the fully staged productions of “Naked Girl” and “Vesuvius,”

admission ranges from $29 to $56. More information may be obtained by

calling the theater at (714) 708-5555.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.