RELEASE: July 26, 2007

SCR HOLDS ANNUAL MEETING, RE-ELECTS OFFICERS FOR 44TH SEASON

COSTA MESA, Calif. (July 26, 2007)—At South Coast Repertory’s Annual Meeting on July 25, the Board officers were re-elected to lead the theatre during the 44th Season (September 1, 2007 – August 31, 2008).

Board President Lawrence M. Higby presented an assessment of the 43rd Season, giving an encouraging report to the Trustees. According to Higby, total attendance was over 138,000 for the five-play Segerstrom Stage season, the four-play Argyros Stage season, the three-play season of Theatre for Young Audiences, and the holiday shows A Christmas Carol and La Posada Mágica (The Magical Journey).

“Thanks to steady audiences, strong underwriting and dedicated leadership from our Trustees — helping us raise over $2.8 million to meet the theatre’s $9.5 million operating budget — on August 31 we will conclude the 43rd consecutive season on with a balanced budget,” Higby said.

With this solid artistic and financial success behind them and SCR firmly ensconced as one of the finest theatre’s in America, the officers accepted the Board’s unanimous re-election and looked forward as a group to an exciting 2007-08 Season. The officers include Timothy Weiss, Vice President, Advancement; Wylie Aitken, Vice President, Development; Dean Samsvick, Vice President, Finance; and Betty Eu Huang, Vice President, Community Relations.

Higby welcomed three new members to the roster: Robert G. Deuster (Chairman & CEO, Newport Corporation), Damien Jordan (General Manager, The Capital Group Companies) and Marc Levin (Managing General Partner, Levin Capital Management); and acknowledged the retirement of Trustee Sue Stern, who completed her nine-year term.

Among the 43rd Season’s achievements was the fourth successful year of SCR’s Theatre for Young Audiences, which included 34 free performances for 10,400 Orange County schoolchildren, thanks in part to grants from the Nicholas Endowment and the Segerstrom Foundation.

More than 4,400 people, including representatives from theatres across the country, attended the Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF), May 4-6, 2007. The tenth annual PPF continued SCR’s tradition of developing new work, with a weekend of four play readings, the workshop of a fifth and full productions of two world premieres — Julie Marie Myatt’s My Wandering Boy on the Segerstrom Stage, and David Wiener’s System Wonderland on the Argyros Stage.

Instrumental in helping SCR commission, develop and produce world premieres and support PPF and a full array of play development programs were The James Irvine Foundation, the Shubert Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Educational Touring Production of Bad Water Blues by Richard Hellesen and Michael Silversher played 140 performances in 81 locations to over 35,000 school children, with strong underwriting support from The Boeing Company and Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation.

After the meeting, the Trustees gathered on Ela’s Terrace for cocktails, followed by the SCR Annual Dinner, which included a large-screen season retrospective, 21 individuals and eighteen corporations were presented with framed mementos for their generous gifts that helped underwrite the 43rd Season.

SCR’s 2007-08 Season opens on September 14 with the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical A Little Night Music, directed by Stefan Novinski, followed on September 28 by the world premiere of Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked!, directed by Bart DeLorenzo on the Argyros Stage. Prior to the exciting First Nights on SCR’s two stages, the Orange County social season will kick off on September 8 with South Coast Repertory’s Gala Ball, “Affair in Shanghai,” chaired by Betty Huang at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, under the artistic direction of David Emmes and Martin Benson, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theaters in the United States. Founded in 1964, SCR is committed to theater that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theater, SCR is renowned for its extensive new play development program, including the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Of SCR’s more than 400 productions, 103 have been world premieres with subsequent stagings achieving enormous success across America and around the world. SCR-developed works have garnered eight Pulitzer Prize nominations with Margaret Edson’s Wit winning the prize in 1999 and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole in 2007. Located in Costa Mesa, California, in 2002 SCR opened the Folino Theater Center, an expanded three-theater complex that includes the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.