RELEASE: January 31, 2008

ZAYD DOHRN’S 'REBORNING' TO RECEIVE PUBLIC READING IN NEWSCRIPTS SERIES

COSTA MESA, Calif. (Jan. 31, 2008)—South Coast Repertory’s third NewSCRipts reading of the 2007-08 season will be Zayd Dohrn’s Reborning. Reborning is the 104th play to receive a staged reading as part of SCR’s venerable play reading program. The NewSCRipts reading of Reborning will take place on February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Tickets are $12 each and may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

Art and life imitate each other in Dohrn’s contemporary drama about confronting the past and facing the future. Kelly, a sculptor of lifelike baby dolls, begins to suspect that her client Emily may be her long-lost mother—and the doll she is building for Emily may be her own likeness. But that connection is not a simple one as Kelly begins to re-enact her own history of abuse on the doll.

Dohrn received his MFA from New York University’s Department of Dramatic Writing and a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship from The Juilliard School. His plays have been produced at Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan, Classic Stage Company (NYC Fringe), The Boston Actor’s Workshop and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, as well as developed at The Flea, Studio 42, the National New Play Network, Ensemble Studio Theatre (24Seven Lab), Alchemy Theatre, Prop Thtr, and Kitchen Dog. He won the IRNE Award for Best New Play, The Rita and Burton Goldberg Prize in Playwriting, received a residency at the Royal Court Theatre of London, and is currently the Playwright in Residence at Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan. His play Sick was featured in the National New Play Network Showcase in November 2007.

The annual NewSCRipts series of four Monday evening play readings by emerging and established playwrights was launched in 1985 as a way to bring the audience into the process of creating new work. After each public reading, audience members engage in lively exchanges with the playwright and become active participants in the play’s development, providing invaluable feedback for the writer. Plays selected for the NewSCRipts series have earned six Pulitzer Prize nominations with Margaret Edson’s Wit winning the prize in 1999.

South Coast Repertory’s NewSCRipts series of play readings is generously underwritten by Elaine J. Weinberg. Orange Coast Magazine is the Media Partner.

TICKETS to the NewSCRipts reading of Reborning can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office. NewSCRipts tickets are $12 each and include audience discussions with the playwright and dramaturg.

LOCATION: South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.

COMING UP: The Importance of Being Earnest (2/8-3/9), Charlotte’s Web (2/8-24), NewSCRipts: Reborning (2/25), Culture Clash in AmeriCCa (3/16-4/6), NewSCRipts #4 (3/31), What They Have (4/4-5/4), The Injured Party (4/20-5/11), Pacific Playwrights Festival (5/2-4), Taking Steps (5/16-6/15), Imagine (5/30-6/15).

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, 104 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.