Press Release: 2021-22 Season Announcement

Returning to Live, In-person Performances with Plays Centering on Family

Includes World & U.S. Premieres, American Classic, Family Musical & Special Offerings

COSTA MESA, Calif. (Aug. 5, 2021)—South Coast Repertory Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Paula Tomei announced today the return to live, in-person performances in October when the Costa Mesa theatre company opens its 2021-22 Season, a mix of contemporary works and world and U.S. premieres, with a cherished American classic.

The season begins with the world premiere of A Shot Rang Out by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), a one-man play written in response to the pandemic—and penned specially for Ivers to perform. The new year gets kicked off with the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families play, Last Stop on Market Street by Cheryl L. West, based on the popular children’s book by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson. The season continues with the romantic comedy What I Learned in Paris by Pearl Cleage (Blues for an Alabama Sky), the U.S. premiere of Clean, a gripping bi-lingual drama by Christine Quintana, which received a digital reading in the 2021 Pacific Playwrights Festival and will have a production in the 2022 festival, and the American classic Our Town, written by Thornton Wilder and featuring founding artist Hal Landon, Jr. as the Stage Manager. The season closes with Tiger Style! by Mike Lew, a sharp comedy about the downside of tiger parenting set in Irvine.

“In this poignant time of reflection and rebirth, we’re exploring all kinds of relationships—from husbands, wives and lovers to parents, children and siblings,” said Ivers. “We’ll also look at the families we’re born into, the ones we choose and the communities in which we live—all with the goal of our audience finding themselves in each compelling story. Together, these plays make for a powerful, thrilling and life-affirming season of theatre.”

Additionally, the season also includes four special offerings. For the holidays, SCR continues its yuletide tradition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with a new Ebenezer Scrooge—founding artist Richard Doyle. SCR’s 24^th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) showcases several new plays over a weekend in a combination of readings and full productions. PPF is part of The Lab@SCR, the theatre’s new-play development infrastructure. The Mozart Project, a collaboration between South Coast Repertory, Pacific Symphony (Carl St.Clair, music director and conductor) and featuring the Pacific Chorale (Robert Istad, artistic director), brings Wolfgang to life for an all-Mozart evening with SCR Artistic Director David Ivers portraying Mozart’s greatest rival, Antonio Salieri. And finally, Outside SCR at Mission San Juan Capistrano will return for a second summer of theatre under the stars, with details to be announced at a later date.

The 57-year-old theatre company is also offering more pre- and post-show opportunities for the audience to engage with the work onstage, the artists and the theatre, in general. The season will contain fewer plays as SCR comes back from the pandemic, with fewer performances per week and longer runs for plays with broader public appeal.

“The pandemic has given us the opportunity to thoughtfully examine the challenges and possibilities of our return, always with the audiences’ safety and best possible theatre experience in mind,” said Tomei. “We’re happy to be back and can’t wait to see audiences in the theatre again.”

South Coast Repertory’s health and safety protocol has been developed with advice from the University of California, Irvine.

Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale. Subscriptions range in price from $23 to $355, with additional discounts available for educators, seniors and theatregoers age 25 and under. Single tickets range from $26 to $98. Tickets may be purchased online at www.scr.org or by phone at (714) 708-5555. More information is available at www.scr.org.

2021-22 Season (in order of opening)

Dates and titles subject to change

World Premiere
A Shot Rang Out
A Play in One Man
By Richard Greenberg
Directed by Tony Taccone
Featuring David Ivers
Oct. 2-Nov. 6, 2021
On the Segerstrom Stage
South Coast Repertory’s past and future join forces in a compelling new play about the present. After a long period of isolation, an actor returns to the stage, alone and shaken. This is his story—his moment of reckoning—about what led to his seclusion. Along the winding journey, he draws inspiration from movies and theatre, reflects on missteps and unravels mysteries of love. Artistic Director David Ivers takes the stage in a play written specially for him by one of SCR’s most celebrated legacy playwrights, Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain).

Last Stop on Market Street
By Cheryl L. West
Based on the book by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson
Music and lyrics by Lamont Dozier and Paris Dozier
Directed by Oanh Nguyen
Musical Direction by Shammy Dee
Choreography by Kelly Todd
Jan. 7-23, 2022
On the Julianne Argyros Stage
Theatre for Young Audiences and Families
Come along on a musical joy ride! CJ is staying with his Nana in the city, where everything is different than home. The food, the people, the noise—it’s too much. He just wants to stay inside and watch videos, but Nana’s having none of that. So together they board the Number 5 bus for an adventure, and CJ learns to look past the surface and appreciate the good in others.

What I Learned in Paris
By Pearl Cleage
Directed by Lou Bellamy
Feb. 12-Mar. 12, 2022
On the Segerstrom Stage
It’s 1973, Maynard Jackson has just been elected Atlanta’s first African American mayor and the city is poised to become the “new Black capital of America.” Change is in the air—and so is love! As Jackson’s campaign operatives make history, passions ignite and lives get turned upside down—especially when an unexpected visitor breezes back into town. Called “funny and cunning…with whip-smart dialogue” (Chicago Tribune), this fast-paced romantic comedy by the author of Blues for an Alabama Sky and the New York Times bestseller What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, speaks to the intersection of race, class and gender at a pivotal time.

U.S. Premiere
Clean
by Christine Quintana
With Spanish translation and adaptation by Paula Zelaya Cervantes
Directed by Lisa Portes
Mar. 20-Apr. 10, 2022
On the Julianne Argyros Stage
Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival
At a luxury resort in Cancún, a storm is brewing. Adriana, a floor manager at the hotel, reels from the news of her father’s death. Sarah, a guest for her sister’s wedding, is haunted by a secret. Brought together by the torrential rain, they’re forced to examine the past, envision the future—and face the present. A gripping bi-lingual drama from a celebrated playwright on the rise, Clean is performed in both English and Spanish with subtitles in both languages throughout.

Our Town
By Thornton Wilder
Directed by Beth Lopes
Featuring Hal Landon Jr. as the Stage Manager
May 7-June 4, 2022
On the Segerstrom Stage
May 7, 1901. Life has begun in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Milk is being delivered. Breakfast is on the stove. We meet the town gossips, the boys who play baseball and the choirmaster with a secret sorrow. And soon teenagers George Gibbs and Emily Webb will go from friends to puppy love to wedding day and beyond—two families forever joined together. And as they come to terms with the meaning of their lives, this Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic beautifully celebrates our own shared humanity.

Tiger Style!
By Mike Lew
Directed by Ralph B. Peña
May 15-June 12, 2022
On the Julianne Argyros Stage
What happens when “tiger parenting” goes wrong? Meet Albert and Jennifer Chen—brother and sister, once brilliant students and musicians, now epic failures leading unfulfilling lives. The problem? Their parents set unrealistic standards. The solution? Escape from Irvine and go on an “Asian Freedom Tour” to Shenzen, China—a hilarious, eye-opening journey filled with colorful characters, intrigue and surprise. Expect “comic sparks from the collision between expectations and outcomes” (Boston Globe) in this sharp comedy about today’s family.