SCR Presents THE GROUNDLING Reading, 3/19

The Groundling, a new comedy about a man struggling to save his marriage, will have a staged reading March 19 at 7:30 p.m. as part of South Coast Repertory's NewSCRipts series. It is the 117th play to receive a staged reading in SCR's venerable play reading program.

Marc Palmieri's play follows Long Island native Bob Malone as he attempts to write a play as an anniversary present to his wife, Karen, after seeing Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost in a Manhattan park. He hires two reluctant professionals-director Dodd and his sometime girlfriend, actress Victoria-to stage a performance in his garage with a colorful cast of locals. But as their marriage deteriorates, Karen keeps threatening to shut the production down.

The Grounding will be directed by Shelley Butler, an SCR regular who most recently directed The Borrowers in this season's Theatre for Young Audiences series. She previously directed NewSCRipts readings of Bob and Incendiary.

Palmieri's other plays Poor Fellas, Carl the Second and Levittown all premiered in New York and are published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc. In 2009, Levittown, was revived Off-Broadway at Theatre at Saint Clement's and was named a "Critic's Pick" by The New York Times. His plays have been workshopped and presented at theatres and festivals all over the country, including The Rattlestick Theatre Exposure Festival, The Northern Writes New Play Festival and many others.

The annual NewSCRipts series of three 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 the readings, which take place on the Julianne Argyros Stage, audience members engage in exchanges with the playwright and become active participants in the play's development, providing 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.

TICKETS to the NewSCRipts reading of The Groundling 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.

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.

Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. SCR is committed to theatre that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its wide array of education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theatre, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program, which includes the nation's largest commissioning program for emerging and established writers and composers. Each year, it showcases some of country's best new plays in the Pacific Playwrights Festival, which attracts theatre professionals from across the country. Of SCR's more than 460 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres, whose subsequent stagings achieved enormous success throughout America and around the world. Two SCR-developed works have won Pulitzer Prizes, and another eight were named Pulitzer finalists. In addition, SCR works have won several Obie Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, California, SCR's Folino Theatre Center is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. Today, SCR produces 13 shows and eight public readings each season.

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