Founding Artistic Director of South Coast Repertory Martin Benson Dies at 87

 South Coast Repertory has announced the passing of Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson on Saturday, Nov. 30 at the age of 87.

“It is a deeply difficult time as we process the loss of our beloved co-founder, Martin Benson,” Ivers said. “Martin was a shining light for South Coast Repertory, a pioneer here and in our field. Kind, thoughtful and deeply curious, Martin was always ready with a poignant word, a handshake of support and an appetite for the work. He will be sorely missed, but his fine example of craft and leadership endures. We owe him much and vow to honor his great legacy.”

A pioneering and visionary leader who served as SCR’s co-artistic director with Founding Artistic Director David Emmes for 46 years, Benson was also an award-winning director of 119 SCR productions. Together, Emmes and Benson established SCR as a regional theatre powerhouse that helped define the American theatrical canon through its championing of new plays and world-class productions.

“Martin and I enjoyed a friendship and partnership for more than 60 years,” Emmes said. “Our artistic vision, a lofty dream, was realized through the extraordinary leadership and support of our SCR Boards. Their guidance, along with the relentless commitment of our artists and staff, has made our dream a reality.”

Benson’s theatrical journey began when he and Emmes met as students at San Francisco State. Together, they had the foresight to create an ensemble of California artists, steadily building the company into the Tony Award-winning regional theatre it is today. Their first collaboration came in the summer of 1963—Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde at the “Off-Broadway Theatre” in Long Beach. After a successful run, the theatre’s board invited the troupe back to produce a series of plays the following summer, whereupon Benson became the first paid employee in SCR’s history.

In turn, this success convinced the pair to create a theatre company, the plans for which they formulated on a napkin at a diner. In November, 1964, that company—now named South Coast Repertory—staged its first production: Moliere’s Tartuffe, at the Newport Beach Ebell Club. Tartuffe marked Benson’s SCR directorial debut. He directed nearly a fifth of the theatre’s productions over the next six decades.

During SCR’s early years, when the theatre was producing plays in an old Newport Beach marine shop or a converted dime store, Benson put his considerable mechanical skills to work wherever needed: building and painting sets, constructing and fixing props, designing costumes and doing whatever it took to put a production on stage. Benson acted in 11 SCR productions, served as the scenic designer in eight, the Costume Designer in five and the co-director for one. He also became a strong administrator and astute voice during Board of Trustees meetings.

It was as a director, however, where Benson truly shone. Whether the play was a classic, a new work, a comedy or a drama, Benson had a deep, positive commitment to every project. Known for his brilliant direction of George Bernard Shaw’s works, he won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Directing an unprecedented seven times, with three of those coming for Shaw’s Major Barbara, Misalliance and Heartbreak House. Benson also captured the LADCC award for John Millington Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days, and the world premiere of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, which Benson also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Houston’s Alley Theatre.

Benson’s directing philosophy went a long way in defining his success.

“The way I see it, the point of directing is to realize the play you’re working on as fully as you possibly can,” he told Lawrence Christon in the book Stepping Ahead, a history of SCR. “It isn’t about the director—I want to believe every moment of a production I’m working on. Everything is supportive to that. Sets, costumes, or some sort of bold re-imagining of the play, none of that is as important to me as making it real and believable. You never achieve it, but sometimes you come close.”

Under Emmes and Benson’s leadership, SCR received the 1988 Tony Award for Outstanding Resident Professional Theatre from the American Theatre Wing. In 1995, they accepted the LA Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1998, Emmes and Benson were honored by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology for their “lifetime contribution to the performing arts,” receiving the Thomas DeGaetani Award. In 2008, he and Emmes received the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime commitment to theatre excellence and fostering the art and craft of American playwriting. In 2011, the Board of Trustees established the Emmes/Benson Founders Endowment in their honor.

One of his crowning achievements came in 2002, with the opening of the Folino Theatre Center, which completed the $50 million Next Stage campaign, expanding SCR’s prominence as a major regional theatre. In 2014, three years after Benson and Emmes transitioned to Founding Artistic Director roles, the theatre complex was renamed the David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center at the request of the previous namesake—philanthropist, businessman and former Board President Paul Folino.

Even as he wound down his administrative duties, Benson continued directing one play each season, wrapping up his remarkable career helming 2020’s Outside Mullingar. He maintained an SCR office up until earlier this year.

He also gave back to the theatre community by mentoring up-and-coming artists and leaders, including Oanh Nguyen, artistic director of Anaheim’s Chance Theater, who began a Theatre Communications Group New Generations Program residency at SCR in 2010.  Two years later, Benson joined the Chance’s board of trustees.

In so many ways, Benson defined the term “Renaissance Man.” He was an avid pilot, with his SCR office featuring photos of planes he flew, including early 20th century biplanes. As a teenager, he built and raced cars at small tracks around Northern California under the name “Bill Venom,” winning numerous trophies, but little money.

Benson, an avid tennis and softball player, was also a huge baseball fan, passionate about the sport, its history and his hometown San Francisco Giants. He played sandlot baseball into his 40s and relished conversations with co-workers about the game, often delighting in stumping them with trivia questions. Benson was also a big fan of the San Francisco 49ers.

South Coast Repertory will dedicate the Friday, Dec. 20 performance of A Christmas Carol to Benson, dimming the theatre’s lights to celebrate his legacy, alongside many artists with longtime affiliations with the company.

The theatre will also host a celebration of Benson’s life in the new year in collaboration with his family.

“Looking back, I’ve been so fortunate to have this amazing life. … I wanted to contribute something and this theatre has contributed. I like to joke that at my age, I’m playing on my winnings,” he told Christon. “… How do you put an epitaph on your life? I’m not ashamed of it. I worked really hard for the things that are important to me. I consider myself incredibly lucky.”

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