Pacific Playwrights Festival Taps into the Pulse of the Times
- Paul Hodgins
- 42 minutes ago
- 7 min read
South Coast Repertory’s artistic director David Ivers sees many current obsessions explored in this year’s lineup.
More than any other art form, plays reflect a culture’s current obsessions and worries. David Ivers, artistic director of South Coast Repertory, thinks this year’s Pacific Playwrights Festival is a perfect demonstration of that tendency. The 28th annual festival of new works in readings and staged productions, held May 1-3, includes several plays whose topics often appear to be taken from the latest Apple News feed or TikTok “For You” page.
“Part of the job with these new plays, with any new plays really, is to examine modern society,” Ivers said. “The challenges that are literally being penned by our leading contemporary playwrights are often our most urgent issues. And no matter how niche they seem to be, they explore universal truths.”
Looking back over the last half decade, Ivers sees trends in playwriting that reflect, sometimes obviously and sometimes indirectly, what’s happening in the world around us.
“Things follow a definite life cycle that we can see (in playwriting). Coming out of the pandemic, and on the other side of the Me Too movement, there were a lot of plays that looked at traditionally underrepresented communities – unheard and unseen communities that have been trod upon by systemic (inequities) in this country.”
The scripts he saw earlier in this decade reflected the turbulent and uncertain state of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter era, Ivers said. “Many of them were compelling and many were incomplete; many were good ideas that were unable to be developed.”
Ivers believes that the last couple of years have brought some clarity to the societal changes that started earlier in the decade. “I think what’s starting to emerge now, a few years out, is plays that are more deeply centered on relationships and people’s shared experiences. We’re seeing a return to (plays about) families, either found or real.”
The post-pandemic zeitgeist has also brought forth a hard examination of personal values and what’s really important in life, Ivers said. “I read a few plays that really stuck with me that were about (the importance of) an experiential life – you know the old adage of ‘Don’t spend money on material things but make memories instead.’”
Recently, Ivers has seen a spate of plays with historical settings. “I’m getting a lot of stuff that’s looking back in history, perhaps to help us look forward. There are (plays) about the Holocaust, World War II. I think (playwrights) are interested in how past events can comment on things that are happening now in the world.”
With change comes resistance, and Ivers says that’s been echoed in recent scripts as well. “Many plays now contend with what it means for people to accept change. I think that thematically, that’s coming out of a great period of change, which includes of course (the pandemic). What are you on the other side of that (change)?”
Ivers pointed to Reggie D. White’s “Fremont Ave.” It’s one of two fully produced plays being presented as part of the festival. “In ‘Fremont Ave.’ you have a generation of people who are now grandparents trying to wrap their arms around the identity of their sons and grandsons.”
Ivers is pleased with one welcome trend among new plays: a return of humor. “What was in short supply for a while was comedy and joy. I think humor is one effective way to process the situation we’re in. I believe that we’ve reached a point where we need a laugh. We’re just being assaulted with so much stuff. We just need that release.”
Here are brief synopses of all plays and Ivers’ thoughts on the staged readings (carefully couched to avoid spoilers) in the upcoming Pacific Playwrights Festival:
Staged Readings
“The Ingenue”
By Eleanor Burgess – Friday, May 1, at 1 p.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage
In 18th-century London, arranged marriages have high stakes. Neither Letitia nor Doricourt wants to wed, and each will stop at nothing to force the other to cancel the wedding. Meanwhile, playwright Hannah Cowley struggles to pen a romantic comedy — about a couple named Letitia and Doricourt — while her own marriage is on shaky ground.
“It’s a very loose adaptation of ‘The Belle’s Stratagem’ (a 1780 comedy of manners by British playwright Hannah Cowley). I think Burgess is a brilliant writer in part because of her keen intelligence and really sharp wit. She’s able to build three layers in her world: Someone who’s in a romantic comedy contending with her own marriage while she’s writing one for a theater that can’t afford anything. It’s hilarious and smart.”
“Three-headed Monster”
By JuCoby Johnson – Friday, May 1, at 4 p.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage
After serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, 21-year-old Kyrie returns to the Bronx and his two best friends. A once-inseparable trio is reunited at last. But in the cramped apartment, Kyrie begins to fear there’s no room left for him in a friendship — and world — that grew up while he was gone.
“A really intimate play about very real relationships. And it is moving in its own way and uplifting. There's a naturalism and realism that is situated in an apartment in the Bronx. It’s about the power of the exploitation of intimacy (among) people who are very young.”
“Pleasers”
By Avery Deutsch – Saturday, May 2, at 10:30 a.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Evan wants to get into Yale. Each week he works on his college essays at Miriam’s house. Tyler, her 28-year-old son, wants to be Evan's friend, trying each week to impress him. But Evan would rather be Miriam’s friend. And Miriam has a lot going on — so she just wants her boys to be good.
“There’s a lot in this play I relate to as a parent, relative to the ambitions of young people, or sometimes the lack of ambition of young people. I really love that there are three generations of people represented here that you wouldn't necessarily put together. It makes for a very compelling modern play. (Deutsch is) really masterful at finding in each character an external and internal place of stress.”
“Blow Away the Clouds”
By Evelina Fernández – Sunday, May 3, at 10:30 a.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Milagros is a good wife, works hard and follows church rules … and her life in a small Arizona mining town is about to be turned upside down. As her friends and their troubles force her to stray from her rigid beliefs, Milagros finds a new sense of freedom in the secrets they keep — and the power of sisterhood.
“This (play) is an SCR commission directed by José Luis Valenzuela.” (Valenzuela is a widely respected theater and film director and emeritus distinguished professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.) “We call him the maestro. I'm such a fan of his. I think this is a stunner of a play. I think we’re aching for this play. We’re dying for a little bit of magic, and it is so great to have a play where resilience and the bond between women really plays off.”
“Advanced Persistent Teenagers”
By Deepak Kumar – Friday, May 1, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, May 2, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, May 3, at 2:30 p.m., in the Nicholas Studio
Two teenagers with a tragic bond spend their days hacking children’s video games for fun, profit and glory. But when their hacker collective, dark w0rld, abruptly disbands, the boys find themselves adrift. Searching for purpose — and still craving the rush — the two launch a plan that may just change the hacker world forever.
“This is a play that confirms the old adage of writing from what you know.” (Kumar is a computer scientist who teaches at UC San Diego). “In addition to being a smart human, he’s definitely writing from a place that he knows. It’s a play about young people who are separated by screens but united by emotional connection. People like me don't understand how people can find inseparable bonds and never meet each other. This play I think answers some of those questions and puts in front of us the reality of what happens.”
FULL PRODUCTIONS
“Fremont Ave.”
By Reggie D. White – Through May 25 on the Segerstrom Stage
In 1968, George buys a suburban Southern California home — a stop on his way to something bigger — and hires Audrey as a housekeeper. In 1991, Robert is still living there, itching to start his own life. Thirty years later, Joseph returns home, still struggling with a secret that holds him back. With humor and heart, this multigenerational drama revolves around three Black men, their journeys to choose love and the woman who holds them all together.
“Eat Me”
By Talene Monahon – Through May 3 on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Chris loves fine cuisine. He spends hours in a corner of the internet where like-minded foodies share their extraordinary culinary experiences. Stevie doesn’t eat fish with souls, Beatrice and Jen just baked a flax loaf and Cindy might have salad, later. In this wildly imaginative play by one of The New York Times’ Rising Theatre Stars of 2023, everyone is longing for something that makes them feel ful l— and when the meal is over, maybe they’ll be transformed.
Read critic Joel Beers’ review of this play.
2026 Pacific Playwrights Festival
Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
When: May 1-3
Cost: Tickets for individual readings are $24. Subscriber packages to see all five readings are $95. Tickets for the productions of “Fremont Ave.” and “Eat Me” range from $36-$139.
Contact: 714-708-5555 or scr.org
