I’ve provided a preview of each reading (or in the case of the musical, concert performance). For greater details South Coast Rep is posting on the individual pages for each play an interview with the playwrights/creators. Those interviews will become available on the Monday preceding the debut of these readings.

Here is a listing of the four plays and one musical that are included in this year’s festival. Please note that they are recommended for audiences high school age or older.

York Walker’s Covenant

Playwright York Walker is currently an artist-in-residence at New York’s Vineyard Theatre. He is also the recipient of the Colman Domingo Award from the theatre.

Covenant is a twist on the story of Delta Blues musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil. In Walker’s play the residents of the small Georgia town, where blues guitarist Johnny “Honeycomb” James lives, are abuzz with the rumor James followed in Johnson’s footsteps and sold his soul to become the artist he is today. Could it be true? Is this all just a rumor? And why is the devil in this story? Or is the devil in the details?

Tamilla Woodard directs.

This reading will be available from April 26th – May 2nd only.

Charlie Oh’s Coleman ‘72

Playwright Charlie Oh has a multi-faceted career as a playwright, a lyricist and actor. He appeared as Prince Chulalongkorn in the 2016 revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical The King and I at Lincoln Center. Oh and composer Ross Baum were one pair of three recipients of the 2018 New Voices Project which develops new musicals.

In Coleman ’72, Oh depicts a cross-generational culture clash – within one Korean-American family. It seems as though the parents and their American kids have a very different perspective of what a vacation should be. As they settle out across the USA on a road trip those ideas get challenged until a great reason behind their vacation becomes clear to them all.

David Ivers directs.

This reading will be available from May 10th – May 16th only

Shayan Lotfi’s Park-e Laleh

Playwright Shayan Lotfi’s Park-e Laleh was announced as part of last year’s planned Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Rep. But we know what precluded the play from being performed last April.

Lotfi is an alumnus of NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Park-e Laleh was one of five plays selected to be read at New York’s The Lark in 2019.

The play tells the story of an Iranian named Amir who is applying for asylum in the UK. He’s being persecuted in his home country for being gay. As he attempts to get acclimated to his new city, Amir is struggling to feel truly at home while feelings for the man he left behind continue to haunt him.

Mike Donahue directs.

This reading will be available from May 24th – May 30th only.

Christine Quintana’s Clean

Playwright Christine Quintana is an actor and the co-Artistic Producer of Vancouver-based Delinquent Theatre in addition to being a playwright.

A chance encounter between two women who live very different lives is at the heart of Clean. A cleaning lady at a Mexican resort, Adriana and Sarah, one of the hotel’s guests who is there for her sister’s wedding, are brought together during an incredible storm. But is the storm outside any more daunting than the storms brewing inside?

Directed by Lisa Portes with translations by Paula Zelaya Cervantes.

This reading will be available from May 31st – June 6th only.

There is a small gap in the schedule before the concert performance of the musical takes place.

Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis’ Harold & Lillian

Harold Michelson was an illustrator, storyboard artist and art director who worked on such films as Ben-Hur, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Lillian Michelson, with whom Harold eloped after returning from World War II, is a former film researcher who provided invaluable information for such films as Rosemary’s Baby, Reds and Full Metal Jacket.

Their lengthy marriage become the subject of a documentary in 2015 called Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story by filmmaker Daniel Raim.

Their incredibly story is played out in this musical written by Dan Collins (books and lyrics) and Julianne Wick Davis (music).

Their musical Trevor, inspired by the Oscar-winning short film of the same name (directed by Peggy Rajski and written by James Lecesne), has won multiple awards and is scheduled to have an off-Broadway production when theaters are able to reopen.

For more information on Lillian Michelson, check out this story by Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times from earlier this year.

This concert performance will be available from June 21st – June 27th only.

Tickets to see all five readings are $80. Supersubscribers at SCR can purchase tickets for $70. There is also special pricing available for industry professionals. There is a link on SCR’s page for this event (which I’ve linked to in the first paragraph) that will take to you a request for those tickets.

Photo: Clean collage (Courtesy ChristineQuintana.com)

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