NEWSCRIPT: NEW PLAYS CRITIQUED

After the light applause subsided at South Coast Repertory’s Main Stage, playwright Allan Havis stood up uneasily, waved his hand and mustered what can only be described as a sheepish smile.

Small wonder. Havis, the author of several works produced on the East Coast, had just sat through a two-hour reading of his latest, “Haut Gout,” and endured more than 30 minutes of audience feedback--a pointed mixture of praise, criticism and confusion.

As Havis ambled over to the actors and the crowd began to leave, Alicia Turner, describing herself as “an SCR devotee of long tanding,” fretted about the 35-year-old writer’s reaction to the bones-baring experience:

“Do you think he was very upset by it all? He really shouldn’t be. This is supposed to help, isn’t it?” she paused, then continued in a hushed tone. “I mean, (the play) was very good, but it needs quite a bit of work. I’m sure he realizes that.”

Welcome to SCR’s “Newscript” program, Allan.

Newscript is designed to accomplish many things, the most important being to give theater fans a chance to hear new, inchoate and unproduced plays without benefit of costumes or scenery, to present the author with audience insights into the work’s flaws and merits and to give SCR’s powers-that-be the opportunity to judge, improve and, possibly, include the play in the coming season.

The program’s success stories have included Keith Reddin’s surreal “The Highest Standard of Living,” which opened this year’s season, and Neal Bell’s “Cold Sweat,” a Vietnam War-influenced play scheduled to begin March 13 on the Second Stage.

“The process allows us to learn more about what type of animal (the play) is and if it will work well for us,” said David Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director. “It’s exciting for the audience because there’s a freshness and newness about it. It’s exciting for the playwrights because they can learn so much. . . . Yes, I imagine it can be also agonizing at times.”

Exhausting, too. The Times was told that Havis would be too drained to talk after the reading so an interview was scheduled for the next day. After sufficient recovery time, Havis, a soft-spoken and articulate New Yorker, had mostly positive words for the experience.

“It does kind of hurt when 35 (drama) experts in the audience take shots at you and your work, but overall I see it as a privilege to get reactions before a play is completed,” he said.

“It’s very beneficial to find them accepting some things and then rejecting others. You improve a work from that exchange. You have to remember that ‘Haut Gout’ is in this (Newscript) because it is a play in progress.”

Havis was particularly gratified that “Haut Gout”--a tale of a wealthy American doctor’s descent into political intrigue and sexual violence in Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier’s Haiti--seemed to energize the audience. Although some people were stumped by the work’s often diffuse character relationships and scene shifts, most cheered it for its original language and personality studies.

“It was encouraging for people to accept the abstractions and ambiguity of it,” Havis said. “I want to stick with the mystery that’s there and they seemed to agree that I should. . . .”

The process proved to be the catalyst for future script changes, too. Havis noted that he will try to clarify some scenes and more clearly delineate certain roles before “Haut Gout” opens at the Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk, Va., April 18. After that run, Havis said he hopes that SCR will want to bring it back to Costa Mesa.

Emmes said it was far too early to know if SCR would produce the play. “Haut Gout,” in its final form, will have to be evaluated later, as will be the opinions that resulted from Newscript. Of that process, Emmes noted that the audience’s feelings, while important, would only be used as indicators of the work’s appeal and accessibility and could not “make or break the play.”

“There are so many factors to consider that it would be unfair to place too much emphasis on that one reading,” Emmes said.

Still, he did not underestimate its significance, a point that impressed Jerry Mercante, a 48-year-old Newport Beach resident who has attended two other Newscript readings.

“It’s thrilling to think that we have some say in what this repertory does. It makes you feel that your views are sacred and worthwhile,” he said. “I always try to put my two cents in because I think the writer, director and other people care about it. It’s a marvelously pleasing experience.”

While echoing Mercante, Ellie Possner, 39, of Costa Mesa noted that the audience must be responsible: “It can be thrilling (having an influence), but we have to be careful, too. I always have to remind myself that we’re dealing with a sensitive writer’s feelings. They put a lot of time into their work and our comments should be well reasoned.”

Begun in late 1985, Newscript is part of SCR’s Collaboration Laboratory, which is committed to nurturing play development. Besides Newscript, the program commissions plays, develops workshops to informally explore scripts and fosters collaborations between playwrights and actors, composers and directors.

But Newscript, which puts on five readings a year, is probably the most satisfying, at least for SCR’s audiences, Emmes said.

“Everyone really enjoys this, but I think it is especially good for the people. They get to see the animal up close and know that what they’re feeling will count. We think this has been a tremendous success.”

The next Newscript reading, on March 16, is of “The Virgin Molly” by John Quincy Long. The reading is in the Main Stage at 7:30 p.m.