Coming up April 29th at 9:30am - Taj Frazier, Professor of Media Arts and Culture, USC Annenberg and Perry B. Johnson, Lecturer, USC Annenberg & Co-Director, The Sound of Victory - talk about LA's Music Scene Unpacked in PBS SoCal's 'OUTSIDE THE LYRICS' Season 2.

OUTSIDE THE LYRICS hosts,
Robeson Taj Frazier, PhD and Perry B. Johnson, PhD.

LISTEN to today's show 

PBS SoCal’s OUTSIDE THE LYRICS Explores  LA’s Subcultures Bridging Music and Creativity  Premieres on YouTube Channel March 17.

New four-episode season of OUTSIDE THE LYRICS dives into the vast subcultures of Los Angeles, including basketball at Venice Beach, Japanese-inspired listening bars and graffiti art. Watch to see how music, fashion, culture and identity all weave together to distinguish this dynamic city.


New episodes will roll out weekly on PBS SoCal’s YouTube channel starting with today's premiere and will be available to stream for free on the PBS app and on pbssocal.org.



PBS SoCal’s OUTSIDE THE LYRICS Explores

LA’s Subcultures Bridging Music and Creativity

Premieres on YouTube Channel March 17

Season Two Spotlights Conversations with Artist Patrick Martinez,

Stones Throw Records Co-Founder DJ Peanut Butter Wolf and more



OUTSIDE THE LYRICS hosts, Robeson Taj Frazier, PhD and Perry B. Johnson, PhD. 

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/outside-the-lyrics



Select programming will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the free PBS App.

Members of PBS SoCal get extended access with PBS Passport.



Los Angeles, Calif. – March 17, 2026 – PBS SoCal, Southern California’s flagship PBS organization, announced today the second season of OUTSIDE THE LYRICS. Hosted by Robeson Taj Frazier, PhD, writer, multimedia producer and professor of media arts and culture at University of Southern California (USC), and Perry B. Johnson, PhD, music scholar, cultural historian and lecturer at USC.

The series is presented in association with USC Annenberg's Institute for Difference and Empowerment in the Arts (IDEA), which explores the redemptive and transformational capacities of media, the arts and culture.


The second season explores Los Angeles’ rich subcultures and their intersection with music through the people who shape them. In four locally produced episodes, they explore the history of basketball at Venice Beach, LA's listening bars and spaces inspired by Japanese kissaten culture, graffiti and visual art, and the powerful intersection of fashion, music and identity. New episodes will roll out weekly on PBS SoCal’s YouTube channel starting today on Tues., March 17 and will be available to stream for free on the PBS app and on pbssocal.org.



Visual Arts – Tues., March 17 – “Off the Wall”

Artist Patrick Martinez sits down with Robeson Taj Frazier to discuss how his origins as a graffiti writer in East LA continue to shape his artistic vision of Los Angeles. Explore how the bold aesthetics, techniques, materials and perspectives of hip hop and graffiti inform Martinez's now internationally-acclaimed artwork, offering a unique lens on the city's diverse communities and landscapes.



Basketball – Tues., March 24 – “Hooper’s Paradise”

Perry B. Johnson joins Nick Ansom, founder of Veniceball, Venice Basketball League and Hoopbus, to explore the intersection of basketball and music. She uncovers how the courts are a crossroad for athleticism, creativity and community. From streetball’s rhythms to the beats that soundtrack the game, discover how Venice Beach has fostered a unique cultural ecosystem where sports and music collide.



Fashion – Tues., March 31 – “Change Clothes”

Robeson Taj Frazier and Perry B. Johnson examine the relationship between fashion and music with two LA innovators. Designer/stylist Brea Stinson discusses working with popular artists, while GRAY founder Brandon Gray reveals how his upbringing in South Los Angeles influences his custom designs for celebrities. Discover how personal history and identity merge in the city's fashion-music dialogue.



Listening Communities – Tues., April 7 – “Deep Listening”

Robeson Taj Frazier and Perry B. Johnson explore the rise of listening spaces in Los Angeles, tracing their roots to Japanese kissaten culture. At Gold Line, Stones Throw Records founder, DJ Peanut Butter Wolf shares his vision for bars that bring people together through sound. At the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, an evening with In Sheep’s Clothing and Temporal Drift reveals the power of collective music appreciation and the cultural traditions that inspire LA's contemporary listening spaces.



For more information, follow us on social at @pbssocal



About PBS SoCal

PBS SoCal uses the power of public media for good, strengthening the civic fabric of Southern California and providing our community with an essential connection to a wider world. As a local, donor/member-supported non-profit organization, PBS SoCal is available to stream on the PBS app and the PBS Kids App and reaches nearly 22M viewers across 7 Broadcast channels — including 2 primary channels, PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal Plus and 5 digital subchannels. With a commitment to make content available anytime and anywhere for free, PBS SoCal offers programming that reflects the diversity of Southern California and showcases the full schedule of beloved and trusted PBS content spanning Education, News, Environment and Arts & Culture. PBS SoCal also sparks the sharing of ideas at in-person cultural events and community conversations as well as prepares children for kindergarten and beyond by bringing bilingual, hands-on learning experiences to the community for free.


About IDEA

IDEA explores the redemptive and transformation capacities of media, the arts, and culture, with specific attention to what they illuminate about identity, difference, and power. We organize and facilitate media, critical theory, and art-based interdisciplinary education, research, and programming. Learn more about us at: https://annenberg.usc.edu/research/idea



About Perry B. Johnson
Perry B. Johnson, Ph.D., is a music scholar, cultural historian and producer of several public-facing music and humanities projects. Her primary research and practice focus on music, popular culture and American cultural histories, with an emphasis on archives, public scholarship, power, identity and belonging. Johnson is at work on the manuscript for her first solo monograph, a cultural history of sexual misconduct in America’s popular music industries.

With this project, Johnson interrogates the framing of incidents of misconduct to track how the sector’s historically grim collage of abuse is structurally, institutionally and ideologically produced and sustained by traditional and social media.

At USC, Johnson teaches in the Annenberg School of Communication. Her courses for the Spring 2026 term include COMM 384: Interpreting Popular Culture and COMM 360: Los Angeles: Communication and Culture. Johnson is also the producer of Arts Talk, the official podcast of the USC Arts Now initiative.

Johnson is the associate producer and co-host of the second season of Outside the Lyrics, an award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary series from PBS that explores Los Angeles’ rich subcultures and their intersection with music through the people who shape them.

In her collaborative work, Johnson is co-founder and co-director of The Sound of Victory (SOV) (with Dr. Courtney M. Cox, University of Oregon), an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to exploring the historic relationship between music/sound and sport. SOV examines how identity, political economy and cultural mythology operate across the intertwined fields of sport and music/sound and analyzes the connected histories of these global spheres of entertainment through multimedia projects, original scholarship and public programming.


As part of this work, Johnson is co-editor of the forthcoming volume, The Sound of Victory: Music, Sport, and Society (September 2026, NYU Press), an interdisciplinary collection that joins international scholars, journalists and practitioners to critically examine the relationship between music/sound and sport through engagement with key moments, movements, figures and events. Together, Johnson and Cox are also working on their second book project, a nuanced cultural history of the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show, which explores this ritualized entertainment spectacle as a distinctive American production.

Currently, Johnson is co-curating Playing Beyond the Field, a three-part SOV series taking place spring 2026 at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville with the support of the Vanderbilt Sports & Society Initiative. Playing Beyond the Field explores the dynamic relationship between music and sport, with a particular focus on Nashville’s robust African American musical and sporting legacies.

Johnson also co-hosts and produces the Sounding Off podcast, an SOV audio series that highlights the voices of athletes, artists, DJs and public intellectuals working at the intersection of music/sound and sport. Episodes highlight conversations with such interlocutors as writer/poet, cultural critic and MacArthur Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib; baseball historian and sportswriter Shakeia Taylor; Los Angeles Dodgers’ DJ Severe; WNBA player Sydney Colson; and NFL Super Bowl XLVI champion Spencer Paysinger, filmmaker and director Walter Thompson-Hernández, among many others.

In her production work, Johnson has produced and organized events at The Getty Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Hammer Museum, La Brea Tar Pits, The Ebell of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles’ historic Palace Theatre, Regent Theater, and more.

Johnson received her Ph.D. in communication from USC Annenberg, where she had a graduate affiliation in the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies and was a research fellow with The Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center. Prior to returning to USC Annenberg, Johnson was a postdoctoral fellow and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, with a joint appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication’s Center for Media at Risk and the Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication.
About Robeson Taj Frazier

About Robeson Taj Frazier
Robeson Taj Frazier is a USC professor of communication, arts and humanities curator, and Emmy-nominated producer of docuseries and documentary film. His intellectual, research, and creative practice explore American and Afrodiasporic political and expressive cultures, with a specific focus on intellectual histories and contemporary examples of political activism, media arts, subcultural and vernacular traditions, and cross-cultural contact in local and global contexts. 

He is the author (w/ Ben Caldwell) of the award-winning book, KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell (Angel City Press, 2023), and The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination (Duke University Press, 2014). He is the host and executive producer of the award-winning PBS productions, Hip Hop and the Metaverse, and Outside the Lyrics, and producer of the documentary film, It’s Yours: A Story About Hip Hop and the Internet (dir. Marguerite de Bourgoing, 2019). He is also the executive director of IDEA (USC’s Institute for Difference and Empowerment in the Arts), an arts and culture-driven center that facilitates interdisciplinary education, research, programming, and cultural/media productions.



Where to Watch: “Episodes are available on PBS SoCal’s YouTube channel and to stream for free on the PBS app and on pbssocal.org/outsidethelyrics.”

Easy Honey is bringing their nostalgic brand of indie folk rock to BeachLife Festival this weekend to celebrate the release of their fantastic new EP Plaid (out this Thursday, 4/30). Songwriter, singer and guitarist Selby Austin joins us!

LISTEN
to today's show

ABOUT EASY HONEY

Easy Honey is a Charleston, SC based indie rock band that infuses its singer-songwriter folk roots with an original mix of nostalgic East Coast surf-rock. Originating at The University of The South: Sewanee over a cooler filled with freshman year college punch, the dynamic of this group is one of their strongest elements, existing with an electricity and a true sense of comradery both on and off stage. The tremendous creative power between the band’s members Selby Austin (vocals, guitar), Darby McGlone (vocals, guitar), Charlie Holt (drums, vocals) and Webster Austin (bass, vocals) is on full display in their versatile new EP, Plaid (out April 30 via Third Brother Records), which they wrote and recorded over a three-day session at an isolated cabin in snowy Marble, Colorado. 

Mixed with a steady sheen by the legendary Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix, The Kooks, Air, M83), the rapid-fire five-song set deepens their beachy indie-pop style with vibrant new colors as they serve up witty melodies, catchy, relatable hooks and raucous yet sentimental lyrics about love, wistfulness and life’s big moments. Easy Honey, like so many of their mutual rock heroes, cut their teeth on the road and have built a devoted following of daydreamers and night seekers through extensive touring and sold-out gigs. 

Just like their live shows, which have taken them to audiences nationwide, their influences remain all over the map and pull from the classic rock and power-pop staples of their parents’ record collections (Big Star, Neil Young), up through '90s alt heroes Blind Melon as well as indie tunesmiths like Dr. Dog. No matter if they’re harmonizing next to a beach bonfire or exploring the rhythmic twists of a funky riff on stage, their music inevitably pulls you closer with an open-armed, all-are-welcome spirit. For more info, please visit www.easyhoneymusic.com.





Katie Leggett

PRESS HERE

138 W. 25th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001

katie@pressherepublicity.com

Event : Youth Mental Wellbeing: A Youth-Led Design Lab on Brain Health, the Arts and AI May 01, 2026

On the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month — as California’s landmark Prop 1 Mental Health Accountability Act takes effect — UCLA’s Semel Institute Teen Advisory Council, well-known artists dedicated to community healing, SoCal youth organizations and OpenAI Academy will convene the people who can actually solve this: young Californians themselves.


Youth Mental Wellbeing: A Youth-Led Design Lab on Brain, Arts & AI is a first-of-its-kind participatory symposium at UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center bringing together youth leaders, artists, mental health experts, policymakers and AI technologists around a single animating principle: Youth lead. Adults support. AI assists.World-class artistic performances for 600 youth and adult allies showing that music, creativity, and cultural expression are not soft additions to mental health—they are the science.

Three panels of California’s most influential voices in government, mental health, technology, and philanthropy interspersed with the performances— present not to speak at young people, but to listen and be accountable to what they produce
Three simultaneous breakout tracks —Arts & Mental Wellbeing, and AI & Youth Mental Health, and Neuroscience of Brain Health – where young people don’t attend panels, they run them

A live Youth Design Sprint in partnership with OpenAI Academy, where youth use AI tools in real time to co-author a California Youth Wellbeing Blueprint — concrete demands, named actors, actionable timeline

This is a conference by youth, for California’s future.

The findings from May 1st will not go into a binder. They will travel — to the CA Behavioral Health Commission, to OpenAI’s community deployment strategy, and through a strategic arc that runs to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art grand opening, Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium, and the LA 2028 Olympics. All in support of youth agency in crafting a mental wellbeing system.

California is the pilot. The world is watching.

Co-sponsors: UCLA Semel Institute Teen Advisory Council, UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Next Gen Advisory Board, Healthsperian, OpenAI Academy, Charles Drew University’s Arts and Healing Initiative, Brotherhood Crusade, Social Justice Learning Institute, TGood Lab

Learn more about the agenda and how to register:
Youth Mental Wellbeing: A Youth-Led Design Lab on Brain Health, the Arts and AI – Semel Institute

Here's the schedule for BEACHLIFE Festival '26!

 

BeachLife Festival | Live Music Festival | Redondo Beach, CA, USA

BeachLife Festival | Live Music Festival | Redondo Beach, CA, USA

It’s UC Irvine Giving Day! Show your support for KUCI 88.9 FM—underground music and talk since 1969!

Giving Day is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to KUCI and invest in our future as a great local institution. With your support, we can:

• Buy a backup transmitter
• Replace studio doors with recording studio quality doors for better sound isolation
• Replace aging studio chairs and cabinetry

ABOUT KUCI

Underground music & talk since 1969


KUCI, one of the oldest, continuously-broadcasting radio stations in Orange County, began broadcasting from the campus of the University of California, Irvine in 1969. KUCI's origin story had students airing music and news from the dorms, then as a fully-licensed, FCC-regulated FM broadcast station. For more than 55 years KUCI has flourished and expanded to become a local institution of the UC Irvine campus community, our loyal audience and our surrounding communities.

For over five decades, the station has been powered up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With limited resources and 125 devoted volunteers, KUCI creates and airs only all-original programming.

KUCI is:

A place where you can hear a greater range and diversity of music than on any other station in California.

An intimate setting for guest artists performing live, in any genre, from punk to classical.

A broadcaster of public affairs including politics, science, culture, sports, business, technology and many other topics.

The home of live broadcasts of Anteater Baseball and Men's and Women's Basketball.

A place of learning and memory making for students of media and communications.

A launch pad for thousands of young people and members of the Orange County community yearning to express themselves and share their passions.

A studio for interviews with national and international radio networks.


Visit our website (http://kuci.org/), see our weekly schedule (https://kuci.org/wp/show-schedule/) or listen to us live (88.9FM) or by streaming on the web through our website (http://kuci.org/).

Your gift of any amount will help! Thank you!

Coming up Wednesday April 22nd at 9am - An NPR Editor's Pick- Genevieve Wheeler Brown's Beyond Blue and White

In Genevieve Wheeler Brown's new book, Beyond Blue and White, art history meets real-life mystery! After rediscovering the most iconic dishes in a townhouse, Genevieve unravels their fascinating stories

LISTEN to today's show

featuring Genevieve Wheeler Brown

“Beyond Blue and White taps into what every collector of antiques knows to be true: The decorative arts are more than mere objects where beauty meets function—they are the tactile messengers of histories forgotten.”

—The Wall Street Journal

*A NPR “Here and Now” Editor’s Pick!*

Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic

by Genevieve Wheeler Brown

“A quest to uncover a New York fine arts mystery, told as if in the delicate northern light of a Vermeer painting. I loved it: I won’t look at Dutch porcelain in the same way again, and I might not look at the Netherlands in the same way again either.” —Victoria Finlay, author of Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World

“Brown’s bibliography is extensive: She consulted archival collections, numerous histories, and scholarly articles. Museum- and academic-library collections will want to add this title, as will public libraries whose patrons include Delftware devotees.” – Booklist

An absorbing work of cultural history that reveals the stories behind one of the world's most coveted and beloved ceramic.


When over seventy-five pieces of rare and intriguing 17th and 18th century Delftware are rediscovered in a historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art advisor and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown quickly recognizes that, together, these pieces tell an amazing story. What begins as a curatorial exercise quickly evolves not only into an exploration of this colorful, expressive, and sometimes even humorous decorative art, coveted for hundreds of years, but also an unexpected uncovering of forceful female lives yet untold.

Connecting the accounts of women across centuries, Beyond Blue and White allows us to craft a more complete picture of female experience through the lens of material culture. We meet female Delftware makers, including Barbara Rotteveel founder of “The Three Bells” Delftware factory in 1671. 

We are introduced to female Delftware patrons such as Queen Mary II, who found her means of expression while creating a vogue in the 17th century for Delft blue and white across royal courts. And then there are the female collectors beginning in the 19th century who saw the artistry and craft in these ceramics others had overlooked. Foremost among them was Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II who came together with fellow New York women and laid the groundwork for women in the museum world while preserving decorative arts with an educational mission.


With illustrations of period objects, documents, maps, paintings, prints and drawings, Beyond Blue and White is a colorful celebration of an iconic decorative art and dynamic women living in extraordinary times.



About the author: As a decorative art advisor and writer with over thirty years in the art world, including a decade with Christie’s in New York and London, Genevieve Wheeler Brown has been actively involved in the community of Delftware. She has also participated on the Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser with an eye out for overlooked “treasure.” In her role, she has held innumerable objects, from fake Stradivari violins to gold-mounted Faberge eggs, considering their value but also the stories they can tell.

Praise for Beyond Blue and White:


“A journey through history as delightful and intricate as the artform it follows. The author's hand tracing a path for us to follow, over the surface of a gleaming puzzle-jug and through the lives of the women who intersected with it.”– Naomi Novak, New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and A Deadly Education


“A captivating history of Delftware and the extraordinary women who ran the potteries and collected the beautiful Dutch ceramics, as well as the innovative and inspiring women who created the arts institutions that would display Delftware to a broad audience. Framed in an engaging and quick-paced personal narrative, Brown weaves a brilliant historical story. I highly recommend this book!”—Leslie Banker, author of Think Like a Decorator

“Brown shows us that the story of blue and white is not black and white at all. This is a richly hued narrative filled with depth and surprises. Some of the best characters are the objects themselves, improbable Delftware survivors—desired, dusted, coveted, ignored—now pointing us to a series of remarkable women fiercely devoted to the medium over centuries.” —Christine Coulson, author of Metropolitan Stories and One Woman Show

SOUTH COAST REPERTORY ANNOUNCES 2026-27 SEASON Expanded Nine-play Lineup Features Raymond Lee as Hamlet, Commemorates the 40th Anniversary of Into the Woods, Brings Mehr Theatre Group’s Blind Runner to the West Coast for the First Time, Includes a Rotating Repertory of Lauren Yee’s Mother Russia and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, And Premieres of New Plays by JuCoby Johnson and Eleanor Burgess

SOUTH COAST REPERTORY ANNOUNCES 2026-27 SEASON

Location: 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 David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available on Park Center Drive, off Anton Boulevard.

Complete information is available at www.scr.org.



###



ABOUT SOUTH COAST REPERTORY: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Suzanne Appel. SCR is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern plays and musicals, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program—The Lab@SCR—which includes one of the nation’s largest commissioning programs for emerging, mid-career and established writers. Of SCR’s more than 550 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres. SCR-developed works have garnered two Pulitzer Prizes and eight Pulitzer nominations, several Obie Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, CA., SCR is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. www.scr.org

COSTA MESA, Calif.—South Coast Repertory (Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Suzanne Appel) announced its expanded 2026-27 season today, which features nine productions. Season highlights include Raymond Lee returning to SCR as Hamlet, Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s musical masterpiece Into the Woods as the latest installment in the American Icons series and a unique rotating repertory—the recent Off-Broadway hit Mother Russia by Lauren Yee paired with Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest.


SCR’s 63rd season also includes the West Coast Premiere of Blind Runner, the international hit from Mehr Theatre Group and Iranian writer/director Amir Reza Koohestani, and two world premieres that will anchor the 2027 Pacific Playwrights Festival: Three-headed Monster by JuCoby Johnson and The Ingenue by Eleanor Burgess. Family-centered programming includes Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jerry Patch, and the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families production of How I Became a Pirate, book, music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman and based on the book “How I Became a Pirate” by Melinda Long with illustrations by David Shannon.


The 2026-27 season reflects programming changes established in SCR’s recently adopted strategic plan, which includes more classics, modern masterpieces and the continuation of an annual musical on the Segerstrom Stage, and a dedication to world premieres and exciting new hits on the Julianne Argyros Stage. In addition, audiences will now enjoy a world premiere in SCR’s most intimate space—the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. Moving one world premiere to the Nicholas Studio not only creates more opportunities to experience the powerful, inspiring storytelling SCR is known for, it also frees up the Segerstrom Stage for an additional spring production.



“As we deepen programming and expand our offerings, I am so grateful to our supportive board of trustees and our unequaled staff,” Ivers said. “I am confident the season has something for everyone,” Ivers said. “An adventurous joyful feast highlighting resilience, empowerment, entertainment and laughter, it’s woven together by some of SCR's favorite returning artists. JuCoby Johnson’s and Eleanor Burgess’ new plays conversing with Lauren Yee, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare and Sondheim is a combination truly not to be missed. I am certain the shows will engage audiences and artists alike.”

The season is the institution’s largest since 2018-19 and will continue at this level of production into the future. And like this season, The Rep will perform continuously for eight weeks—giving theatregoers the opportunity to see both plays in the same weekend or even back-to-back on the same day.

“The time is right for SCR to expand the season. Audiences have grown substantially over the past two years and subscribers have expressed an appetite for more plays. This expansion, combined with the selection of plays which includes more classics and more comedies, provides wonderful opportunities for connection and community building,” said Appel. “Whether you’re interested in the great works on the Segerstrom Stage or the innovative works on the Julianne Argyros Stage and Nicholas Studio, or all the above, SCR has a subscription that’s right for you. You can give yourself a gift by subscribing and putting more theatre on your calendar.”


The season opens with Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s musical masterpiece Into the Woods, Sept. 12-Oct. 10, 2026 on the Segerstrom Stage, and continues SCR’s American Icons series, which celebrates the artists, opinion leaders and artists who boldly changed our world. Recognizing Sondheim as an American Icon, the Tony Award-winning musical comedy marks its 40th anniversary with its inventive twist on favorite fairy-tale characters. Directed by Peter Rothstein (All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, which won the New York Drama Desk Critics Award), Into the Woods features Sondheim’s enchanting score and Lapine’s relevant, darkly comedic book which continues to captivate audiences.

The West Coast Premiere of Mehr Theatre Group’s international hit, Blind Runner follows, Oct. 18-Nov. 8, 2026 on the Julianne Argyros Stage. With text and direction by Amir Reza Koohestani, Blind Runner tells the story of an imprisoned Iranian activist who convinces her husband to train a blind runner. United Kingdom’s The Guardian praised Blind Runner, calling it “mesmerizing, stunning, deeply moving,” while New York Stage Review described it as, “undeniably powerful.” Critically praised for its poignancy, relevancy, and artful use of video, Blind Runner is performed in Persian with English supertitles. The Farhang Foundation continues their support as Cultural Partner on this production.

An Orange County holiday tradition, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jerry Patch, takes the stage for its 46th season, Nov. 28-Dec. 27, 2026. Once again, SCR Founding Member Richard Doyle entertains audiences as Ebenezer Scrooge. Hisa Takakuwa returns to direct.


For the second consecutive season, SCR welcomes the new year with The Rep—two comedies about love and identity performed in rotating repertory, alternating nightly, with overlapping casts on the same stage. Michael Ray returns as Lead Repertory Producer. It begins with Mother Russia, which brings Lauren Yee back to SCR for the first time since her breakout hit Cambodian Rock Band in 2018. A critical hit during its Off-Broadway run earlier this year, where the Wall Street Journal called it “engaging and fiercely funny,” Mother Russia runs Jan. 22-March 20, 2027 on the Segerstrom Stage.


Mother Russia rotates with The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s comedic masterpiece. Directed by Lisa Rothe, who helmed SCR’s critically acclaimed production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and considered one of the greatest comedies in the English language for its delightfully satirical skewering of Victorian England, The Importance of Being Earnest runs Jan. 23-March 20, 2027 on the Segerstrom Stage.


For SCR’s youngest audience members, the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families production of How I Became a Pirate, book, music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman takes the Julianne Argryos Stage Feb. 19-March 7, 2027. Directed by Kari Hayter (the Outside SCR production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Into the Woods at Musical Theatre West), How I Became a Pirate is based on the award-winning book written by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon. This fun, imaginative musical follows 10-year-old Jeremy as he learns that home is a treasure you can’t find on any map.



The spring brings two world premieres to SCR stages. The first is Three-headed Monster by JuCoby Johnson, one of the American theatre’s rising stars. Directed by H. Adam Harris, Johnson’s close collaborator and SCR’s Artistic and Audience Engagement Associate, Three-headed Monster tells a gripping, touching story about the power of friendship through the eyes of Kyrie, who returns home from Riker’s Island after serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. Three-headed Monster premieres in SCR’s intimate Nicholas Studio April 4-May 2, 2027.

The second world premiere is The Ingenue by Eleanor Burgess, who returns to SCR after her critically acclaimed Galilee, 34 premiered in 2024. In The Ingenue, Burgess takes us inside the life of 18th century playwright Hannah Cowley as she attempts to write a romantic comedy while her own marriage and life disintegrate around her. The Ingenue takes the Julianne Argyros Stage April 18-May 9, 2027.


The subscription season concludes with William Shakespeare’s timeless classic, Hamlet, which runs May 8-June 5, 2027 on the Segerstrom Stage. With Ivers directing, Hamlet returns to the SCR stage after 20 years with Lee playing the title role of Hamlet. 

Lee’s history at SCR runs deep and memorable. He received his Equity card right out of Cal State Long Beach in SCR’s Theatre for Young Audiences and Families 2012 production of Robin Hood. Lee went on to play the lead, Quang, in SCR’s 2015 world premiere of Vietgone by Qui Nguyen and re-created the role at Manhattan Theatre Club, for which he received the 2016 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. 

Lee’s other SCR performances came in Office Hour (2016) opposite Sandra Oh, and Cambodian Rock Band (2018). His TV career includes the recently wrapped second season of "Sugar" opposite Colin Farrell for Apple TV+, "Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” (Apple TV+), the lead role of Dr. Ben Song in the NBC revival of “Quantum Leap,” series regular roles in "Kevin Can F*** Himself" (AMC) and "Here and Now" (HBOMax) and recurring performances in "Made For Love" (HBOMax), "Prodigal Son" (Fox), "Mozart in the Jungle" (Amazon) and "Scandal" (ABC). Lee's film career includes appearing in the independent feature The Unknown Country and as Lt. Logan “Yale” Lee in Top Gun: Maverick.

Into the Woods, Blind Runner, Mother Russia, The Importance of Being Earnest, Three-headed Monster, The Ingenue and Hamlet can be purchased on subscription at this time. Subscribers also get exclusive early access to A Christmas Carol, which is not included in subscriptions and goes on sale to the general public in August.



More offerings will be announced in May when the SCR Presents series is unveiled.

A variety of subscription package options are available now and may be purchased online at www.scr.org or by phone at (714) 708-5555. The six-play Super Subscription ranges from $299- $533, depending on the day and time of performance. Four-play Segerstrom Stage package range from $213-$369, and the three-play Julianne Argyros Stage packages range from $149-$237, with additional discounts for students, seniors, educators and theatregoers age 35 and under. Also available is a special seven-play Opening Night subscription for two people, which includes post-show parties with the cast and artists who create the productions. Opening Night subscriptions start at $4,000 per couple and include a tax-deductible donation of $2,656 benefiting SCR.


Single tickets for the fall and winter plays go on sale Aug. 4.

2026-27 Season


American Icons

Join us over several seasons as we celebrate the artists, personalities and opinion leaders who boldly changed our world – like legendary composer Stephen Sondheim.

Into the Woods

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by James Lapine

Originally directed on Broadway by James Lapine

Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Directed by Peter Rothstein

Sept. 12-Oct. 10, 2026

Segerstrom Stage

When the Baker and his wife venture into the forest to break a witch’s curse, they encounter Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (of beanstalk fame)—and familiar tales take on clever new lives. But be careful what you wish for, because “happily ever after” is never the whole story. With a Tony Award-winning book and score, this poignant musical comedy masterpiece celebrates its 40th anniversary with a fabulous new SCR production.



Blind Runner

A Mehr Theatre Group production

Text and Direction by Amir Reza Koohestani

Oct. 18-Nov. 8, 2026

Julianne Argyros Stage

Blind Runner interweaves the destinies of three Iranians in an international multi-media hit proclaimed “mesmerizing” by The Guardian. At the insistence of his wife, a political prisoner, a man agrees to help a blind woman train for a race in Paris. After placing third, they take on a second challenge. Can they run the 38-kilometer Channel Tunnel from France to the UK in a few hours to avoid being hit by the first train of the morning? Performed in Persian with English supertitles.



Charles Dickens’

A Christmas Carol

Adapted by Jerry Patch

Directed by Hisa Takakuwa

Nov. 28-Dec. 27, 2026

Segerstrom Stage

Whether it’s your first time or a cherished family tradition, this timeless classic is sure to rekindle your holiday spirit! Gather your loved ones and celebrate the season with festive music, joyful dancing and the heartwarming story of one magical, life-changing night in the life of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ages 6 and up. Children under the age of 6 will not be admitted.



The Rep

Another ambitious centerpiece to our season

Two delightful comedies about love and trading in your old identity. Performed in repertory, alternating nightly, on the same stage with overlapping casts. This is must-see theatre!



Mother Russia

By Lauren Yee

Jan. 22-Mar. 20, 2027

Segerstrom Stage

1992: The Soviet Union has collapsed and McDonald’s is open. Clueless Evgeny takes a surveillance job with his friend Dmitri to spy on Katya, a former pop star with a mysterious past. Deeply in love, Evgeny decides to defy his gangster father and risk everything to win over Katya. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, Lauren Yee’s (Cambodian Rock Band) off-beat comedy about identity and the cost of capitalism is “as funny as it is smart.”



The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde

Directed by Lisa Rothe

Jan. 23-Mar. 20, 2027

Segerstrom Stage

Celebrated as the finest comedy of the English language, this sparkling classic hilariously skewers Victorian England’s upper class. Jack and Algernon are carefree bachelors who’ve created false identities to shirk their responsibilities and have a bit of fun. Jack’s in love with the enchanting Gwendolen, Algernon is falling for Cecily—and both women have sworn to marry only men named Ernest. But their happiness hinges on the approval of Gwendolen’s mother, the unbending Lady Bracknell.



How I Became a Pirate

Book, music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt & Mark Friedman

Based on the book “How I Became a Pirate” written by Melinda Long and illustrations by David Shannon

Directed by Kari Hayter

Feb. 19-Mar. 7, 2027

Theatre for Young Audiences

Julianne Argyros Stage

Aaarrh! The award-winning picture book is now a fun-filled musical comedy kids and adults will love! Braid Beard and his band of goofy pirates are searching for an expert digger to join their crew. When 10-year-old Jeremy Jacob joins them at sea, he learns their unique pirate ways and helps them look for the perfect spot to bury their booty. Along the swashbuckling adventure, he discovers that home is a treasure you can’t find on any map.



World Premiere

Three-headed Monster

By JuCoby Johnson

Directed by H. Adam Harris

Apr. 4-May 2, 2027

Nicholas Studio

After serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, 21-year-old Kyrie returns to the Bronx and his two best friends. As kids, they were inseparable—lovingly known as the Three-headed Monster. Now, in their cramped apartment, Kyrie fears there’s no room left for him in a trio, and world, that moved on while he was away. A touching drama about the healing power of friendship from one of the theatre’s rising stars.



World Premiere

The Ingenue

By Eleanor Burgess

Apr. 18-May 9, 2027

Julianne Argyros Stage

In 18th century London, neither Letitia nor Doricourt wants to go through with their arranged marriage, and each is determined to make the other call it off. Their hilarious scheming is playwright Hannah Cowley’s latest work-in-progress, which she’s desperately trying to finish while also holding together her own marriage and career. With a nudge and a wink, the writer of Galilee, 34 takes us inside a witty new twist on a classic comedy of manners.



Hamlet

By William Shakespeare

Directed by David Ivers

May 8-June 5, 2027

Segerstrom Stage

When Prince Hamlet returns to Denmark following the suspicious death of his father, he discovers that his uncle has seized the throne—and occupies his mother’s bed. Spurred on by his father’s ghost, Hamlet rages against his own conscience, plots revenge against the new king and spirals deeper into treachery and madness. Artistic Director David Ivers and actor Raymond Lee (SCR: Vietgone, Office Hour. TV/Film: Quantum Leap, Sugar, Top Gun: Maverick) join forces to bring Shakespeare’s haunting psychological thriller to life.



Location: 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 David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available on Park Center Drive, off Anton Boulevard.

Complete information is available at www.scr.org.



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ABOUT SOUTH COAST REPERTORY: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Suzanne Appel. SCR is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern plays and musicals, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program—The Lab@SCR—which includes one of the nation’s largest commissioning programs for emerging, mid-career and established writers. Of SCR’s more than 550 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres. SCR-developed works have garnered two Pulitzer Prizes and eight Pulitzer nominations, several Obie Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, CA., SCR is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. www.scr.org