SCR WINS $400,000 CHALLENGE GRANT

The South Coast Repertory Theatre has received a $400,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation to help finance the building and equipping of SCR’s Artists Center wing, which officially opens May 13.

Under terms of the Kresge grant, SCR has to raise an additional $1.375 million by April, 1988, from other sources to receive the $400,000, SCR and foundation officials announced. SCR’s 1986-87 operating budget is $4.2 million, its largest to date.

The new wing, under construction at a cost of $1.6 million, will be used for play development programs and additional technical, rehearsal and office spaces. SCR’s present two-playhouse complex was built in 1978.

In 1977, the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation gave $100,000 to build the original complex, which is next to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.