“All these years of having accomplished a great deal and created a remarkable arts organization, it would be irresponsible not to provide for its future leadership, and we thought while we are not quite ready to retire and walk away, the idea that we should have a successor was one that we came up with,” said Emmes, 71.
He and Benson, who have shared artistic directorial duties at South Coast Rep, will stay on in their positions until a new art director is announced. They will continue to play an active role in assisting the new artistic director in finding and developing plays, and they’ll continue to direct productions.
In 1964, Emmes and Benson, who is now 72, were two state college graduates with no money or experience. But they had imagination.
“I had gone to Harbor High and Orange Coast College and knew that Orange County was a vibrant place,” Emmes said. “And it struck us that if we were just college graduates, if we came to Orange County, we’d have the chance of growing and fulfilling the dream.”
The dream was to give everyone access to the arts, which, as Emmes puts it, is the road to understanding the world.
The duo are credited with being a force behind the “resident theater movement” in the 1960s, where young artists no longer wanted theater to be defined by Broadway.
“Art deals with the life of feeling and so you have this huge area of knowledge, which, if one can access as an individual, it helps you understand your world more fully,” Emmes said. “It helps you understand yourself and your relationship with other human beings.... So it’s important that all Americans should have access to the arts. Therefore, theater needs to be made available to people throughout the country.”
