Emmes has won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his direction of Shaw’s “Philanderer.”
For his part, Benson earned acclaim for directing five of Shaw’s major plays, including three L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for “Major Barbara, Misalliance” and “Heartbreak House.”
In 1988, Benson and Emmes received a Tony Award for Outstanding Resident Professional Theater. In 2008, they were recognized with the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime commitment to theatrical excellence and for fostering American playwriting.
As Emmes sees it, a new artistic director will be someone who shares his and Benson’s values: a person who gives literature great importance and “someone who shares the artistic importance of theater and understands that he or she will make future decisions based upon what’s happening in the world at the time, because you want theater to always be relevant and reflective of what’s happening, and that’s a way of helping to understand what’s happening to us as a people, as a country.”
The repertory’s board of trustees will form a search committee to look for Emmes and Benson’s successor.
The repertory will have its pick of the most talented people in the theater world to take Emmes and Benson’s place, said Wylie Aitken, president of South Coast Repertory’s board of trustees.
“Because they’ve created one of the finest theaters in America, we’re going to be able to draw the finest talent to this job,” Aitken said. “It will allow us to select a new artistic creative director who will certainly be one of the finest in America.”
