So far in season 2001-02, South Coast Repertory Theatre staged the world premieres of Annie Weisman's Hold Please and Lucinda Coxon's Nostalgia, both of which were commissioned by the Southern California theatre company. Nov. 12, the company reads the second of two new commissions as a part of their NewSCRipts four-play series, Julie Jordan's Our Boy.

Our Boy focuses on the lone survivor of a horrific tragedy who moves to a new town to escape his past. Instead, he becomes entangled with a tight-knit group, struggling with their own histories and what the future will bring.

Jordan won the Francesca Primus Prize and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 1997 for her play Tatjana in Color. She also wrote the book to the mini-musical The Mice, part of the larger piece three.

The final NewSCRipts readings will be Feb. 4 and March 11. No plays or directors have been announced.

Tickets are $8 at the door. South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. For reservations, call (714) 708-5555. South Coast Repertory is on the web at http://www.scr.org. *

The first NewSCRipts selection was Karen Hartman's Going Gone. David Chambers directed the drama drawn from the real life stories of Hartman's family. Going Gone pits Eastern European immigrant Harry against all the success and destruction early 20th Century America offers. As he excels as one of the first radio announcers for baseball, his wife and children struggle to adjust to their new country.

Hartman's best known work is Gum, which featured Rent's Daphne Rubin-Vega in its New York premiere. Other credits include The Mother of Modern Censorship, Girl Under Grain, Blessings and Cursings and Troy Women.

— By Christine Ehren