Competition Winners to Get Staged Readings

COSTA MESA —  Tania Myren-Zobel’s “Capoeira,” the first-prize winner of South Coast Repertory’s 1991 California Playwrights Competition, will be given a staged reading Monday at 7:30 p.m. on the SCR Mainstage. SCR officials said the play traces a woman’s attempt to break a cycle of destructive relationships after she is abandoned by her bigamist husband. Admission is $7.

William C. Sterritt’s “Caribbean Romance,” the second-prize winner, will be given a staged reading May 8 at 2:30 p.m. on the SCR Second Stage. It is described as a dark comedy, focusing on a fantasy-laden encounter in a Key West motel between a woman obsessed with Fidel Castro and a man who may be a serial killer. Admission is free. Information for either reading: (714) 957-4033.

EARLIER CURTAIN: Performance times for all SCR Second Stage productions will be moved up a half-hour next season because of “popular demand,” theater officials have announced. Thus, evening shows will begin at 8 p.m. from Tuesdays to Saturdays (instead of 8:30 p.m.) and at 7:30 p.m. on Sundays (instead of 8 p.m.), coinciding with the customary curtain times for the SCR Mainstage. Matinees for both stages also will begin at 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.