Among the plays commissioned and introduced at SCR are Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen, and Brooklyn Boy; Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain and The Violet Hour; David Henry Hwang's Golden Child; and Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon.

After graduation, Emmes and Benson gathered a few San Francisco friends in summer 1963 to stage Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde at the Off-Broadway Theatre in Long Beach, California.

They displayed an "Artistic Manifesto" in the Second Step lobby, which boasted a four-step model of growth: the first season of touring, the present location's 75-seat stage, and two more transformations leading to a major regional center for theatre arts and education.

While the goal of running a nationally renowned arts institution spurred them on from the Second Step lobby wall, the young company went about the business of surviving.

Among the first acting company members were Don Took, Martha McFarland and Art Koustik, joined over the next seasons by Richard Doyle, Hal Landon Jr. and Ron Boussom.

Within two years, artistic and financial momentum had picked up and SCR looked toward its Third Step: a converted Sprouse-Reitz Variety Store on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa.

Emmes and Benson addressed the question of SCR's future and moved forward toward the long-anticipated Fourth Step Theatre.

They formed a new board of community leaders to address the realities of funding, designing, and building Orange County's first resident theatre facility.

In 1985, the NEA awarded SCR a Challenge Grant, which helped finance the creation of the Collaboration Laboratory (Colab), which would support all play development in the future.

Donald Margulies, whose Sight Unseen and Collected Stories originated at SCR before meeting with New York success, won the 2000 Pulitzer for Dinner With Friends.

The first season in the Folino Theatre Center earned rave reviews and introduced three plays — Greenberg's The Violet Hour, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel and Rolin Jones' The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow.

Emmes and Benson moved into the roles of Founding Artistic Directors, from which they continue to share the wisdom and knowledge gained in their 47 years at the theatre's helm.

In addition, SCR's 52nd season included world premieres by Sandra Tsing Loh (The Madwoman in the Volvo), Bekah Brunstetter (Going to a Place where you Already Are) and Eliza Clark (Future Thinking).

The 2016-17 season featured four world premieres: The Siegel by Michael Mitnick; Yoga Play by Dipika Guha; Flora & Ulysses by John Glore; and A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath (an SCR commission), which had a nearly simultaneous second production on Broadway.

The 2017-18 season included the musical Once, as well as Shakespeare in Love, The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein and Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson.

The season featured five world premieres including Amos & Boris by Sofia Alvarez; Curve of Departure by Rachel Bonds; SHREW!

by Amy Freed; Little Black Shadows by Kemp Powers; and Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee, commissioned through SCR's CrossRoads Initiative.

Yee's Cambodian Rock Band received the prestigious Harold and Mimi Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association Award in 2019.

The 2019–20 season, the first he programmed, included the musical She Loves Me by Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (directed by Ivers), American Mariachi by José Cruz González, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley, Aubergine by Julia Cho and Fireflies by Donja R. Love.

This new digital platform was dedicated to amplifying the artists and narratives of the region by producing stories inspired by or about the rich diversity of people living in Southern California.

The Pacific Playwrights Festival returned to its traditional live, in-person format in the spring of 2022, showcasing one full production, five readings and an excerpt of a new musical-in-progress.