World premieres of a John Strand-Dennis McCarthy musical and three plays, in addition to three classics, are included in the South Coast Rep's 2008-09 season.

"An Italian Straw Hat" by Strand (a Charles MacArthur prize winner) and composer McCarthy will open the Segerstrom Stage season Sept. 5 and run until Oct. 5. Tuner, directed by Stefan Novinski, is based on the classic farce by Eugene Labiche. "Hat" was presented as a staged reading at the 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival. Novinski helmed the current season's production of "A Little Night Music."

The three classics will be mounted on the Segerstrom Stage: "The Heiress" by Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz (Oct. 17-Nov. 16); "Noises Off," by Michael Frayn (Feb. 6-March 8); and Shakespeare's "King Lear" (May 15-June 14, 2009).

SCR artistic director Martin Benson will direct "The Heiress"; Warner Shook will be at the helm of "Noises Off," and Daniel Sullivan will return to SCR for "King Lear."

A world premiere production will be staged April 3-May 3 as part of the 2009 Pacific Playwrights Festival.

Sarah Ruhl's "Dead Man's Cell Phone," which played New York's Playwrights Horizons in March, will open the Julianne Argyros Stage season Sept. 21-Oct. 12. Bart DeLorenzo will direct.

"You, Nero," a comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Freed, receives its world premiere Jan. 4-25. Sharon Ott will direct the SCR-commissioned work.

It will be followed by another world premiere of an SCR-commissioned play, John Kolvenbach's "Goldfish." Loretta Greco, recently appointed as artistic director of San Francisco's Magic Theater, will direct the play, which runs March 15-April 5.

Lauren Gunderson's "Emilie -- The Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life at the Petit Theatre at Cirey," which will be presented as a staged reading at this season's Pacific Playwrights Festival, will receive a full production April 19-May 10, directed by Kate Whoriskey.

Holiday productions and Theater for Young Audiences will be staged again also.

The 12th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival will take place May 1-3 and feature seven new plays.