California Curtain Call: Alum-founded South Coast Rep Remains Strong 50 Years Later

OC IN SITE -- Long-lasting businesses and institutions always have their humble beginnings. This couldn’t be truer for Martin Benson and his business partner David Emmes, who met and became friends during a theatrical production at their alma mater, San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University). After graduation and a few collaborations, the two men decided to create a business plan for a regional theater company, solidifying their lifelong friendship even further. “It’s amazing how relationships are established and things happen,” Benson says. “If I hadn’t met David, we probably wouldn’t have this theater. He wouldn’t have started it; I wouldn’t have started it. It took both of our energies to get it going.”