SCR Up for 10 Drama Awards : Theater: It gets more Critics Circle nods than any other company, but the most-honored productions are from L.A.

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa has snagged 10 of this year’s Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award nominations--more than any other theater company. Meanwhile, the giant-sized “Sunset Boulevard” at the Shubert Theatre and “The Tavern” at the intimate Matrix Theatre, both in Los Angeles, were the most honored single productions, with seven nominations apiece.

Five different productions contributed to the South Coast Rep nominations, announced Monday. And, SCR produced the play that won this year’s Ted Schmitt Award for an outstanding world premiere--Roger Rueff’s “So Many Words,” presented on its Second Stage last April.

The troupe also received a special award on the occasion of its 30th birthday, “for its growth from a grass-roots operation to a leading American resident theater, committed to new plays and to sustaining an uncommonly versatile company of artists.”

The Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, whose productions at the Taper and Doolittle theaters dominated last year’s nominations, received only eight this year.

Orange County productions also dominated this year’s writing awards: The only nominations given were to Rueff for “So Many Words” and to Carol Wolf for “Monsieur Shaherazad,” staged by now-defunct GroveShakespeare in Garden Grove. “Shaherazad” was also nominated for lead performance, by Ron Campbell.

SCR received three nominations for lead performance (Kandis Chappell and Dakin Matthews for “Shadowlands” and Richard Doyle for “Intimate Exchanges”), one for featured performance (Douglas Rowe for “Great Day in the Morning”), two for scenic design (Cliff Faulkner for “Hay Fever” and Gerard Howland for “Great Day in the Morning”), one for lighting design (Peter Maradudin for “Great Day in the Morning”), two for costume design (Ann Bruice for “Hay Fever” and Walter Hicklin for “Great Day in the Morning”) and the one for writing.

Interestingly, the troupe did not receive a nomination for outstanding production or direction. Similarly, although “Sunset Boulevard” tied “The Tavern” for the most nominations for a single show, “Sunset” was not nominated for outstanding production.

Nominees for that award were “The Tavern,” “Crazy for You” (the musical that preceded “Sunset Boulevard” at the Shubert) and the West Coast Ensemble’s revival of “Equus.”

Director nominations went to Jules Aaron for “Equus,” Marilyn Fox for the Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble’s revival of “Ondine,” Todd Nielsen for “Rags” at the Colony Studio Theatre, Tony Giordano for “The Tavern” and Trevor Nunn for “Sunset Boulevard.”

The Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble won the Margaret Harford Award for continuous achievement in the small theater. J. Kent Inasy will receive the Angstrom Award for career achievement in stage lighting. And Artists Confronting AIDS will take home another special award for presentations that “memorably dramatize an urgent health care crisis.”

The winners in the competitive categories will be announced next month and the awards will be presented April 10 in Studio City. The occasion will mark the 25th anniversary of the critics’ organization, which includes 18 critics from 12 different publications.

The nominees:

* Production: “Crazy for You,” producers Roger Horchow and Elizabeth Williams, Shubert Theatre; “Equus,” producer James Thomas Bailey, West Coast Ensemble; “The Tavern,” producer Joseph Stern, Matrix Theatre.

* Direction: Jules Aaron, “Equus”; Marilyn Fox, “Ondine,” Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble; Tony Giordano, “The Tavern”; Todd Nielsen, “Rags,” Colony Studio Theatre; Trevor Nunn, “Sunset Boulevard.”

* Writing: Roger Rueff, “So Many Words,” South Coast Repertory; Carol Wolf, “Monsieur Shaherazad,” Grove Shakespeare.

* Lead Performance: James Brennan, “Crazy for You”; Ian Buchanan, “Equus”; Ron Campbell, “Monsieur Shaherazad”; Kandis Chappell, “Shadowlands,” South Coast Repertory; Glenn Close, “Sunset Boulevard”; Richard Doyle, “Intimate Exchanges,” South Coast Repertory; Harold Gould, “Incommunicado,” Odyssey Theatre; Judd Hirsch, “Conversations With My Father,” Doolittle Theatre; Michael Kearns, “Camille,” Highways; Frank Langella, “Scenes From an Execution,” Mark Taper Forum; Dakin Matthews, “Shadowlands”; Jack Noseworthy, “Equus”; Liza Rivera, “Ondine”; Cotter Smith, “The Tavern”; Juliet Stevenson, “Scenes From an Execution”; Karen Ziemba, “Crazy for You.”

* Featured Performance: J.D. Daniels, “Conversations With My Father”; Edward Hibbert, “Jeffrey,” Westwood Playhouse; Tony Maggio, “La Bete,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre; Douglas Rowe, “Great Day in the Morning,” South Coast Repertory.

* Creation Performance: John Robert Hoffman, “Northern Lights,” Egyptian Arena Theatre; Anna Deavere Smith, “Twilight: Los Angeles 1992,” Mark Taper Forum.

* Scenic Design: John Lee Beatty, “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” Mark Taper Forum; Cliff Faulkner, “Hay Fever,” South Coast Repertory; Gerard Howland, “Great Day in the Morning”; Neil Peter Jampolis, “The Tavern”; John Napier, “Sunset Boulevard”; Tony Walton, “Conversations With My Father.”

* Lighting Design: Andrew Bridge, “Sunset Boulevard”; Arden Fingerhut, “Scenes From an Execution”; Guido Girardi, “Ondine”; Peter Maradudin, “Great Day in the Morning”; Jane Reisman, “The Tavern.”

* Costume Design: Alan Armstrong, “The Tavern”; Ann Bruice, “Hay Fever”; Walter Hicklin, “Great Day in the Morning”; Barbara Jacobs, “Ondine”; William Ivey Long, “Guys and Dolls,” Pantages Theatre; Bob Mackie, “Ruthless!,” Canon Theatre; Anthony Powell, “Sunset Boulevard.”

* Sound Design: Matthew Beville, “The Tavern”; Martin Levan, “Sunset Boulevard.”

* Musical Direction: Steven Applegate, “Rags”; David Caddich and Paul Bogaev, “Sunset Boulevard”; Paul Gemignani, “Crazy for You”; John McDaniel, “Dreamgirls,” Long Beach Civic Light Opera.

* Choreography: Christopher Chadman, “Guys and Dolls”; Susan Stroman, “Crazy for You.”

* Original Music: Tom Gerou, “Ondine.”

* Musical Orchestration: William D. Brohn, “Crazy for You.”