Pre-1967
"The Great Work Begins"
Los Angeles’ civic and cultural leaders—with Dorothy Buffum Chandler at the helm—put in over a decade of work even before Center Theatre Group opened our doors. They laid the groundwork for a great regional theatre company that could become a center for a sprawling city.
Nine Year, $20 Million Quest
Dorothy Buffum Chandler begins her nine year quest to raise $20 million to build The Music Center atop Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles.
After a summer in London, Chandler decides that The Music Center’s theatres would run on the nonprofit institutionalized symphony orchestra model, something never tried before in America, 1960
Photo courtesy of The Music Center Archives/Otto Rothschild Collection
Construction of The Music Center Begins
Architect Welton Becket designs the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre
The Music Center Designs by Welton Becket and Associates
I see it as a laboratory and workshop of the performing arts in which our talented young people can find themselves.
Gordon Davidson
"I was extraordinarily lucky to be in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. The country was alive to the issues that were facing it, and people felt as if they could make a difference." —Gordon Davidson, who is a stage manager in his native New York City in 1964 when producer John Houseman invites him to Los Angeles to work on the Theatre Group at UCLA’s production of King Lear. A year later, when Houseman leaves UCLA, Davidson becomes director of the Theatre Group.
Ahmanson Donates $1.5 Million
The Ahmanson Foundation, led by businessman and philanthropist Howard Ahmanson, donates $1.5 million to establish a special fund for the performing arts. The Ahmanson Theatre is named in his honor.
Center Theatre Group Joins The Music Center
After attending Gordon Davidson's UCLA production of Candide, which is credited with breathing new life into Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway flop, Dorothy Chandler invites Davidson and his company to become residents of the new Music Center.
Looking back, I am not sure but what were all a little crazy.