News And Blogs

Sting—yes, that Sting—believes in the power of women. “Women are very important in this play—men have messed it up, we really have,” the Grammy®-winning songwriter, musician, and actor said in an interview last year about the musical he created and stars in, The Last Ship. “This is one of the main tropes of the play: it’s women who s...

'We Need More Women in Power'

Here at Center Theatre Group, we’re no strangers to showcasing spectacular love stories by way of musical theatre. The Ahmanson, in particular, has visited the crossroads of song, dance, and romance continuously since its first season more than 50 years ago through today with The Last Ship....

When Love Takes Center Stage

Five and a half years ago, Ferguson, Missouri, became the focus of national attention following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown. Until the Flood—onstage at the Douglas January 24 – February 23, 2020—is acclaimed playwright and performer Dael Orlandersmith’s latest solo show, an urgent exploration of the social uprising that succeeded...

Ferguson, Missouri: A Timeline

Mat Diafos Sweeney is a true multi-hyphenate creator: a composer-director-writer-designerchoreographer who makes theatre and performance pieces that defy easy characterizations. “I talk about the work that I make as ‘junkyard opera,’ both because of the different mediums that I’m working with in visual art and choreography and music and tex...

And the 2020 Sherwood Award Goes to…Performance Maker Mat Diafos Sweeney

“What’s it like to punch someone in the face?” playwright Ngozi Anyanwu asked mixed martial artist Ashlee Evans-Smith. They were sitting in the Kirk Douglas Theatre rehearsal room, where the 2019/20 L.A. Writers’ Workshop had just kicked off with its annual Salon. From a clinical psychologist and Jesuit priest to an anthropologist and Afric...

Behind Salon Doors

The Last Ship—onstage at the Ahmanson January 14 – Febuary 16, 2020, is set in Sting’s hometown of Wallsend, Tyne and Wear: a town in North East England with a rich history of not only shipbuilding, but community action. The show is set in 1986; strikes and unrest have roiled British industry for some time, and, under the leadership of Prime...

A Community of Strength: the Compelling History Behind Sting's Hometown

Dael Orlandersmith starts the conversations her audiences need. In her newest groundbreaking work, Until the Flood—onstage at the Douglas from January 21 – February 23, 2020—that means thinking and talking about Ferguson, Missouri, where in 2014 a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. After succes...

How Dael Orlandersmith Speaks to People

At Center Theatre Group, we believe in the value of bridging what students learn in the classroom with what theatre professionals do every day. Enter our Teaching Artists, creative professionals who integrate their art form, perspectives, and skills into our educational programming.

Bringing the Class to the Stage, and the Stage to the Class

The following letter is excerpted from Reflections, The Taper at Twenty, a publication produced by Center Theatre Group in recognition of the Mark Taper Forum’s 20th Anniversary. In this section, actor René Auberjonois, who appeared at the Taper regularly over its first twenty years and was a founding member of the Mark Taper Forum Repertory Com...

Within This Concrete O

It’s the fall of 1977 in the Hill District. The urban area just west of downtown Pittsburgh is predominantly African American, and in a time of de facto segregation, untraveled by run-of-the-mill taxis. Transportation options are limited, and unlicensed “jitney” cabs are as common there as legal yellow cabs are in white neighborhoods.

Community, Empowerment & Being Human in August Wilson’s 'Jitney'

Ruben Santiago-Hudson describes August Wilson’s Jitney—onstage at the Mark Taper Forum Novermber 22 – December 29, 2019—as “two parallel love stories.”

An Opportunity to Celebrate