News And Blogs

In a recent conversation with Goodman Theatre's Director of New Play Development Tanya Palmer, Lauren talks about what inspired her play, and what it’s like to write herself into a story that is, as she describes, only kind of true—just like the stories your father once told you as a child.

Meet Playwright Lauren Yee

In Classroom Connections, Center Theatre Group invites groups of educators to enjoy a night out at the theatre—followed by a discussion of the show and where they found inspiration over food and drinks. The goal is to talk about the bridges we can build between the craft of theatre and the craft of classroom teaching.

'Archduke' Offers Students Lessons in Collaboration and History

Oh, what a night! Please excuse the cliché—I imagine every writer on the planet who has ever penned anything about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons begins with that lyric. But in this case, it would be true, so please allow me to indulge. Three crackerjack teachers from Hawthorne High School joined us for opening night of the Broadway smash hi...

Connecting Students with History through 'Jersey Boys'

A typical college student would seize the moment to binge watch a show on Netflix in bed all day during Easter break, but not I. For my Easter break, I was a Company Management Intern as a part of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers Diversity Initiative.

A Backstage Shadow on "Into The Woods"

Forget about show-stopping finales. In Jersey Boys, the smash-hit musical about the rise and fall of The Four Seasons, the pinnacle of excitement comes about 45 minutes into the first act. That’s when back-to-back presentations of three of the group’s biggest hits—Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, and Walk Like a Man—are greeted with enough th...

What Really Happened—Rick Elice Talks about the "Jersey Boys" Phenomenon

Some of the greatest and most innovative playwrights in American theatre have written major new works commissioned by Center Theatre Group, from Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit and Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 to Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke. As we celebrate our 50TH Anniversary, we are committing ourselves to doing more to support the...

Center Theatre Group Joins Forces with Top Playwrights and Theatres

No one needs to tell a native Angeleno that car culture is rooted deep in Los Angeles. As immortalized in George Lucas’s American Graffiti, cruising is forever enmeshed with youth culture and music. Inspired by the cruisin’ oldies of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—and Bob Gaudio's red "Caddy" convertible—in Jersey Boys (onstage at the A...

Top Five Cruising Boulevards of L.A.

When Center Theatre Group began at The Music Center in 1967, and Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson oversaw our works at the Mark Taper Forum, Tony Award®-winning producer Elliot Martin, another early leader of the organization, led the Ahmanson Theatre’s programming. Martin, who passed away on May 21, 2017, began Center Theatre Group’...

Our Theatre: Faces of the Future

It’s pretty easy to identify a boy band. Are five guys between the ages of 13 and 30 standing near each other, wearing matching outfits, and harmonizing? Are they wearing a lot of hair gel? If the answer to all of these questions is a yes, chances are, you’ve spotted a boy band. In honor of the arrival of our favorite boy group—Frankie Valli...

Boy Bands to Swoon Over from the 1960s to Now

Look, I’d do anything for a sandwich because I know what a sandwich is, one poor, hungry man tells another in Rajiv Joseph's Archduke (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through June 4, 2017). In Joseph's darkly comic take on the origins of World War I, global history hinges in part on three young Serbs' desire for sandwiches. Will they assassinate...

Five Serbian Sandwiches Worth Going to War For

Archduke, which plays the Mark Taper Forum through June 4, 2017, takes place in the days and hours before the event that is widely regarded as the beginning of World War I—the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Playwright Rajiv Joseph hopes that the play will get audiences thinking about World War I as not so distant or forei...

Wonder Woman, Uncle Sam, and ‘Archduke’