2015 | Center Theatre Group

What does a recent rash of TV shows focusing on religious subjects such as Breaking Amish, Big Love, and Reza Aslan’s upcoming Believer reveal about our fascination with the collision of deeply held beliefs, doubt, and different perspectives on religion?...

Reality TV, 'The Christians' and Exploring Belief

Why is a massive cross dominating the stage of the Mark Taper Forum, and why is a choir belting out hymns? These are two ways The Christians, which plays the Taper through January 10, 2016, is immersing audiences in an evangelical church where they play the congregation. At the pulpit, a pastor questions a core tenet of Christianity, organized reli...

In 'The Christians' L.A. is The Choir

When I was younger, I was supposed to be a preacher, but I decided it would be too much responsibility. I didn’t want to worry about other people’s souls. I switched to pre-med, but I didn’t want to worry about other people’s bodies. And so, I switched to playwriting.

"The Christians' Playwright Lucas Hnath on Revealing the Invisible

When audiences step into the Mark Taper Forum to see playwright Lucas Hnath’s The Christians, they may do a double take. The stage is being transformed into a megachurch’s pulpit (with a full choir) for the play, which opens with a sermon from a pastor that will divide his congregation....

Lucas Hnath Wants to Talk About Faith—But Not His Own

Appropriate, at the Mark Taper Forum September 23–November 1, 2015, explores the haunting historical sins of a Southern family while uncovering some contemporary ones along the way. A hidden graveyard, a crumbling plantation mansion, and a chorus of insects make the perfect backdrop for a haunting, and one character even claims to feel “spiri...

'Appropriate'-Inspired Hauntings in L.A.

“Rituals are perhaps the oldest...members of the performance family. Their business in society is to effect transformations that cannot otherwise be brought about.”—Tom F. Driver, Liberating Rites: Understanding the Transformative Power of Ritual...

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, a landmark decision for gay and lesbian Americans. Exactly a month later on July 26, Bent opened at the Mark Taper Forum in its first major U.S. revival.

As the first major U.S. revival of Bent opened at the Mark Taper Forum, the Los Angeles Times took two close looks at the production.

When Martin Sherman’s play Bent premiered on Broadway in 1979, it introduced many audiences to the story of gay persecution in the Holocaust. Over the past few decades, this history has become more widely known, thanks in part to the re-appropriation of the pink triangle the Nazis forced gay male prisoners to wear.

In 1980, just out of college, I moved to New York where my older brother, the actor Richard Gere, was already making a big name for himself. That was the year of American Gigolo with Lauren Hutton, and it was also the year he starred on Broadway in Martin Sherman’s Bent.

Bent director Moisés Kaufman was surprised to discover that in the 1920s and early 1930s, Berlin was home to over 100 gay bars—far more than you’d find in any global city today. The first scenes of Bent take place there in 1934, just as that world came crashing down. Why was pre-World War II Berlin an epicenter of gay life, and what was t...

News:

Reality TV, 'The Christians' and Exploring Belief

In 'The Christians' L.A. is The Choir

"The Christians' Playwright Lucas Hnath on Revealing the Invisible

Lucas Hnath Wants to Talk About Faith—But Not His Own

'Appropriate'-Inspired Hauntings in L.A.

A Small Gesture, a Powerful Honoring: Floating Lights after ‘Bent’

Why Is ‘Bent’ More Relevant Than Ever?

The ‘L.A. Times’ Spotlights ‘Bent’

Refashioning Oppression–The History of the Pink Triangle

David Gere on ‘Bent’

Gay Berlin, Before Hitler Came to Power