Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Costume Designer Ann Closs-Farley's Dream Job

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 13:21:00 -0700

But that wasn’t the only reason why this production appealed to her. “I like drag,” said Closs-Farley, adding, “I go big or go home.” This show gave her an opportunity to do both those things while working with a game director in Center Theatre Group Associate Artistic Director Neel Keller and a great group of actors. It was also a chance to draw inspiration from everything from her own work with men’s and women’s bodies to hallucinogenic musicals like The Who’s Tommy.

“I designed it like a musical, but it wasn’t a musical,” said Closs-Farley, from the sexy salad dress worn by a character described as “ample” to the skin-tight gold body suits worn for a dreamlike rap music sequence—and topped off with beige “mom” bras and underwear. Those body suits, said Closs-Farley, were a riff on Kanye West’s backup dancers’ body paint. “They were completely covered head to toe,” said Closs-Farley. “It still objectifies them.” The “mom” undergarments were inspired by an ode Kanye wrote to his mother.

The show came with some unique challenges, both logistical and creative. Closs-Farley had a project in China that coincided with pre-production, which meant trusting her designs in the hands of Center Theatre Group’s “extraordinary costume team.” The second day of rehearsals involved a film shoot for stage projections, so the actors had to be fitted and tailored in a day. And because the show changed in the technical rehearsal process, Closs-Farley had to adjust her designs to accommodate new quick changes. On the creative side, the biggest challenge was the everyday wear for both work and play. “Trying to get something to look natural and normal is a feat in and of itself,” said Closs-Farley.

Ultimately, the costumes came together just as Closs-Farley had envisioned—which is an incredible anomaly. “Twenty percent of my thought usually comes out,” said Closs-Farley, “but on this show, I got nearly everything I imagined.”

For more on costumes from Center Theatre Group, check out our #EveryCostume tells a story posts on Instagram and Pinterest.

Director Darko Tresnjak's Guide to a Tony-Winning Show

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:11:00 -0700

I just know that I fell in love with this show, and when I became the artistic director of Hartford Stage [in 2011], the first thing on my mind was, ‘I have to do this,’” said Mr. Tresnjak. “Everybody believed in it along the way, and it was nurtured all the way through the process, from Hartford to the Old Globe in San Diego to Broadway. So many things can go wrong along the way, but we had a lot of good steps every step of the way.

That included casting actors for the tour.

The process for casting a new version of the victims for the tour was, in a word, “exhaustive,” Mr. Tresnjak said. “We just kind of made up our minds we were going to be pleased, no matter how long it took.”

He said that actors coming in doing impressions of the original stars were immediately dismissed. The team was looking for a fresh start, a search that led them to Kevin Massey as Monty Navarro, the amorous, ambitious killer of his kin, and John Rapson, a “Les Miserables” understudy for several roles on Broadway....

“Jefferson Mays [who originated the roles played by Rapson on tour] has this extraordinary physical versatility. John Rapson has an almost operatic voice. It’s an extraordinary thing. So it was a very different experience,” Mr. Tresnjak said. “And you know, Jefferson is maybe 5-10 and around my weight, 150. And John is a big guy, and that became a part of it. You use everything that’s in front of you. It’s fun.”

Tresnjak also talked about what makes the score so special:

The wordplay and satirical songs in “Gentleman’s Guide”—including “I Don’t Understand the Poor”—would seem to be direct descendants of Gilbert & Sullivan, but Mr. Tresnjak said there’s another important influence.

“Mozart, too—I know that Steven warmed up to write the show by listening to the overture for [Mozart’s] ‘Cosi fan tutte,’ ” he said.

“For all of the people who sing in the show, it requires that kind of crystal clear soprano—legit singing. For example, if people don’t know opera, then Julie Andrews comes to mind for that kind of pristine diction and just beautiful singing. So none of this wailing banshee crap that I can’t stand.”

The director laughs. “I’m not referring to Broadway necessarily. You know what I mean.”

Working That Salad

Center Theatre Group — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:03:00 -0700

Salad #SoFunny

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When bae orders a salad and you order a cheeseburger #No

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Vegans be like #MannaFromHeaven

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Working that salad like mmmm

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Macho like

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#ShadeFace

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When you realize you should have ordered the half-size salad.

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What's So Funny About Salad?

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:47:00 -0700

The photos went viral, creating a meme that spawned a Tumblr, the identification of other stock photo memes like “Women Struggling to Drink Water” and “Women Resisting Delicious Cakes and Pies,” a music video, Halloween costumes, art, and of course Sheila Callaghan’s new show, Women Laughing Alone With Salad, which plays the Kirk Douglas Theatre through April 3, 2016.

An item in a women’s beauty and health email newsletter sent Zimmerman down the salad rabbit hole. She was struck by a photo that “was just a close-up of a woman’s mouth, and she was holding a fork with a piece of broccoli on the tines, and it was right in front of her mouth, and she was just grinning,” said Zimmerman. “It was such a big smile and the fork was so close that she couldn’t have been eating it.” (That photo is included in the Hairpin post.) Zimmerman realized she had seen this before. “I guess this is stock photography of women being joyful while they’re virtuous,” she recalled thinking. “And then I just started Googling for other pictures.”

The resulting post has no text (it never seemed to need it), and Zimmerman hasn’t talked much about it since. “Talking about it just seems to decrease the humor,” she said. “It started with maximum humor in my mind.” Readers agreed. The Hairpin was only a few months old when Zimmerman published “Women Laughing Alone With Salad,” and it marked a turning point for the site. It was the biggest post in its history (and may still be). “It was great because it brought people to the site and some of them lingered,” said Zimmerman.

The meme’s longevity is “sort of surreal and hilarious,” she said. “I was hoping people would like it, but I didn’t think it would become anything else. She added, “I didn’t think this was going to knock stock photography on its butt.”

For Sheila Callaghan, the meme (and “Women Struggling to Drink Water”) became a kind of call to action. Callaghan discussed what she saw in the meme in an article written by the show’s dramaturg at Wooly Mammoth Theatre:

“In curating the list,” says playwright Sheila Callaghan of Zimmerman’s post, “Edith was doing something political. She wasn’t merely discussing the absurdity of the images themselves, nor was she having a narrow conversation about inherent intent. She was calling attention to the proliferation of a certain kind of image. The volume of similar photos was the crime, not necessarily the photos alone. And for her, critical mass had been reached.”

Callaghan wrote three monologues that were commissioned by the University of Maryland that she developed over time (and at the Center Theatre Group Writers’ Workshop) into Women Laughing Alone With Salad. The play uses the photos as a jumping-off point to tackle so much more, from feminism and body image to aging and the corporate glass ceiling. As Callaghan told the Los Angeles Times, speaking about the play’s subjects in food metaphors: “There's a conversation in the play about salad versus cake, and then you realize the cake is fat-free and made with Stevia, and you realize the cake was a lie and the salad was a bad idea.”

Making Salad for the Stage

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 22:44:00 -0700

The first challenges of salad-making were technical. The salad had to be flame-proof. It had to be non-toxic. And it needed to be reusable, to make it through multiple performances. The prop team started out with different fabrics standing in for the greens—silk, wool, non-woven fabric (which is what your reusable grocery bags are made of), and Rose Brand fabrics, which are made for theatre and are designed to be flame-retardant. “The fabrics all looked like fabric,” said Jon Ward, the show’s prop lead. They settled on Tyvek®, a plastic, non-woven material that is flame-resistant. It’s what housewrap and some FedEx envelopes are made of. “Tyvek gives us the crisp, leafy look we were going for,” said Ward.

So they had the texture down—but the next challenge was to get the right shades of green. (In a show inspired by stock photos, the lettuce must be photogenic!) Ward explained that they tested a lot of different non-flammable dyes, some of which became catalysts when combined with the Tyvek. Others, like synthetic Rit dye, didn’t take. They tested spray dyes made for fabric, spray paint, and acrylic paint before eventually settling on Simply Spray, a non-toxic, non-flammable aerosol paint. The three colors they chose—Hot Lime, Sage Green, and Hunter Green—weren’t available in Los Angeles, so they had to be ordered online. And then they had to figure out exactly how much they’d need.

Once the “recipe” was written, the salad prep began. Prop Artisan Eric Babb walked us through the process of making the five enormous boxes of fake salad needed for the production.

First, Babb cuts the Tyvek into strips and crumples them to give them a more salad-like texture. Then, he dons safety gear to head into the prop shop’s walk-in spray booth, where he coats the Tyvek in paint. Next, he coats it in FlexBond glue, which gives the material a sheen that makes it look more like real salad. Once the material is dry, he cuts it into strips, which he stitches together on the sewing machine to give the salad more heft and body. Using a rotary blade, he cuts the salad into a leaf-like shape. Then, after some crunching and fluffing—the lettuce is ready to go.

It’s “a visual feast,” said Babb, who admitted that the salad was getting to his head a little bit. “I’ll be at the market, and I find myself stopping to look at the vegetables for research,” he said. And even lunch didn’t mean a break: “I’m eating a salad,” he said.

The Art of Teaching Theatre: Mastering the Audition Monologue

Lynn Clark — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 19:39:00 -0800

Monologue is the motif for this moment in Center Theatre Group’s season. An Act of God is thrilling audiences at the Ahmanson Theatre through March 10 courtesy of a number of monologues performed by Sean Hayes who, as God, answers “some of the deepest questions that have plagued mankind since Creation.” And on February 29, the Mark Taper Forum played host to the August Wilson Monologue Competition Los Angeles Regional Finals.

So it seemed appropriate for this installment of The Art of Teaching Theatre to tackle the genre, particularly because monologue auditions are an important part of high school students’ applications to college and university theatre programs. We approached theatre artists and educators who audition these students and asked them for their advice on how high school teachers should help their students get ready to present their monologues and what skills they want incoming students to arrive with.

Theatre director, playwright, author, and college professor Mel Shapiro has auditioned many prospective theatre majors at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, and UCLA. He offered these words of wisdom:

For me, the problem these last dozen years or so has been the fact there is too much coaching of audition pieces by teachers, hired pros, parents, etc. It’s not that the coaching has been bad: it’s that all one sees is the hand of the coach and not the student. I usually work with the candidates I’m interested in by giving them new adjustments and seeing if fresh life can be put into their work.

Teachers and coaches need to work on two levels. The students need to be intellectually knowledgeable about the text: the world of the play and the character’s course of action in the play. Grabbing material from sources like monologue books really is not a good idea. The student also needs to recognize the emotional and psychological side of their character. And the student should be taught, even if on a cursory level, how to personalize with that character, so they can covey what the character has to say with authenticity. Auditioning needs hard work, research, trial and error, and understanding. All too often, they are thrown together at the last minute.

I always say to any actor, you are as good as your preparation. Show the auditors you are prepared. Take a moment to grab on to your character and let the journey begin. Remember whom you are supposed to be talking to. If it’s the audience, you might ask beforehand if they mind that you’re playing to them. Concentrate on what you are playing. The words, always hold on to the words.

Actor/director/professor Adam Smith has taught performance at UC San Diego, where he earned an MFA in the UCSD-La Jolla Playhouse theatre program, and is currently on the faculty of the School of Theatre at California Institute for the Arts. He gave us the critical factors he thinks high school teachers should emphasize in prepping their students:

First, be sure the material is something that showcases the student's strengths as a performer (and yes, this often is a distant cousin to that dreaded industry term “type”). Finding this can often mean selecting material that the student connects with or is excited about or is inspired by. Secondly, I don't think auditioning students (or their teachers and coaches) should concern themselves too much with obsessing over that rarely performed or never-heard-before piece that will force the auditors to "sit up in their chairs." It's more important that the auditioning student present well than present "uniquely," particularly when it comes to the classical monologue (of which there are limited choices, especially Shakespeare). In fact, it can actually benefit you to perform an oft-used monologue if you're the one person that does it well, as opposed to the five other mediocre versions of it we've seen throughout the day. This really speaks to the first point: namely, know thyself and choose material that shows thyself off well (regardless of how well-known it is!).

The number-one quality I think we're looking for in auditions is "trainability." That's rather vague, but essentially it means that we see evidence that you're able to develop beyond what you're currently demonstrating in terms of natural ability and that you're ready for that development. Of course, we also look for actors who naturally "extend beyond the footlights" with their energy, who have promising vocal instruments, who are already somewhat comfortable in their bodies, and who don't have any glaring speech issues that might be uncorrectable. But malleability combined with a hunger for growth and curiosity for the work goes quite a long way.”

Jonathan Mann, Director of Development and Arts Education at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York, offered us his insights:

Teenagers are full of ideas and emotions, with emerging points of view and insights about the world, and the good, bad or indifferent relationships they have with the people around them. Whether brash and outspoken, shy and softspoken, or any variety between, high school students are transitioning, with varying levels of struggle, hilarity, despair and success, toward adulthood. There's a lot going on inside of them they can use, because a full inner life is what makes characters in a play or musical interesting to an audience.

So, finding age-appropriate roles the individual can truly get inside of and relate to are a great strategy. Because the best performances come across to the auditioner/audience as fitting the actor “like a glove.” That way we can ideally forget what we are watching is a performance.

I also recommend bringing two contrasting monologues that demonstrate the actor's range. It’s best to come ready with a shorter or longer part of each monologue, lasting approximately 60, 90, or 120 seconds.

Actors should take ownership of and enjoy their audition. When they enter the room, we must know the party is getting started, because one who is ready to share information worthy of our attention has arrived.

The actor must know and be prepared to discuss any part of the play or musical their monologues or songs are from. Because if they care enough to know the material well, that depth of interest will translate and allow us to care. The facts are important: who the actor is talking to, what they are saying and why they are saying it.

To be taken seriously as a performer, what you say onstage must be heard and felt. Your voice is how you most convincingly express your heart, soul, and personality. So a rehearsed and prepared voice with at least some resonance is key. Unnecessary movement or drifting during a monologue is to be avoided. Movement only happens where the text calls for it. Direct your attention and body so your face and other aspects of you physical presence reveal the character, in an added physical communication with the auditioner(s).

Don't hide onstage—be bold, take charge, and be visible. Your judgement about where and how to stand, sit, and move onstage, in keeping with the writer's character and situation, speaks volumes.

Sayda Trujillo is an actress and theatre-maker/educator who has served on the faculties of Pace University and California State University, Northridge. Her advice:

One of the most challenging aspects of preparing for an audition is choosing a piece for the audition. Teachers can guide their students through the process of choosing material (by suggesting plays to read, etc.), but ultimately it is important that the student choose the piece to work on. Students often want their teachers to choose a piece for them because it’s “hard.” “I don’t know what to choose,” they’ll say, but making a choice is a crucial part of the process: this ownership will influence the way a student works on their monologue.

After choosing a monologue, teachers should emphasize understanding the text, the thought process, and the notion that a monologue is a scene—they are talking to someone and there is a reason they keep talking.

Understanding the text involves meeting the different layers that the author has put on the page for us to interpret. What are the patterns in the text, what repeats, what are the images, what does the punctuation say about this character’s rhythm and thought process?

For voice and articulation, attention must be paid to consonants and vowels. I am of the belief that you must work on your feet from day one on your monologue. You can think about it before you go to sleep and on your way to school, but when you choose a time and space to work on your monologue, it should be done up and moving, and the words and the language should be tasted and played with.

Pieces with accents/dialects should be done without, unless the student already has that accent. This is important because trying to wing an accent will in most cases keep the student from truly connecting to the monologue’s meaning, actions, and objectives.

Students with a first language other than English must use their voice, their own sound, whether they’re using Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams. It’s especially important in an audition for a college theatre department, because at this audition you are introducing yourself, and schools want to see you.

By the character’s thought process I mean, how are the ideas linked, where do they come from? Discover the progression of the character’s thoughts. Especially when memorizing, memorize the thought and not just the words. Work slowly and connect one thought to the next.

It is important that students understand that in a monologue they are talking to someone else. And in that sense it is a scene. Exploring the reasons the character keeps talking will keep the monologue fresh and present and connected to a clear objective.

The most important element students can bring to an audition is “a joy for the work.” This cannot be manufactured. Along with this, an understanding of listening, of being present, and having courage to stay open and available will be very helpful.

The other skill to bring is breath. What I mean by breath is a private sense of your own breath. A breath that isn’t forced or held. A breath that moves you, that keeps you grounded, open, and engaged. Coming into an audition prepared, knowing that you have done enough work to play. Using your nerves to stay alive and joyful.

Less is more. Make clear choices.

Trust yourself. Don’t ask permission. Be generous.

The Mystery of Friendship

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 19:39:00 -0800

Nicki Minaj and Anna Wintour

The music diva is known for her outrageous outfits, and the mercurial editor is known for her iron grip on fashion. The rapper name-dropped the Vogue editor-in-chief on “Muny,” a bonus track on her 2010 album Pink Friday: “Hey, yo, Anna, hey yo Anna Wintour / I’ma need that cover baby girl / It’s Pink Friday, ya dig?” Then, in 2011, the pair was spotted sitting next to each other at two New York Fashion Week shows; it later emerged that Minaj was Wintour’s guest. Both take charge and suffer no fools. Though their styles are disparate to be sure, they each say emphatically, “I am the boss.”

#tbt to @NICKIMINAJ and Anna Wintour on the front row. pic.twitter.com/6kThk2sIAS
— Take A Look At This (@LookAtThisThen) February 26, 2015

Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-Un

One is a despotic dictator of a nuclear armed hedge-kingdom, the other is a renowned bad-boy sportsman. North Korean men have been urged to copy Jong-Un’s hairstyle; Rodman was once as famous for his rebounding and defensive skills as he was for his multicolored ’do. Rodman first visited Kim in 2013, and has returned to North Korea several times since for basketball and diplomatic missions. He has called Kim a “friend for life” and often encourages world leaders to be more welcoming of the dictator.

Everyone wants that friendship like Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un pic.twitter.com/LdrivHouSk
— Kevin (@TheCanesHype) March 6, 2016

Rihanna and Jim Parsons

The singer and actor first met when they starred in last year’s animated movie Home as a pair of mismatched friends from different species and planets. Parsons’ straight-laced mannerisms and dry humor contrast wonderfully with Rihanna’s free spirit and edgy style. Over the past year, they have been sighted at fashion shows and other high-profile events, hinting at a budding, if unexpected, friendship.

A photo posted by Jim Parsons (@therealjimparsons) on
Nov 19, 2014 at 1:43pm PST

Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia

The Notorious RBG, a Clinton appointee, and the late champion of constitutional originalism, a Reagan appointee, could not have held more differing views on America’s laws. However, the discourse that arose out of their disagreements led to a long and fruitful friendship. They often vacationed together, had an annual fete on December 31 to ring in the New Year, and their relationship even inspired an opera.

A photo posted by Notorious RBG (@notoriousrbg) on
Feb 13, 2016 at 3:04pm PST

Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton

Despite facing off in a heated election in 1992, the two are now nearly family, with their friendship described by some as a father-son relationship. They began working together in earnest during relief efforts following the 2005 Asian tsunami and continued to collaborate in the wake of Hurricane Katrina the next year. And with Jeb Bush out of the presidential race, their visits to each other’s homes need not come to an end.

Enjoyed my annual lunch with President and Mrs. Bush in Maine. Envious of his "western cactus"-themed socks.#sockswag pic.twitter.com/nXJV2DGnnj
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) September 5, 2013

Young Artists Journey with August Wilson

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 19:39:00 -0800

On February 29, 12 local high schoolers performed monologues from Wilson’s American Century Cycle of plays (one for each decade of the 1900s) for a full house of friends, family, Center Theatre Group supporters, and members of the Los Angeles theatre community. In under three minutes each, Joey Aquino, Blake Brewer, Samuel Christian, Arcadia Eckmayer, Rhenzy Feliz, Madison Gallus, Mylan Johnson, Marjorie McNary, Angel Nieves, Max Toubes, Damaris Vizvett, and Aryana Williams conveyed an astonishing range of emotions, from betrayal and outrage to joy and tenderness.

“The August Wilson Monologue Competition is so important for all young people, because August Wilson is one of our great American playwrights,” said Anne Bruner, President of Center Theatre Group Affiliates, which sponsors the August Wilson Program. The American Century Cycle is “historically important and moving and timeless in many ways. And it’s part of our heritage as Americans,” added Bruner.

This year, many students got their first introduction to that heritage in the early fall, when Center Theatre Group held orientation workshops for all August Wilson Monologue Competition participants for the first time, offering everyone audition tips and advice on choosing a monologue. “We are pleased and proud of the orientation workshops, which deepened the learning experience and helped students feel more confident going into the auditions,” said Center Theatre Group Director of Education and Community Partnerships Leslie K. Johnson. “It made the process and Center Theatre Group feel more familiar.”

August Wilson is a wonderful catalyst for young people to talk about the things that are important to them and be heard.

Leslie K. Johnson

Preliminary auditions followed a few weeks later, drawing nearly 150 students from across the region, all of whom received feedback from the judges whether or not they were among the 58 students who advanced to the semi-finals. After a workshop and another round of auditions, the group was winnowed down to 12 students, who embarked on a two-month-long journey to the finals together. Over 16 hours of workshops, they received one-on-one coaching in a variety of stage techniques, including an intense voice workshop onstage at the Taper, text analysis, and character study. Students also worked extensively as an ensemble, learning how to collaborate closely and support each other as they moved to the Finals.

“What I’m most proud of is that they picked very difficult texts,” said Program Advisor Andi Chapman, who guided the students throughout the process. “I was very impressed with their fearlessness going after their version of the story but still being in the context of the plays. I thought they worked really hard.”

That hard work was very much in evidence at the Taper, as all 12 performers threw their bodies, voices, and hearts into Wilson’s words. After 12 extraordinary performances,Damaris Vizvett was named the first-place finalist for her monologue as Vera in Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Samuel Christian took second place (as Elmore in King Hedley II), and Aryana Williams came in third (as Louise in Seven Guitars). The top two performers will travel to New York later this spring to perform onstage alongside students from seven other cities around the country at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.

“Every year with this program, I’m reminded of how much young people need creativity and opportunities to express themselves,” said Johnson. “August Wilson is a wonderful catalyst for young people to talk about the things that are important to them and be heard. I’m so proud that we have this program to help them be young artists and find their place in the world.”

August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Phylicia Rashad, plays the Mark Taper Forum August 31–October 16, 2016. It is the ninth of the 10 plays of The American Century Cycle to appear on our stages.