Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

A 'Beauty Queen of Leenane' Glossary

Center Theatre Group — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:00:00 -0800

Leenane

A town in County Galway Ireland, where this show takes place. Experts argue fervently over the proper pronunciation of the name, but after much research and consultation with the locals, we have determined that the correct version is “Leh-Nan” (the second syllable rhymes with the name Ann). I.e. “I do ask meself, if there was good work in Leenane, would I stay in Leenane? I mean, there never will be good work, but hypothetically, I’m saying. Or even bad work. Any work.” —Pato Dooley

Complan

A nutritional drink, fortified with additional vitamins and minerals. Made up from dried powder, it was usually given to the elderly. I.e. “I can’t see how a urine infection prevents you pouring a mug of Complan or tidying up the house a bit when I’m away.” —Maureen Folan

Feck

A version of the English expletive “f*ck,” although the term is less offensive and does not have the same sexual connotations. I.e. “I’ll tell you who’s a fecking loon, lady. You’re a fecking loon!” —Ray Dooley

Gaelic

Irish Gaelic is the traditional language of Ireland, spoken by about one million people in the country. It is more prevalent in the rural west and Gaeltacht regions (where the play is set). Historically this language has been under threat: colonial forces tried to suppress the speaking of Irish and to forbid its teaching in state schools. Because of this, the speaking of Gaelic is considered to be a politically important and sensitive issue, and is often related to a celebration or assertion of national identity. I.e. The song on the radio in the first scene of the play is sung in Gaelic.

Biteen

Irish-English for “bit.” I.e. “Is the radio a biteen loud there, Maureen?” —Mag Folan

Ceilidh Time

Pronounced KAI-lee, like the first name of actress Kaley Cuoco. A ceilidh is a traditional social celebration accompanied by folk music and dance. In the context of the play, it refers to a radio program playing such music, largely in Gaelic. I.e. Mag: Nothing on [the radio], anyways. An oul fella singing nonsense. Maureen: Isn’t it you wanted it set for that oul station? Mag: Only for Ceilidh Time and for whatyoucall.

Skitter

Slang for excrement. I.e. “It’s more of a day-dream. Y’know, something happy to be thinking of when I’m scraping the skitter out of them hens.” —Maureen Folan

Yank

American. I.e. “You said you couldn’t stand the Yanks yesterday. The crux of the matter yesterday you said it was.” —Mag Folan

Babby

Baby. I.e. “It’d be hard to find a priest who hasn’t had a babby with a Yank.” —Ray Dooley

Gasur

Irish-English for “boy.” I.e. “You’re a good gasur, Ray, fixing me fire for me.” —Mag Folan

Kimberley Biscuits

A brand of biscuits (cookies) famous in Ireland (learn more about Kimberly Biscuits in our Amélie, A New Musical (onstage at the Ahmanson December 4, 2016 – January 15, 2017) carries on a tradition that includes nine Neil Simon productions that moved from Center Theatre Group to Broadway over 25 years; landmark Mark Taper Forum plays like Zoot Suit, Children of a Lesser God, Angels in America, The Kentucky Cycle, and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; the Kirk Douglas Theatre World premieres Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo; and Ahmanson pre-Broadway musicals like Curtains, 9 to 5: The Musical, and The Drowsy Chaperone.

Adam Chanler-Berat in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of “Amlie, A New Musical.” Photo by Kevin Berne.

“Center Theatre Group is committed to searching out and finding new, inventive, exciting theatrical work. We’ve been doing that our entire 50-year history,” said Center Theatre Group Producing Director Douglas C. Baker. “We admire the classics, we love producing revivals, but any theatre company worth its salt needs also to be in the business of discovering and developing new work. This is a very important part of what we do.”

Baker loved the movie Amélie and was immediately intrigued when he heard that a musical was in development. He traveled to Berkeley Repertory Theatre to see the World premiere last year. “I was entertained, I was delighted by it, and I just had a really, really good time at the show,” he said. “I said to the commercial producers, if they felt they were ready to go to New York, I was happy for them and wished them the very best. But if they would like to come to our theatre to do a bit more work on the show to help take it to the next level, we would happily enter into a conversation about that.” The commercial producers, with input from the creative team, decided that Center Theatre Group was the place to fine-tune the show.

“They recognize that we nurture artists, provide them with a bit of an incubation—room to experiment, and room to grow their work,” said Baker, explaining why the Amélie team and other commercial Broadway producers choose to come to Center Theatre Group before Broadway. “We have more resources available to the artists in terms of not only the rehearsal rooms onsite and a first-rate production staff onsite, but also all of our other personnel who can help them—our excellent publicity, marketing, and ticketing folks.”

Center Theatre Group also has the benefit of knowing our audiences well and anticipating how they’ll feel about these new works.“Our audiences are in on the development process and are engaged by it,” said Baker. “They are able then to be thought-searchers. They’re out ahead of the game. There’s a sense of discovery, a sense of joy when our audience members are exposed to work that is new and surprising.”

(L-R) Arian Moayed and Kevin Tighe in the World premiere of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” at the Douglas. Photo by Craig Shwartz.

This sense of discovery is why Bank of America has been an Ahmanson season sponsor for over a decade. “We love being able to help bring not only the best theatre in the country to Los Angeles audiences but theatre that also contributes to the local cultural fabric and the economy,” said Raul Anaya, Bank of America’s Greater Los Angeles president. “We’re delighted to help bring the pre-Broadway engagement of Amélie to Los Angeles.”

Thirty-some-odd Center Theatre Group productions have moved to Broadway in Baker’s 26 years at Center Theatre Group, but a few stand out. Baker pointed to 2005’s The Drowsy Chaperone as “one of our really proud moments. We identified a new musical that we felt would be exciting for our audiences, we produced it ourselves, and then off it went to fame and fortune on Broadway and beyond.” The Drowsy Chaperone helped make Sutton Foster become the star she is today. “People still talk about her performance in that show,” added Baker.

Baker also pointed to the success of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph. “It was an unsolicited script that came in, was flagged by our Literary department as an outstanding play, and it was thrilling to watch it develop and grow,” recalled Baker. The play received a lauded and adored World premiere at the Douglas in 2009 followed by a 2010 run at the Taper. In 2011, it debuted on Broadway with Robin Williams in the title role.

Baker is confident that Center Theatre Group audiences will welcome Amélie as warmly as they did these recent hits. “It’s not only that we want to produce new work, but we want to produce excellent new work,” said Baker. “We believe that Amélie will meet and even exceed our staff’s and our audience’s expectations.”

Ellen McLaughlin in “Angels in America” at the Mark Taper Forum. Photo by Jay Thompson.

The Center Theatre Group Plays you Haven’t Heard of—Yet

Center Theatre Group — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:32:00 -0800

Some of these works are commissioned—we’re providing funding to create a work from scratch. In others we have no vested interest, but rather an interest in a new play or musical that a creative team is looking to develop or be produced. In these cases, “we like the writer and the play very much, and want to see where it goes—and if it goes,” explained Center Theatre Group Associate Artistic Director Kelley Kirkpatrick.

Regardless of whether the show is a commission (like Sleep, an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story by Naomi Iizuka) or part of an upcoming season (like Play Reading series at Boyle Heights libraries. He’ll interview community members, including librarians, about their lives and experiences. And he’ll create six mini-plays that will debut as part of the Play Reading series, which may later be woven together into a mainstage production. Center Theatre Group Community Partnerships Director Jesus Reyes, who runs the Play Reading series and our Boyle Heights programming, sat down to talk with Alfaro about the project as they began their work.

Jesus Reyes: How do you engage a community that is really local? I always thought of it as an earthquake with an epicenter. Where does that earthquake start?

Luis Alfaro: Well you know, theatre is a ritual. Theatre is the ancient place where we hear our stories. It’s where we learn to be better people. How do we build this ritual as a great sport, as a live-action event? You can convince people that this is a way to hear stories, and to engage yourself and become a better human being.

How do I convey to a community that they are going to be moved by art, whatever that community is?

I think that if we go back to Indian theatre, which was religious festivals, it’s not emotion so much; it’s catharsis. Tonight you’re going to experience something that is going to be a journey, and in that journey you hear a story, you feel something about that story, and it drives you. It’s the thing that’s going to keep you invested. So I always think, how does community get catharsis? How does it experience that?

The community can be part of the art-making in that they are community dramaturgs. They’re telling you about language, they’re telling you about the appropriateness of events and environments.

Our art, our stories are the most valuable things we have. It’s the way we don’t die, through our oral histories. We learn about ourselves and our cultures, and we learn about our rituals through stories. That’s amazing. The other side of it is that when we bring it to the theatre, it becomes the art that you want to see in a fully produced, professional environment. But I think we are always battling to make both of those things happen. How do we speak to the man on the street and how do you speak to the person who’s going to spend $112 for a ticket? Both of those people should get the same thing out of the experience. If we were just talking to our people, our people being Latinos, I think we would be doing ourselves a disservice. I think the language of our people is the most beautiful poetry, but this play has to be the language of Los Angeles, and it also has to speak to the people on the Westside the same way it speaks to people on the Eastside. How do you do that? That’s the challenge.

That’s why it’s been important for me with the library Play Readings that our partners are made up of theatre companies and groups throughout Los Angeles—from Watts Village Theater Company to Off The Tracks Theater Company to Artists at Play. It’s a slew of Los Angeles.

You know, East L.A. was once Jewish, and before that it was Chinese, and before that it was Japanese, so you see the Buddhist temples, you see the corner of Brooklyn and Soto, now Cesar Chavez. All of that is underneath the land. All we’re doing is excavating. You and I are just pulling back the end of the rug to see what’s underneath. That’s all we do with our playwriting. We aren’t even digging a tunnel; we’re just lifting up a corner because in Los Angeles, our histories are really recent.

And we see that history in the makeup of the people who decide to listen to our stories at each library reading. Where does this fit into your history with Center Theatre Group?

My years here at the Taper were my most productive. I think building story then was about influencing the regional theatre movement. Now we have a goal to build something for the local community. How do you keep coming back to something much more local, much more community-oriented? The play we are working on has to take place somewhere around here. And that’s one way of saying we’re not going to run away from it, and if we center it here, we have to deal with what’s going on here.

I think part of where Center Theatre Group is moving in the next 50 years is toward that localization.

One of the biggest challenges we face is that the 50^th Anniversary has to be a sort of charge. How do you reinvent theatre so it speaks to everybody in Los Angeles County? If you tell the stories of this time and this place, you become central or essential to the history and the vitality of the city, but also, you become the central organization to filter the story of Los Angeles. I think that’s where social and political will and change happen. And that’s where theatre becomes interesting again.