October

Most of Amélie, A New Musical (onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre December 4, 2016 – January 15, 2017) takes place in Montmartre, a neighborhood in Paris known as an artistic and bohemian enclave.

Montmartre

It’s no secret that politicians spend a lot of time thinking about how they look. After all, as the saying goes, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” In Vicuña by Jon Robin Baitz, political fashion (and the power of a well-tailored suit) take center stage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre October 23 &n...

Seven Key Fashion Moments in American Politics

Immerse yourself in the theatrical world of playwright Martin McDonagh before you see his The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Mark Taper Forum.

A Martin McDonagh Primer

Google Martin McDonagh—whose play The Beauty Queen of Leenane is onstage at the Mark Taper Forum November 9 – December 18, 2016—and you very quickly learn a few things. One is that in 1997, he famously (and drunkenly) cursed off Sean Connery. (Which is true.) Another is that in that same year, he became the first playwright since...

The Irascible Irish Genius of Martin McDonagh

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN, CIRCA 1950. Since the 1800s, Red Hook has been a neighborhood of immigrants—first the Irish, then Germans, Norwegians, and now the Italians. There are no skyscrapers here. Residents have a clear view of the Statue of Liberty across the water, whose mighty presence first welcomed them to the United States.

A Snapshot of Red Hook, Brooklyn Circa 1950

The uptight etiquette of ballroom dancing ruled American dance floors at the beginning of the 20th century. This came to an end in the decade during which Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom takes place: the Roaring Twenties and the Prohibition Era. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously documented the social freedom of these years in The Great Gatsby: “The parties...

Let’s Do the Black Bottom

In Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, two young men, Marco and Rodolpho, attempt to make their mark in the land of the free. Originally from Sicily, Italy, these two dreamers trade orange groves and piazzas to spend nights sleeping on the floor of a cousin’s house and days working on the docks. What drove them to leave their homeland for a...

A 1950s Immigration Story in 21st-Century Los Angeles

“For me every story starts with the script—the words. And Mr. August Wilson was very specific. It’s 1927, Chicago. So that’s your inspiration,” said Tony Award®-nominated costume designer Emilio Sosa on how he got started working on Center Theatre Group’s production of Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark T...

Emilio Sosa Puts his own Spin on the 1920s

Center Theatre Group mourns the loss of our Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson, who passed away on October 2, 2016. Davidson led the company for 38 years, transforming Los Angeles into a center of the regional theatre movement and changing the American artistic and cultural landscape in the process.

Center Theatre Group Mourns Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson