January

In honor of our 50th Anniversary, we are mining our archives for gems that highlight important and interesting moments from throughout Center Theatre Group’s history. The following is an excerpt from a note by Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson in the program for the 1978 World premiere of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. With Zoot Suit...

Evolving Stages

Zoot Suit is not merely performed in English and Spanish. The characters also speak caló, a patois or dialect that is one of the highly distinctive ways the pachuco has of projecting himself. According to one scholar, caló developed in barrios all around the country to give each region its own particular idiom and phrases....

A 'Zoot Suit' Glossary

Occasionally a work of art emerges that defines a cultural moment and points to its future. In 1978, audiences in the United States were privileged to see such a work: Zoot Suit, performed first in Los Angeles and nine months later on Broadway where theatre critic Jack Kroll described the play as a key event in the consciousness of a community. Wit...

The Consciousness of a Community and Beyond

At the heart of Adler & Gibb, Tim Crouch’s newest head-puzzler onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre through January 29, 2017, lies a mystery. Janet Adler was a "once in a generation" artist whose contributions to the art world were only overshadowed by her mysterious disappearance and subsequent unexplained death. Was she murdered by her long-...

Five Tales of Scandal, Conspiracy, and Murder in the Art World

As 2017 begins, we’re officially celebrating Center Theatre Group’s 50th Anniversary. We’ll be spending much of the year looking ahead to the next 50 years of theatre in Los Angeles and beyond, but we’re also honoring our past. From January – May, each of our issues of Performances will feature a timeline of one decade in our history. We'...

Zoot Suits, Performance Artists, and 50 years of History

On January 11, 2017, members of the Corporate Circle attended a Community Impact Panel at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. Leslie Johnson, Center Theatre Group’s Director of Social Strategy, Innovation and Impact, led a conversation with the three very inspiring individuals who have had multiple touch points with Center Theatre Group’s...

Corporate Circle Attends Community Impact Panel

Since 2003, Brighton, England-based Tim Crouch and his collaborators have been making theatre that defies description, convention, and expectations—and Adler & Gibb, playing the Kirk Douglas Theatre through January 29, 2017, is no exception. Crouch wrote, co-directed, and acts in the production; before he became a theatre maker, he was an act...

Tim Crouch Explains Himself (Kind of)

A slate of beloved movies are taking America’s stages by storm in 2017. Here at the Ahmanson Theatre through January 15, 2017, and on Broadway beginning in April, is Amélie, A New Musical. And Amélie and her Montmarte crew (as well as her beloved gnome) are in excellent company. Check out our list of new and upcoming musicals based on films....

The Movies to Musicals of 2017

On April 25, 2001, global cinema changed forever, and a new era began in French cinema with the release of Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (called simply Amélie in the U.S., and the movie on which the new musical onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre through January 15, 2017 is based). Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet—who had previously directed...

The Cinematic Sensation that Was ‘Amélie’

The Sherwood Award for emerging theatre artists is awarded each year to an innovative and adventurous Los Angeles-based theatre artist of promise. This year’s finalists are costume designer Jenny Foldenauer, lighting designer Pablo Santiago, and video designer Keith Skretch. All three are exceptional designers known for pushing boundaries and imp...

Meet the 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award Finalists

On August 17, 1978, Los Angeles theatre, Latino theatre, and American theatre changed forever with the opening of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. “When the character of El Pachuco, memorably played by Edward James Olmos, swaggered onto the Taper stage, Chicano theatre became American theatre,” explained writer/director Luis Valdez. Valdez ca...

How 'Zoot Suit' Changed Theatre Forever