Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Working in Community

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 16:00:00 -0700

After the projects concluded, staff members from Center Theatre Group, Pasadena Playhouse, and South Coast Repertory gathered at a one-day retreat to share their experiences and try to find common threads and themes that they—and other theatres around the country attempting similar work—might learn from in the future. Theatre scholar and arts consultant Diane Ragsdale facilitated the convening and provided a broader national and international context for the discussion.

All three theatres began their programming with preconceived notions about the communities they were trying to serve; the communities then turned these notions on their heads in many ways.

Center Theatre Group
Community as Creators

Center Theatre Group's 'Through the Looking Glass.' Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging.

Introduction to the Project

Center Theatre Group’s Community as Creators program consisted of two projects designed to engage Latinx and African-American communities in creating theatre. In Boyle Heights, they partnered with Chicano theatre company El Teatro Campesino on Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven, an original, open-to-the-public performance created and performed with community members and the culmination of months of creative workshops and rehearsals. And in Leimert Park and Montebello, they partnered with artists Jerry Quickley and reg e gaines on Through the Looking Glass, a series of writing workshops that culminated in readings of original work that asked members of two different communities to imagine the lives of each other.

Perceptions and Misperceptions

Center Theatre Group discovered that Montebello, which was perceived as majority Latinx, also has well-represented Armenian, white, and Asian populations; all of these groups were eager to participate in Through the Looking Glass, which shifted the focus of that project.

Pasadena Playhouse
Mi Historia, Mi Manera

Pasadena Playhouse's 'Mi Historia, Mi Manera.' Photo by M. Kobe Photography.

Introduction to the Project

Pasadena Playhouse’s Mi Historia, Mi Manera program set out to increase arts participation of Latinxs in the San Gabriel Valley by using a unique model called Consensus Organizing for Theatre, a process where a theatre builds stake in multiple pockets of the community while those from the community also build a stake in the theatre. Thanks to the input of community members at town hall meetings, the project evolved—honing in on the small city of La Puente and on three Neighborhood Associations in the city of Pasadena—and changed from a playwriting contest into a series of improvisational and other workshops, devised performances, and staged, open-to-the-public readings.

Perceptions and Misperceptions

After hosting a number of town hall meetings, and regular contact with various community leaders, Pasadena Playhouse made three important discoveries which refined the direction of the project: 1) Latinxs in the cities of La Puente and Pasadena had specific needs that could be met by the project; 2) the original project name, Mi Historia, Mi Moda did not resonate with its target population; and 3) the playwriting contest it had originally planned was not what community members wanted or needed. By actively listening and inviting Latinxs in La Puente and Pasadena to participate in creative activities, the Playhouse cultivated strong ownership in its programs and services among its target population.

South Coast Repertory
Dialogue/Diálogos

South Coast Repertory's 'Dialogue/Dialogos.''Through the Looking Glass.' Photo by David Lopez.

Introduction to the Project

South Coast Repertory’s Dialogue/Diálogos was a two-year bilingual community-based theatre initiative with Santa Ana’s Latinx community. Diálogos had three phases: story-gathering days, play-making workshops, and play development. The project captured the stories and memories of nearly 1,000 of the city’s Latinx residents, which created the core of a new bilingual play, The Long Road Today/El Largo Camino de Hoy, written by José Cruz González. The project culminated in free public performances in Santa Ana with a cast and crew of nearly 100 community members.

Perceptions and Misperceptions

South Coast Repertory began with the goal of upending stereotypes about Orange County as a place lacking in diversity (both racial and socioeconomic). They found that expanding their footprint in the community required more outside voices and participants than expected—10 teaching artists instead of three or four as planned, a key community partner, and a consulting theatre company specializing in community partnerships.

Challenges

All three theatres agreed that the biggest challenges of the projects were time and resources, as well as integrating this mission-based work into the larger culture and ethos of the organization. Staff members across the companies—while simultaneously working on mainstage shows—had to carve out time and resources to support these additional projects. A typical play may be in development for years before it is mounted, then go onto a season schedule, then get a marketing plan, then go into rehearsal, and finally go into a tech process before at last reaching an audience. These projects were all two years from conception to completion—and changed a great deal in that time—which involved extremely truncated schedules for everyone involved. The budgets for the projects were generous enough that everyone could dream big, but ultimately there were still places where resources were unexpectedly required, or were stretched thin, requiring improvisation and scaling back.

It was also important to have organizational buy-in on these projects’ importance—an agreement from staff members that this work had value, even if it was not necessarily developing new ticket buyers or paving the way for a mainstage production.

What Happens Next?

The Exploring Engagement grants were by nature experimental—designed to explore new models for engagement with community. That gave all three theatres opportunities and resources to step outside their comfort zones. But in the end, that also meant that none of the companies had a clear path forward in their communities.

Everyone expressed a desire to continue this work. One idea was to try to do similar work on a smaller scale and with a more sustainable budget that can be renewed yearly. Another was to focus even more deeply on serving one community.

The organizations also agreed that staff continuity and diversity is key to succeeding; when staff changes over, priorities inevitably change and relationships cannot be sustained. Further, having staff and partners that reflect community keeps the community at the table at all times.

For Center Theatre Group, next steps meant maintaining relationships with the community members who participated in Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven and Through the Looking-Glass—inviting them to shows, workshops, and readings.

Pasadena Playhouse moved forward on two main fronts. The first was Josefina Lopez’s Real Women Have Curves in its 2016-2017 season, and working with the Latinx community to support and take ownership of the play, as well as subsequent programs and community engagement activities at the Playhouse and in surrounding neighborhoods. The Playhouse continues to maintain relationships with Mi Historia, Mi Manera participants. The second was using the lessons from Mi Historia, Mi Manera to create a new initiative to expand the Playhouse’s audiences by focusing on Asian-Americans in the San Gabriel Valley.

At South Coast Repertory, community engagement remained part of the fabric of the organization thanks to the literary and marketing teams. They worked to continue to embrace the idea of “turning outward” toward the community.

Meet Playwright Lauren Yee

Tanya Palmer — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 12:44:00 -0700

Tanya Palmer: What inspired Marcos Nájera — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:46:00 -0700 We traveled back in time with a play set in the days leading up to World War I with Marcia Barryte and Marce Fabre, who took a break from their school production rehearsals to join us for the World premiere of Rajiv Joseph's When I checked in with the ladies at intermission, they were already buzzing. Both felt that the play instantly offered students a strong example of how to engage all five senses. Sight and sound were immediate hooks. But they noted that taste, smell, and touch were also activated in some form. The teachers pointed out lines and scenes where characters described the taste of food—from sandwiches to pudding—and even the smell of minty breath or the feelings the actors evoked when they touched skull bones and bloody handkerchiefs. And after the show, Fabre literally picked up on even stronger vibes from the impressive set design. A pivotal scene takes place on a train heading from Belgrade to Sarajevo. I could feel the vibration of the train from my seat, she said. The set and sound designers clearly worked together to put audio speakers under the train so you knew where the train sounds were coming from—but more importantly—that audio made us audience members feel the train. We could feel the rumble of the wheels from our seats out in the house! It felt like the train was moving. Fabre is Carson's technical director and an audio specialist at the Long Beach Convention Center—so she knows the importance of pointing out shining models of collaboration and creativity for students to draw from. Using the train scene as an example for students, said Fabre, I could have the kids pick some random scenes and see what they come up with to enhance it by working together and combining multiple elements just like they did in Archduke. Barryte agreed that the Archduke production provides many opportunities for students to explore stagecraft by combing technical elements with performance and text. For my kids it would need to be a vocabulary line toss, said Barryte. Everyone gets into a circle with notecards with words like 'Franz Ferdinand,' 'Carl Ludwig,' and 'Joseph Maria' on one side and 'Archduke of Austria-Este,' 'Austro-Hungarian,' and 'Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia' on the other side. Then students might toss a ball to each other and read off their card and try to guess the one on the opposite side through performing the words on the card. Barryte was quick to point out that her idea to create an Archduke-inspired version of a classic charades game stems from her observation as a veteran classroom teacher: An activity is always much more valuable than copying from the board. Students move, verbalize, and remember. From this kind of jumping-off point, Barryte felt the next step could be to explore pantomime exercises with students—just as the Archduke actors did during certain scenes in the show when the Captain character asked the three young men in the story to re-enact the fatal shooting of the archduke as a way to practice or rehearse. Pantomime exercises, especially in our warm-ups and even prior to journaling, are a valuable way to explore a text—especially a text that involves history, said Barryte. A historical play like Archduke offers a special opportunity for discussion as well. There are a limited number of literary themes that get reused and re-invented oftentimes onstage, and I want my students to think about how theatre artists can help an audience view an incident through a certain lens, said Barryte. It's important for a theatre student to have a firm grasp of historical references, facts, and concepts, and how history repeats itself. And what the assassination of the Archduke, ISIS, and even hazing [on school campuses] all have in common, is they are about vulnerability. Being able to see events and story from many perspectives is key, added Fabre. That's a skill that can help theatre artists better understand the characters they play. And by extension, how to understand people better. An example is the Captain Apis, said Fabre of the character who convinces three young Serbian men to kill the Archduke. His primary persona is strong, loud, blustery, and in charge. But when he is at home, he succumbs to his housekeeper, Sladjana. She is not impressed with him, and sees he is just all show. He becomes as vulnerable as the other boys to her. Fabre believes a character like Apis can give teachers a way to help students explore how to see events from different points of view: In the classroom, you could do an exercise of taking a trait and its opposite trait and then ask students to create a complete character with both traits—and the challenge is to make it believable. Fabre added, I want my students to know they have the power, as theatre artists, to plant seeds, and maybe your audience will go home and do even more research on the topic. A great example of this is Hamilton. If you asked people, prior to that musical, what Alexander Hamilton contributed to our young country, the odds are they would have been clueless. But now, the whole world knows a whole other part of our country's history. It is an art to be able to take the dry facts of history and take the people involved and give them character and find the human elements and emotions to make the story progress. And as if on cue, both teachers near simultaneously cheered: That's Archduke!

Gossip, Cheese, and Theatre in Boyle Heights

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 15:01:00 -0700

The young, diverse crowd is dancing to 1980s pop, drinking sangria, and gossiping in English and Spanish. It is quintessentially Los Angeles.

This is the setting of Chisme y Queso, an event series hosted by Center Theatre Group in partnership with Boyle Heights bar Eastside Luv. On six Sundays this spring, patrons and artists gathered to share anonymously their own chisme—gossip—and have it performed onstage (atop the bar) by local actors. Alongside the improvised chisme, the actors performed skits by up-and-coming writers from around Los Angeles.

Chisme y Queso—which is one part of a two-year community initiative in Boyle Heights funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation—allows Center Theatre Group to experiment with our programming, invest in the future of young Los Angeles actors, writers, and directors, and connect our neighbors with us and with theatre in a nontraditional setting.

We are so used to our spaces being our three theatres, but The Shop, our costume and props shop, the libraries, where we present monthly play readings, and now Eastside Luv, said Center Theatre Group Community Partnerships Director Jesus Reyes. Chisme y Queso is a natural extension of the community programs and partnerships we’ve been building in Boyle Heights over the past four years. Plus, added Reyes, This program also expands our reach in terms of the kinds of artists we work with and where those artists are in their careers.

Center Theatre Group Community Partnerships Associate Alejandra Cisneros, who is directing all of the Chisme y Queso pieces, is one of those artists. I think a lot of young directors, because there’s a lack of space within L.A., need to bring life and work to other spaces, she said. Doing more site-specific work, marrying the arts with community engagement, and finding your tribe is one of the only ways that, as a young artist, you can move forward in your career.

The participating writers, who are being mentored by Center Theatre Group Resident Artist Naomi Iizuka, agreed that Chisme y Queso is moving both their careers and craft forward. It forces me to think on my feet and write as truthfully as possible, because the audience really responds when they see a piece onstage that could come out of their own experiences, said writer Diana Burbano.

This is exactly why the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is supporting the program. Our Building Demand for the Arts grants fund the placement of artists at the center of institutional efforts to build meaningful, long-lasting relationships with communities, said Program Director for the Arts Maurine Knighton. At their best, these projects help artists and communities co-create cultural programs that reflect authentic relationships and mutual concern. Chisme y Queso does just that, weaving together playwriting, performance, and music into a rich tapestry that reflects the interests of local residents.

The relationship between community and artists is what makes Chisme a totally unique theatrical experience. The event begins with Community Liaison and MC Alexis de la Rocha inviting the audience to write down their own chisme on coasters. Throughout the evening, chisme is chosen out of a jar, and the actors must transform the stories into performance, using the few props they have on hand. The writers’ short skits are interspersed among the improvised chisme. It’s a whirlwind performance as the actors shift in and out of myriad characters, from jilted girlfriends to arthritic old men. The audience is unbridled in their laughter and enjoyment, as their stories are performed with not only a sense of humor, but with honesty and sensitivity. At the end of the evening, the writer of the best chisme is awarded a bottle of wine, tickets to a Center Theatre Group show, and a large block of queso fresco—fresh Mexican cheese.

If there’s an overarching message we hope audiences take away, it’s that storytelling isn’t just what’s on a stage, said Cisneros. When you tell stories of your day, when you tell stories of your week, that is performance.

But at the heart of Chisme y Queso—right alongside Center Theatre Group’s desire to engage with community, nurture young artists, and bring theatre into people’s everyday lives—is joy. There’s just something about shared laughter, said Cisneros.

Connecting Students with History through 'Jersey Boys'

Marcos Nájera — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 10:41:00 -0700

At our pre-show dinner, musical theatre mega-fan Estella Church was excited to talk about Jersey Boys. I have satellite radio in my car so I can listen to the Broadway channel non-stop, she laughed. I drive my husband crazy.

She kicked off our brainstorm about the connections between stagecraft and class curriculum way before the Chianti and pizza hit the table. I would love to have students do a comparative analysis or case studies on a particular artist in the music industry whose careers or choices parallel the Four Seasons, said Church. As a drama teacher, she wants her students to jump into the backgrounds of the artists they study—not just the art itself. She feels that students could follow the lead of a show like Jersey Boys that celebrates not only Frankie Valli's music, but also the socioeconomic, political, and geographic factors that influenced him to create his music alongside the Four Seasons members. Church believes students could explore contemporary artists the same way.

Lil Wayne, J Cole, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Chance the Rapper, Adele, Kendrick Lamar: all of these artists relate to the Four Seasons in some way. It would be fun to have in-class music writing workshops and even have students consider the education level of artists as part of biographical case studies, she said. Lil Wayne comes to mind again since he did attend Virginia Tech and studied business and creative writing, but he did that much later in life—after the fame. Jay-Z is not formally educated, but he's accomplished so much. There's so much to discuss here and think about with students in terms of comparative analysis.

Church firmly believes that students can watch a jukebox musical like Jersey Boys to reflect upon this larger idea: where you live and who you live with can shape who you are and what you do. It's a notion shared by history teacher Ruth Cebreros.

Cebreros imagines her students taking a deep dive into their own ancestry after seeing Jersey Boys. “A lot of kids don't know about the history of their family, explained Cebreros. Students can interview their parents and/or family elders to learn about their own family history and write their own song or story for an oral history project, she suggested. Families don't talk anymore. Kids don't talk anymore. They're texting. We're all guilty of that, but I think this would be a great opportunity to actually reconnect them. Jersey Boys depicts its main characters' upbringing and family history. Jersey Boys is American history. My students have their own history, too. I want them to know that.

Cebreros also noted that the characters in the show display tenacity, or a certain moxie, that she wishes her own students would show more often. She suggested that productions such as Jersey Boys contain models for accessing personal confidence, both onstage and off.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons did not only evolve and transform as musicians, but they also took risks, Cebreros said. I would ask my students to look at how failure, grit, perseverance, evolving, and taking risks are important in life. I'd like to give them a writing assignment that asks them to explore a parallel example from their own life where they took a risk and to consider how that experience has helped them evolve or improve their life skills.

Stephanie Steele shared her colleagues' excitement over the potential for students to delve into their own cultural, environmental, and family backgrounds—alongside the study of language and text.

When I teach novels, there is clearly a separation of narration and dialogue, explained Steele. And often students don't really understand the weight of dialogue or the importance it carries in the text. So in teaching a play, whether it is Jersey Boys or another story, I explain that words matter. How people talk to each other matters. There's great value in analyzing how dialogue can depict character. For example, I might ask students to track what a character says throughout a show and then chart that character's text to see if we learn anything about who they are. Students can then explore what the character actually does—even mannerisms, inflections, and the like. All of these characterizations fuel the way audience members interpret a character.

With a laugh, Steele added, It mirrors real life in that way!

After the show, Ruth Cebreros suggested a super cool way to bring all these ideas together for a Jersey Boys -inspired class activity. She imagined giving students a chance to interpret their background through song, dance, and language—just like Jersey Boys. We could say to them, okay, research your family history and then you're going to write lyrics and rap about it, said Cebreros. And make sure you use language from your culture or your community.

We all loved the idea instantly. As we closed out our incredible night together, we noticed that throughout the evening—we all broke out into bits and pieces of Four Seasons songs. Even though most of us felt these were hits from our parents' time, we realized perhaps there was one final note to hit with students. And that is: the mixture of art and real life experience will always offer a certain timelessness.

As we left the theatre dancing and singing together, Estella Church put it best. The music was way before my time, but I knew every song!

A Backstage Shadow on "Into The Woods"

Tajianna Okechukwu — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 17:38:00 -0700

Tajianna Okechukwu backstage at the Ahmanson Theatre.

This internship gave me the chance to shadow company manager Jack Stephens on the touring production of Elice recalls. That’s when they decided to structure the show the Rashomon way, by letting each character tell his own account. As Tommy says at the beginning of the show, You ask four guys, you get four different versions.

Each Season narrates a portion of the story, including bass player Nick Massi, who died in 2000 and left the group at the height of its popularity without much explanation. Brickman and Elice drew their portrait of him from the memories of the other survivors. There was a great mystery to Nick, Elice says. Today you would call him obsessive-compulsive with sort of a sideline in sexual addiction. One day we realized the correlative for Nick would be to think of him as the Ringo of the band. In any group there’s going to be someone who’s off to the side.

That gave them the chance to focus on the Tommy-Frankie-Bob dynamic that first propels The Four Seasons to the top of the charts and eventually breaks them apart. This was really a love triangle—without any sexual component, Elice observes. There was Tommy, who discovered Frankie when he was a teenager and held the trio group of Tommy, Nick, and Frankie together when they were a cover band. Then Bob, this new, young talent came on the scene, and Frankie turned away from Tommy and turned toward Bob because Frankie and Bob were simpatico.

Valli and Gaudio saw in each other what the group needed to succeed: Gaudio, already a songwriting prodigy when he joined the group, wrote or co-wrote many of the group’s signature songs, which accentuated Valli’s vast vocal range and commanding falsetto. DeVito, meanwhile, piled up a huge debt. But by then the Seasons were more than just a group: They’d become a family, and that put their loyalty to the test. Tommy gave Frankie and Bob an opportunity to do what families always do, Elice says. No matter what kind of betrayals occur you always stand up for another person in the family because the ties that bind are so strong. DeVito may also have been dealing with his own family issues. As The Four Seasons climbed the charts, his brother, who once had been part of the band, was behind bars.

And for Elice, that’s the essence of the show—family. That was a very powerful hook, he says. We all know what it’s like to want acceptance, to want respect and to try to find a sense of home with people that are not just the family we’re born into but the family that we choose.

Center Theatre Group Joins Forces with Top Playwrights and Theatres

Center Theatre Group — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 11:13:00 -0700

A $1 million grant from the Edgerton Foundation is making these new theatre partnerships possible. The Edgerton Foundation Playwrights Initiative will support Center Theatre Group in commissioning at least two shows annually with each of the four theatres over the next decade.

In recognition of Center Theatre Group’s long-standing mission to develop new art for the American stage, we are excited to offer commissioning funds for more than 50 new plays in the Edgerton Foundation Playwrights Initiative, said Edgerton Foundation President Brad Edgerton, MD. By jointly developing each of these new plays with two talented theatre staffs, we hope to increase the number of productions that will journey to many regional theatres, Broadway, and the West End. In addition to Nottage and Vogel—both of whom recently made their Broadway debuts with Sweat and Indecent, respectively—co-commissioned playwrights include Jon Robin Baitz (Fun Home), and Young Jean Lee, whose Zoot Suit, stars in Lowriders, which opened this month.

Van Nuys Blvd, San Fernando Valley

Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard In The Summer Of 72. Photo by Rick McCloskey via LAist.

At the further edges of Los Angeles, the rise of rock and roll and disposable income amongst teens helped spur cruise culture in the San Fernando Valley along Van Nuys Boulevard from the 1950s – 1970s. L.A. native and photographer Rick McCloskey recalls in the recently released book Los Angeles in the 1970s:

Cruise night was every Wednesday on Van Nuys Boulevard from the early 1950s through the 1970s. Gasoline was mighty cheap, new and old cars were surprisingly inexpensive as well. The San Fernando Valley was home to, what seemed like at the time, a million teenagers, and just about all of them spent many a wonderful evening endlessly cruising from one end of Van Nuys Boulevard to the other, and then back again.

Popular stops along the way were Bob’s Big Boy, June Ellen’s Donuts, A&W Root Beer, as well as many lesser known spots. ‘The Boulevard’ was where you went to see and be seen, and to meet new friends, show off your ride, grab a milkshake or a ‘Double Burger,’ and just have an all-around great time.

Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood

Night view of Bobs Burger Bar, with the Capitol Records building in the background. Photo by Roy Hankey. Roy Hankey Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

The glitz and glamour of a possible star sighting provided some of the allure for cruising Hollywood Boulevard in the 1950s and 60s—one can’t miss the towering Capitol Records building in the skyline. Nearby, L.A.'s growing counterculture made Sunset Boulevard—and more specifically, the Sunset Strip—its homebase as rock clubs like the Whisky a Go Go and Pandora’s Box opened up.

Crenshaw Blvd, South L.A.

The 1937 office building located at 4225/4227 Crenshaw Boulevard (right, south of the liquor store) is known today as Mavericks Flat. This building, which housed an Arthur Murrays dance studio from the 1940s to the early 1960s, was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #679 in 2000. Los Angeles Photographers Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

Crenshaw Boulevard cruising culture began in the 1960s due in part to its celebrated nightlife featuring the era's musical luminaries. According to KCET Departures, acts from Nat King Cole, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye to Parliament and the Gap Band were known to perform at the legendary Memory Lane Supper Club and Mavericks Flat, which was dubbed the “Apollo of the West.” During the 1980s and 90s, the emerging rap scene was inseparable from car culture, as immortalized on screen in Spike Lee's Boyz N the Hood.

Colorado Blvd, San Gabriel Valley

A carhop at Bobs Big Boy in Burbank serves a couple in their car in 1954. Valley Times Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

On the other end of Los Angeles, Rose Parade floats weren’t the only vehicles cruising down Colorado Boulevard in the San Gabriel Valley. Drive-ins, rock and roll, and muscle cars define this stretch, which even gets a shout-out in the Beach Boys's "Little Old Lady From Pasadena."

As recorded at the Pasadena History Museum, Dori Pendergrass describes a typical night out in 1956:

Cruising Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena at night became a favorite thing to do with my girlfriends. I was the only one in my clique who had a car. Sometimes we stopped at the new restaurant McDonalds. It sported 'Golden Arches,' and a sign at the curb that gave a daily count of burgers sold. More often, though, we chose the drive-in restaurant Bob’s Big Boy. A pony-tailed carhop wearing a perky outfit and roller skates, took our order. We listened to our favorite music from the restaurant’s speakers, such as Bo Diddley, 'Tutti Frutti,' 'Hand Clappin'' and '[Hello] Mary Lou.' There was also a new singer, Elvis Presley. His just released songs were 'Love Me Tender,' 'Don't Be Cruel,' and 'Hound Dog.' We ate, gossiped, giggled and sang.

Our Theatre: Faces of the Future

Elliot Martin — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 19:59:00 -0700

From the time our theatre was born in Greece every nation has had at least one era in the sun, stepping from the shadow with a Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen, Chekov, Pirandello, and Brecht. Each was preceded or followed at intervals by other gifted compatriots. Now, at last, it appears to be America’s turn. Our greatest playwright, Eugene O’Neill, after a period of obscurity, has assumed his rightful and permanent place at the head of the drama table. This tardiness is not without precedent. Other lands have been slow at times to recognize their own genius. The portent for the American theatre may be in our opening season of the Ahmanson Theatre in which we are joined [by] the best of two worlds, the old and the new, peopled by outstanding artists from both hemispheres.

With this beginning, Center Theatre Group emerges among the frontrunners of our country. Once tributary to Broadway, Los Angeles is now helping to erase the historic boundaries and is taking up a position of independence and equality. Three of the events in this season’s schedule originate in the production office of Center Theatre Group: the English language premiere of O’Neill’s last unproduced work, a trip into the unconventional with Jack Good’s “cool” version of Othello, and the exclusive engagement in North America of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The fourth, David Merrick’s presentation of the Gower Champion musical, The Happy Time, represents an entente between the erstwhile hub and the new axis of our as yet unformed national theatre. East and West not only meet but begin to coexist in this new state of affairs. Center Theatre Group hopes to maintain and develop this position.

Ingrid Bergman in 'More Stately Mansions.'

Starting our life with O’Neill has additional significance. Until his appearance the theatre of the United States as raggle-taggle, nondescript, active but helpless under Continental influences and imports. With O’Neill our native drama was born and today it is barely a half century old. We still do not have a single face by which we are known to the world, except perhaps by our unmatched talent in the genre of musicals. Possibly as a national art our theatre may never have a single identity. Being a giant geographically, our theatre of the future may be decided regionally. Just as we have different accents, North, South, East, and West, so the nature of our theatre may vary—in form perhaps, but not in substance and quality. Here, if we are to grow, we must insist on the best.

In entering the mainstream, Center Theatre Group not only enjoys the rewards but assumes the obligations of maturity. We have taken membership in the big league and we will have to stand judgement on that plane. If we are to seek the company of leaders, we must show our ability to lead in generating new productions that are motivated by boldness and originality. The Ahmanson is a large theatre. It demands magnitude on its stage, not mere spectacle but largeness of ideas and concepts. It imposes this responsibility upon us unremittingly, and it is this prospect that offers the challenge and the excitement of fashioning a personality and temperament that will be characteristic of our endeavor. This face by which we hope to be recognized will be our contribution to the development of the many faces of our national theatre.

Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Working in Community

Center Theatre GroupCommunity as Creators

Introduction to the Project

Perceptions and Misperceptions

Pasadena PlayhouseMi Historia, Mi Manera

Introduction to the Project

Perceptions and Misperceptions

South Coast RepertoryDialogue/Diálogos

Introduction to the Project

Perceptions and Misperceptions

Challenges

What Happens Next?

Meet Playwright Lauren Yee

Gossip, Cheese, and Theatre in Boyle Heights

Connecting Students with History through 'Jersey Boys'

A Backstage Shadow on "Into The Woods"

Center Theatre Group Joins Forces with Top Playwrights and Theatres

Van Nuys Blvd, San Fernando Valley

Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood

Crenshaw Blvd, South L.A.

Colorado Blvd, San Gabriel Valley

Our Theatre: Faces of the Future

Center Theatre Group
Community as Creators

Pasadena Playhouse
Mi Historia, Mi Manera

South Coast Repertory
Dialogue/Diálogos