March

When Center Theatre Group opened our doors in Los Angeles in 1967, the regional theatre movement in this country was in its infancy. It was a bold vision and brought with it a cultural renaissance. A fundamental component of this new theatre model was philanthropic funding, including from the government. Regional theatre was never meant to survive...

A Call to Protect Funding for the Arts

In Classroom Connections, Center Theatre Group invites groups of educators to enjoy a night out at the theatre—followed by a discussion of the show and where they found inspiration over food and drinks. The goal is to talk about the bridges we can build between the craft of theatre and the craft of classroom teaching.

‘Fun Home’ Teaches the Power of Adaptation

The first page of the script of Ngozi Anwanyu’s Good Grief (onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre through March 26, 2017) specifies the time (1992–2005) and place (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) where the play’s action occurs.

The Set Design Magic of ‘Good Grief’

How ‘Zoot Suit’ Can Help Students Find a Voice

On February 27, 2017, a century of the African-American experience came to life on the Mark Taper Forum stage through the words of August Wilson and the voices of Los Angeles high school students. Since 2011, Center Theatre Group has served as the Southern California home for the national August Wilson Monologue Competition. Each year, over 100 stu...

A Journey of a Century Begins With a Single Student

Pablo Santiago speaks slowly and carefully, pausing between phrases as he considers his words. He brings this same thoughtfulness to his lighting design. Santiago’s unique style has been recognized with the 2017 Sherwood Award for emerging artists.

Pablo Santiago Wins the 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award

Throughout Fun Home, onstage through April 1, 2017 at the Ahmanson Theatre, books serve as markers of different stages in graphic memoir author Alison Bechdel’s life. A book from her dad offers a hint that he might know she’s a lesbian; a bookstore is where she realizes she’s gay. In the graphic memoir especially, books are a means for Bechde...

The 'Fun Home' Reading List

This month, we’re proud to have productions at three theatres—plus a bonus live art theatrical experience—that demonstrate our commitment to diversity in every sense of the word.

Civil Rights, Memoirs, and a World Premiere Playwright

In 1985, Fun Home graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel changed film criticism—or at least feminist film criticism—as we now know it when two of the characters in her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For tried to go to the movies. In the strip, titled “The Rule,” one woman explains to another her movie-going rule—the thr...

Putting 2017 Oscar Nominees to the ‘Fun Home’ Memoirist’s Bechdel Test

Would you believe that the first graphic memoir published in America was titled Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary? The 1972 tale of how Roman Catholicism shaped the life of author Justin Green, Binky Brown is seen as the start of a rich tradition of using comics to explore personal histories. Three decades and a half later, in 2006, Alison Bec...

Eight Graphic Memoirs for Fans of ‘Fun Home’