Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

When Theatre Royalty Take On Real-World Royalty

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 30 May 2018 12:04:00 -0700

Hwang’s experience watching the 2015 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical was one of the major inspirations for his recent collaboration with Jeanine Tesori, he said.

However you judge the politics, cultural depictions, and bias of The King and I, underlying it all is a story of compassion and love. That (and the music) still elicits tears out of famous playwrights, and it’s what makes The King and I a classic well worth reimagining.

L.A. Playwrights Get Blue Ribbon Certified

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 30 May 2018 10:24:00 -0700

Playwrights Eliza Clark, Janine Nabers, and Qui Nguyen discussed their careers and the role Center Theatre Group’s L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival: New Plays Forged in L.A. On June 23, 2018. We’re celebrating some of the freshest and most exciting voices and impulses in the modern American theatre with readings of three new plays by past Center Theatre Group L.A. Writers’ Workshop participants.

The Festival marks the first public-facing component of our L.A. Writers’ Workshop, which has supported a group of gifted local playwrights in creating new plays annually since 2005. Each year a new cohort of seven playwrights gathers monthly to share their work with one another and receive developmental and dramaturgical assistance from Center Theatre Group staff.

We’re responding to an ongoing request from the writers who have been through the Workshop, said Meads. They’ve told us they’d like a space to share work that is closer to completion—to get to hear the response of an audience and learn from them, and use the platform Center Theatre Group has to help launch some of these works to production.

We sent a call out to playwrights for such works and received a really great response, with dozens of plays from an incredible range of voices and stories. A committee of the writers’ peers—fellow Workshop participants who had not submitted to the Festival—and members of Center Theatre Group artistic staff then had to choose three plays to feature. Talking about the plays was a lot of fun—and narrowing them down was excruciating, said Meads.

Ultimately, they selected Zakiyyah Alexander’s How to Raise a Freeman, Dan O’Brien’s New Life, and Sylvan Oswald’s A Kind of Weather. The plays travel from the New York suburbs and Hollywood to Syria; they tackle race and gender, illness and war. All three writers are accomplished playwrights, the recipients of many prestigious awards and fellowships whose work has been produced around the country. They also all have had success in other media—television, performance pieces, web series, books, and more—while continuing to write for the stage.

Playwriting can be a lonely activity, said Meads. That’s particularly true in Los Angeles, where many playwrights write for the screen. Screenwriting is rewarding work, but most playwrights feel hungry for community with their tribe of theatre folk.

The L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival is designed to satiate that hunger and cultivate that community, with a pre-reading reception on Friday evening for Writers’ Workshop participants; three open-to-the-public readings at the Kirk Douglas Theatre on Saturday; and a post-reading celebration at the theatre for all on Saturday evening.

This is one step toward finding a more active and robust way to be an ongoing creative home for Los Angeles playwrights. It’s another way to support the creation of compelling and ambitious new plays, and to showcase the excellence of local playwriting today.

Welcome to the Working in Theatre Portal

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 17 May 2018 09:35:00 -0700

For three years, the Center Theatre Group team has been quietly populating a small corner of the internet with a veritable library of theatre career resources for students that answer these questions—and so much more. The project began as a video series featuring profiles of theatre professionals on the job. Now, students and educators all over the country have access to these videos and a variety of accompanying resources about the many career paths within the theatre arts. Welcome to the Center Theatre Group quiz designed to help students answer the question, What’s your theatre career path? Questions about personality, artistic goals, and lifestyle lead students to three possible outcomes—hybrid, or manager. Career examples are then provided for each personality type. A hybrid, for example, is a person who desires creativity as well as stability, and generally has a full- or part-time job with one organization while also taking on contract or independent work. Teaching artists (who often work at schools or theatre companies while also acting, writing, or directing) and design technicians (who often work full-time at one theatre or contract with a number of smaller theatres on a per-show basis) are two examples of hybrid positions.

What sets the portal apart from other theatre career videos or websites is many fold. The emphasis is not on jobs that are overtly visible—actor, playwright, and the like, although these are included—but rather on jobs that students may not realize exist. These include costume technicians, stage managers, and theatrical publicists. Raising awareness of these career paths can help diversify the people in them and ensure that there is a deep pool of talent for theatres to draw from.

For every four to six designers employed at the Mark Taper Forum, there are 30 to 40 technicians needed, but design programs rarely teach the craft of technical theatre, said Schenkkan. Because of this and because there is so much demand for these types of jobs in the commercial entertainment industry, we’re facing a shortage of many theatre technicians, like costume drapers and technical directors, in Los Angeles. The first step in filling the gap is giving young people information about these jobs and the skills and knowledge they require.

The Working in Theatre portal is also rooted in equity, diversity, and inclusion.

We are trying to serve a city of 4 million people and with that comes great responsibility, said Director of Education Tyrone Davis. That means making sure that whether a young person wants to be an actor, stage manager, or costume designer, they know that theatre is a place for them, theatre belongs to them, and there are more careers than the obvious ones.

But the portal is not just a service available to Los Angeles—it is free and accessible to all students and teachers with an internet connection. With downloadable lesson plans for educators, guides to internship and job applications, and more, the portal is built to serve anyone, anywhere, who wants to join the theatre family.

Three's a Crowd, Four's a Collaboration

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 15 May 2018 10:25:00 -0700

If you’re going to stand in the trenches, these are the people you’re going to want to be with, Silverman—who made waves in 2006 as one of the youngest women to make her Broadway directorial debut—said of her colleagues. They’re interested in a rigorous process—and that’s what I’m interested in. I think we all feel like we’re here for a reason.

Silverman is no stranger to Hwang, Tesori, or Pinkleton. She has collaborated with Hwang five times on projects such as

The ambition of David’s idea and the way David is looking at the world and using familiar forms to interrogate the moment we’re in right now is totally dazzling and irresistible, Pinkleton said. It was an opportunity for me to do some things I’ve never done and have been really terrified to do with collaborators whom I trust the most.

Hailing from an untamed corner of the American South, better known as Hopewell, Virginia, Pinkleton studied directing at New York University but was often asked to create movements for other people’s projects due to his passion and willingness to jump off of high things. Since then, he has choreographed the 2016 Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812—which earned him a Tony Award nomination—as well as the 2017 productions of Fun Home), Tesori has constantly stretched her abilities to create new musical experiences. In Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002), she composed a jazzy musical set in the 1920s. In Caroline, or Change (2004), she partnered with Tony Kushner to create a soundscape that intertwines blues, spirituals, classical music, and folk music. And in Shrek The Musical (2008), she surrounds a giant green ogre with toe-tapping pop music.

Why did she bring her talents to this particular project? When I got to a certain point, I thought, I am no longer going to write anything that doesn’t reveal something about myself, the state of the world, or add to the repertoire of musical theatre, Tesori said. Yet she did have some initial hesitations in stepping into the cultural themes of the show. I didn’t know my way in as a non-Asian writer, she said. It was like, ‘Where is my place visiting this culture?’ Then I found it, and I understood it. I think it takes sort of a big dose of humility to let someone else lead the narrative.

Leading that narrative is Hwang himself, a Tony Award winner and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist whose previous works have also dealt with East-West relations. M. Butterfly—about an affair between a French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer—earned him the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and established him as one of America’s most exciting playwrights. Hwang went on to revise the book of In a conversation with Michael Ritchie, Hwang confessed it was his dream to work with Tesori on Soft Power: She’s a fantastic composer of course, but she’s also a scholar of musical theatre. She understands the form so well. He leaned on Tesori’s knowledge and strengths for music that really appropriates the American musical form, and noted that Jeanine set out to write her most beautiful score, and I think she has.

Roles of a Different Bent

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 09 May 2018 13:09:00 -0700

Actor and playwright Charles Busch, who has often been called a gender illusionist, once explained in an interview that his inspiration for writing and playing gender-bent roles comes from simply asking himself, Wouldn’t it be fun to be… and working from there to create roles like Angela Arden, the title character in Block Party, we’ve gathered a collection of iconic gender-bending roles and the artists who defined them.
Peter and Wendy—Maude Adams as Peter Pan

Maude Adams
Though many people today associate Peter Pan most closely with his animated depiction from the 1953 Disney movie, the portrayal that propelled the character into American popularity was Maude Adams’. She played the forever-young flyboy in the 1905 US premiere of the play, a casting decision that had to do with a producer’s whims and British labor laws. Although the production faced some initial hurdles—with Adams requiring an emergency appendectomy soon after being cast for the role and a lackluster opening in Washington, D.C.—both Adams and the show garnered praise and recognition on Broadway. Her costume, which she co-designed, even inspired an aptly named fashion trend in later decades.

The Rocky Horror Show—Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter

Tim Curry
The cult-classic play/film/interactive experience (see: toast throwing) is considered a rite of passage for many teenagers, in no small part on account of the incomparable lead transvestite mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter. The man-behind-the-tights and progenitor of the role—who starred in the World and American premieres of the play, as well as the 1975 film—was Tim Curry. Curry, who had only one full-time stage credit before being cast, had an active role in developing the part, and even based the amalgamated accent of Frter partially off his mother. In an NPR interview, Curry told the story of how he once made an appearance at a screening but was kicked out of the movie theatre as the staff thought he was imposter.

Hairspray—Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad

(L-R) Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Harvey Fierstein, Dick Latessa.
While Divine and John Travolta may have to fight it out for the title of ultimate film portrayal of Hairspray’s Edna Turnblad, the theatrical mantle unequivocally belongs to Harvey Fierstein, who portrayed Edna in the 2003 Broadway premiere. Fierstein—an award-winning theatrical powerhouse known for both his writing and his drag and gender-bending performances—described the role of Edna as both a physical and mental undertaking. From developing Edna’s physicality to perfecting her persona and arc, Fierstein said Edna had claimed large chunks of [his] life during the original Broadway run, which earned him the Tony Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch—John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig, Miriam Shor as Yitzhak

John Cameron Mitchell
Many shows are content with having one star gender bender within a larger cast, but Hedwig and the Angry Inch doubles that standard as part of its powerful exploration of gender and identity, with powerful rock and roll to match. John Cameron Mitchell both wrote the book and starred as Hedwig, a transgender East German singer, in the 1998 Off-Broadway premiere. Miriam Shor played opposite Mitchell as Yitzhak, a former drag queen who has been forced to abandon his passion. Both Mitchell and Shor also starred in the 2001 film adaptation, which did not garner strong financial success, but paved the way for multiple international productions and an eventual Tony-winning Broadway run over 10 years later.

BONUS! Mrs. Doubtfire—Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire

The Mrs. Doubtfire mask worn by Robin Williams.
It would be forgivable for someone who hasn’t seen Mrs. Doubtfire to be shown a picture of the titular character in full costume and assume they were looking at an actual elderly Scottish woman. Such was the quality of both the special effects and acting chops of Robin Williams, who brought his unmatched improvisational skills to task while covered by four and a half man-hours worth of make-up. Williams said the full effect was so convincing that not even his own son recognized him in costume. Astute readers may be thinking Hey, Mrs. Doubtfire was never made into a theatrical production! True, but rumors have swirled about a possible stage adaptation of the movie, though most recent word is that the piece may be indefinitely in creative limbo. We can dream, can’t we?

LGBTQ History Worth Celebrating

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 09 May 2018 11:03:00 -0700

Celebration founder Chuck Rowland was a gay rights pioneer and founding member of the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay-rights organizations in the US. In the 1950s, the Mattachine Society organized clandestine meetings and publications to organize the gay community during an era of open persecution, but the organization eventually gave way to the more public and vocal activism of the ’60s and ’70s. In 1982, Rowland leased a storefront in Silver Lake and created Celebration Theatre, intending to create a dedicated home for gay and lesbian stories.

Over its 35-year history, Celebration has produced 250-plus shows, workshops, and readings, including over 50 premieres, and has won 19 L.A. Ovation Awards. Yet Celebration has not endured this long without tribulations. In 2013, due to skyrocketing rent prices, the company had to abandon its longtime home in West Hollywood in search of greener (cheaper) pastures. After a two-year stint as a semi-nomadic troupe, Celebration settled in as permanent residents of The Lex in Hollywood.

Now, as LGBTQ culture has become more mainstream, Co-Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd explained that the types of stories they bring to the stage have become more diverse. We’re no longer at a place in [our] society where coming out stories are relevant, he said. Those stories are just not as powerful as they used to be 10, 15, 20 years ago. New playwrights are tackling stories dealing with gender fluidity and throuples and all of these different sorts of things that people are identifying as, said Shepperd. I’m always amazed at the number of writings, plays, and musicals that I [see] where gender doesn’t matter.

Alongside these new stories come opportunities to tell old stories in new ways. Celebration has bucked many traditional hurdles to achieve remarkable results at their 55-seat venue. One of the most notable was staging the West Coast premiere of The Boy from Oz, the hit Broadway musical inspired by the life of Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen. Their much admired version, Shepperd explained, focused less on spectacle and more on the personal themes, finding a story that can fit in any size space.

Like theatres around Los Angeles and the country, Celebration is also looking to reflect changing demographics. Noting the draw of internet sensation Drew Droege in the title role in Die, Mommie, Die!, Shepperd denounced conventional gripes that theatre can’t attract younger generations. Approximately 60% of our audiences who came to see [Die, Mommie, Die!]…were all under the age of 30, said Shepperd, and even after the run, Celebration was seeing them come for other productions.

But though the LGBTQ landscape and theatre audiences may be changing, the inclusivity and community at the heart of Celebration’s mission have not. If you come to Celebration Theatre, the first thing you’re gonna notice is how friendly everyone is, Shepperd said, because we all want to be there. We all believe in the mission. For Shepperd, Celebration is first and foremost a place for anyone and everyone to come to enjoy good company and great theatre: We’re fun, and we’re drinkers, and we’re laughers, and we’re a little dirty.

Five Reasons Jeanine Tesori Inspires us to Go for our Dreams

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:13:00 -0700

With five Broadway musicals under her belt and a bevy of awards and honors, Tesori has cut quite the path for herself. We are thrilled to have her back at Center Theatre Group for the World premiere of Soft Power at the Ahmanson Theatre May 3 – June 10, 2018.

If the fact that she took David Henry Hwang up on his invitation to compose the music for a show written by Chinese artists in the future imitating Broadway composers of the past wasn’t enough to make you think anything is possible, here are five more reasons why she inspires us to go for our dreams.

Pioneer Woman

Tesori holds the most Tony Award^® nominations of any female composer in history, with nominations for Twelfth Night (1993), Caroline, or Change (2003) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (2004) (which ran on Broadway concurrently, another first for a woman), and Shrek the Musical (2008). The fifth time was the charm in 2015 for Fun Home, when Tesori and Lisa Kron took the win for Best Original Score. But as a woman, the spotlight didn’t come to Tesori naturally. I was taught to really lean backwards—to do my thing, be in the background, and not call attention to myself, Tesori recalled in an interview. I’ve had to really go against my training to really be present.

An Honorary Gilmore Girl?

The recent reboot of Gilmore Girls featured a musical composed by Tesori. It was a whirlwind of an experience, with just four short songs (all under two and a half minutes)—the first of which was written in a week! The most exciting part for Tesori, however, took place offscreen. One of her musical idols, Carole King (who composed and sings the show’s theme song), had a cameo in the reboot. [Gilmore Girls] creator Dan [Palladino] sent me a video of her singing one of the songs, ‘Love Revolution,’ Tesori told an interviewer. Literally, they’re going to just bury me with it. It made me so happy!

No Net Needed

At the age of 3, Tesori was able to play “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music by ear on the piano; she grew up fluent in both pop and classical music. But by the time she arrived at Barnard College, she expected to pursue a career in medicine, following in the footsteps of her parents, a doctor and a nurse. Her junior year, she switched her major to music—and never looked back. Her father wanted her to get an education degree as well; she demurred. If you have a net you’ll probably use it, Tesori told W Magazine of the decision.

To the Lighthouse

Tesori was working as a Broadway conductor and arranger in 1992 when she felt like her career had hit a wall. She decided to do something kind of extreme about it: she moved to a lighthouse in Westport, New York for 10 months, where she committed to writing full-time. She knew she was built for this type of work, because she didn’t even check to see what channels she got on TV. I set up a Walden for myself, she recalled in an NY1 interview. In 1997, the musical she composed at the lighthouse, Violet, premiered at Playwrights Horizons, and 17 years later, it landed on Broadway with Sutton Foster in the lead role.

Girl Power

I try to give as much time as possible, as people gave to me. You have to look backwards and give people a hand up. I don’t understand not doing it, Tesori has said in Harper's Baazar, where she explained the importance of giving young women mentorship and opportunities. One way she gives is as Creative Director of A BroaderWay Foundation, an arts empowerment program for girls from urban communities that was co-founded by Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs.

Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

When Theatre Royalty Take On Real-World Royalty

L.A. Playwrights Get Blue Ribbon Certified

Welcome to the Working in Theatre Portal

Three's a Crowd, Four's a Collaboration

Roles of a Different Bent

Peter and Wendy—Maude Adams as Peter Pan

The Rocky Horror Show—Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter

Hairspray—Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad

Hedwig and the Angry Inch—John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig, Miriam Shor as Yitzhak

BONUS! Mrs. Doubtfire—Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire

LGBTQ History Worth Celebrating

Five Reasons Jeanine Tesori Inspires us to Go for our Dreams

Pioneer Woman

An Honorary Gilmore Girl?

No Net Needed

To the Lighthouse

Girl Power