Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Diverse Stories and Remarkable Talents

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 15:15:00 -0700

The seven local playwrights who will be writing new works with our support during the 2019/2020 Season are Adelina Anthony, Ngozi Anyanwu, Jonathan Caren, Dionna Michelle Daniel, Boo Killebrew, Kenneth Lin, and Kemp Powers—and together they offer a diverse medley of both talents and perspectives.

Indeed, almost all of this year’s artists also work in Hollywood—writing (Lin, for example, has written on Star Trek: Discovery, House of Cards, and Sweetbitter, while Caren wrote on Netflix’s Gypsy); acting (Anthony on Starz’s Vida, Anyanwu on HBO’s The Deuce); directing (Powers co-directed the 2020 Disney/Pixar feature Soul); and producing (Killebrew is executive producer on the upcoming AMC dramedy Aim High).

The L.A. Writers’ Workshop was founded to take advantage of exactly these kinds of talents. “Los Angeles has become a destination for writers in a way that New York was in the past. There are more many fantastic playwrights living in L.A. than ever before,” said Associate Artistic Director/Literary Director Neel Keller. “We wanted the theatre’s new play development efforts to provide a creative home for the growing number of local writers.”

That support comes from regular meetings of the playwrights—along with members of the company’s Artistic staff—to share, discuss, and improve their developing works in an encouraging space.

“It can be a lonely occupation, so I think the impulse to band together in a community where you can share the thrills and burdens of writing a play is important,” Keller noted.

The Workshop kicks off with conversations with experts in the subject matter of their plays. In the past, Center Theatre Group has invited everyone from a plastic surgeon and a theologian to a UFO researcher. At the end of the year, actors are brought in for readings that allow the playwrights to better envision how their works will appear onstage. Participants both past and present also have the opportunity to showcase their work in the annual L.A. Writers' Workshop Festival, which features public readings of selected new works by former Workshop participants.

“The Workshop continues to evolve based on the ideas and suggestions of the writers who participated the year before,” said Keller. “Those writers give feedback on how we can better support the next group—it’s really led by the writers, what questions they have for us and what they’re interested in.” That extends to the lives of the plays themselves. “When a writer joins our group, it’s because we enjoy their work, and we think they can benefit from this kind of environment,” said Keller. “We encourage them to work on whatever ideas are exciting them the most at this moment. We don’t necessarily know what they are writing about. We let their passions and interest lead the way."

It’s too early to say what this year’s plays will be—more often than not, they morph and evolve over the course of the season—but we’re excited about the unique and necessary perspectives of this group, some of whom are already familiar to Los Angeles theatre audiences. Anyanwu’s Good Grief made its World premiere at the Douglas in 2017, while IAMA Theatre Company and the Latino Theater Company premiered Caren’s Canyon earlier this year. Kemp Powers’ One Night in Miami premiered at Rogue Machine Theatre in 2013 and went on to earn awards including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding World Premiere, four NAACP Theatre Awards, and two LA Weekly Theater Awards. As a group, the playwrights have been produced at prominent regional theatres around the country, including the Long Wharf, Vineyard, Atlantic, Roundabout, and The Public.

“Being a large theatre in L.A. gives us the opportunity and responsibility to open our doors and give writers a place to sharpen their playwriting,” said Keller. “It’s important for all of our spirits to have those playwrights here—in the midst of all of our activity. Their presence brings creative energy to our buildings and makes a clear statement that supporting the genesis of new, exploratory work is a central part of what Center Theatre Group is.”

All of Us Are in a Room with Mike Birbiglia

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 09:50:00 -0700

His storytelling speaks for itself, but we couldn’t help asking him some questions about how The New One came to be, the journey it’s taken him on over the past few years, and why he’s baring (and selling) his heart to Los Angeles at the Ahmanson October 23 – November 24, 2019.

What was the very first spark that led to the creation of The New One?: I had been reluctant to have a child basically my whole life, and then my wife and I decided to have a child. The first year was really hard, and I wrote in my journal about it a lot, but I wasn’t gonna talk about it onstage. And then we were at the Nantucket Film Festival with a film that my wife and I worked on called Don’t Think Twice. There was a jealousy-themed storytelling night, and my wife Jen said, “You should tell a story about how you’re jealous of Oona.” That’s our daughter. She was 14 months old at the time. And so I told a story about that and worked with Jen on that and then that broke the dam, and I started talking about all these feelings I had about the experience of having a child that are pretty taboo, and so that sort of formed the foundation of the whole entire show.
How has the piece changed and evolved since then?: The biggest thing that changed is that when I was first workshopping material, it really resonated with people my age or older. It was getting big laughs out of the gate, so I thought, “This is it. I found it.” And then around that time I performed at a few colleges, and one night in particular I was performing at Princeton, and the material was fine, but it wasn’t nearly what it was like at theatres. I realized I needed to come up with a metaphor for this that brings people of all ages into this universe. I started talking about my relationship not with my daughter but with my couch, and without giving too much away, I built it out from there, and then it started connecting with people of all ages funnily enough.
You move between comedy, theatre, prose, and TV/film as a creator; how do you know when a story is right for one medium versus another?: It’s a good question. For example, I’m expanding the show right now into a book with Grand Central called The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad, and that always made sense to me. As a matter of fact, even before I was thinking of this being a show, I thought this would be a good book, and I had the sense that it would help new parents understand how shocking the change of having a child is. And in terms of why do that as a book, I think books have the ability to really dive into the minutia and the specificity of what something felt like, smelled like, tasted like, in a way that is also a good thing to revisit. Books are things that I like to read and re-read over again. And then with Don’t Think Twice, for example, to me when I came up with that idea, I thought, it’s a movie about improv, and it could be in the theatre or it could be in film—those are the two logical places—but I thought it could be really interesting to capture true improv on film within the context of a storyline. Because I had never seen that done, and I was really excited about trying that.
What do you love about theatre in particular?: Theatre is in a lot of ways my favorite medium because it’s all of us in a room together at the same time, and no two nights are exactly the same. Even if it’s a tight script, every performance is different, every audience is different, and it makes the show different. So I almost never describe two performances as even being similar. And increasingly everyone is so isolated on their phones and tablets that I think theatre is one of these final communal art forms that we have.
What was the biggest surprise about doing this show on Broadway?: I don’t know; I don’t attach a lot of meaning to Broadway. It doesn’t mean anything to me. In the same sense that I’ve never wanted to make studio films, I’ve never wanted to make Broadway shows. I just want to make good things that make people laugh and make people feel something. I’ve never really had that sense of, “I want to make hits.” It was sort of this flukey thing where it just so happened that the story that I was telling about having a child intersected with the age group of people who buy tickets to Broadway. The exciting part about it was getting to Broadway, and having my peers be the people who are on Broadway. I went to Heidi Schreck’s show Hadestown, and she came to my show. And then I would sort of see them around at Broadway events. And so in that sense I feel like it’s not about what street you’re on as much as what season you’re in, what shows are in that season, who is in the community. Because I think so much of art is about community.
Can you tell us a bit about the role your wife’s poetry plays in The New One?: It’s huge because when I started writing the show, I would ask Jen how she felt about different milestones, Oona’s first steps or when she was crawling or speaking for the first time. And she would say, “Well, I wrote this poem about that.” And I would look at the poem. For example she has a poem called “An infant reaches”:
An infant reaches for something (I don’t know what)
pushes it farther away and cries in frustration each time she reaches without realizing
she is crawling for the first time. She is like her father.
And then I was like, well, I can’t say it better than that. So I’ll just put the poem in. And then it ended up becoming this interesting thing where the poems are sprinkled in, and it helps you understand the perspective of two different people raising a child, two different people witnessing the same events and experiencing them in two completely different ways, so in that sense the poetry’s essential.
How did Seth Barrish and Ira Glass help shape the material?: In more ways than I can describe. Ira was definitely a huge champion for bringing multiple perspectives to the same story. Always finding Jen’s perspective, always finding my perspective, always digging deeper. I mean whenever I’ve worked with Ira on stories for This American Life, I’ll come to him with a story and I’ll say, “Hey what about this?”, and he’ll say, “That’s fine, but how did you really feel about this?” He’s always kind of digging for what’s the story behind the story behind the story. Really he’s digging for what’s the thing I’m least comfortable talking about. Something I always tell my fellow storytellers when they’re starting out is the things that you’re the least comfortable talking about, chances are they’re the most interesting things to talk about onstage. And in terms of Seth, this is the fourth solo show we’ve worked on together; he’s directed all four of my solo shows. He’s a brilliant dramaturge and director. There’s no one like him. He just has such a light touch. He’s not showy. He doesn’t make choices that are pointing out the director’s hand, which is my favorite kind of directing—what I would describe as invisible direction.
Why are you excited to bring this piece to Los Angeles?: I really didn’t want to bring the show to Los Angeles at all until I saw the Ahmanson Theatre. Last winter my wife and I brought our daughter to Manhattan Beach for a couple of months, and I mentioned possibly doing the Ahmanson, but I don’t think that’s what I want to do because my experience in Los Angeles has always been transactional and business-y, and it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like that part of it. It feels like everyone’s in show business, and I love the people in L.A., and I love the artists in L.A., but I don’t like feeling like I’m at work all the time. So I was reluctant to bring the show to L.A., but then they invited me to come visit the theatre last winter, and I looked at the theatre and I thought, “This is the most spectacular theatre I’ve ever seen. I absolutely have to bring the show here.” And then they told me all about how active the subscribers are and how enthusiastic the theatre patrons are, and then I was sold. And so that’s how I came to L.A. It’s the absolute final stop on The New One tour, and so it’ll always hold a special place in my heart and that heart will be sold in the lobby for $49.95 after the show.

Play or Poem; It Takes a Village

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 11:06:00 -0700

Luckily, the tight knit cast mixes and matches throughout each of the pieces, giving the opportunity for most of them to wear multiple hats throughout the show. We asked them what the process has been like and how they’ve tackled the varied and vivid settings of their pieces.

Ro Boddie: Gadsden in At the Gazebo, Steve Tudik in The Urbanes

What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: Music has always and forever will inspire and influence the characters I play. For my character in At the Gazebo, I listen to a lot of blues. Junior Kimbrough and Muddy Waters particularly. For my character in The Urbanes, I listen to Ray Charles.
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: All the joys and the pains throughout America’s history; the ugly and the beautiful phases that have shaped America into what it is today.
In your mind, what distinguishes theatre from other performance mediums?: The fact that an audience gets to witness, in the now, human beings battling with some life-altering event. And regardless of whether or not the character succeeds or fails, Tuesday night’s show will be completely different than Wednesday’s, or Thursday’s, or Friday’s, etc.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: It would probably be Prince, in the early ’80s, in whatever recording studio he’s in.

L-R: Ro Boddie and Max Casella. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Max Casella: Cal in The Redeemers, Cabbie in The Urbanes

What was your first reaction after reading the script?: Oh my God I have to do this. Such delicious writing.
What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: None. It all comes from the text and myself.
What is your favorite thing about this cast and creative team?: Such a great group of actors. I love them all.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: Maybe J.D. Salinger...

L-R: Sam Vartholomeos and Micaela Diamond. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Micaela Diamond: Lindy in A Tough Case, Dorothy in At the Gazebo

What was your first reaction after reading the script?: My first reaction was that I needed a dictionary immediately! The pieces are quite stylized…as expected with Ethan Coen…so trying to read that nuanced brilliance through the page was difficult. Once I understood what they were saying, I was drawn to both of these women; they are beautifully traditional to their own centuries of time.
What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: For Dorothy, I took inspiration from Margaret from Light in the Piazza: wanting more than what she has in life, traditional, you can feel southern heat in both of their skins. There’s a bit of Elizabeth Taylor in her too: Suddenly, Last Summer, the youth, the wanting to know more about this world outside of Natchez, Mississippi, the mid-20s wonder about life.
What is your favorite thing about this cast and creative team?: Oh, they are spectacular. They are all veterans of theatre and film and getting to watch all of their specific processes has been quite a privilege. I love how we aren’t finding the end. They keep playing with Ethan’s words, hoping to lift them in a different clever way I never could have thought of.
What inspires you as an artist?: Stories that make you feel something you didn’t expect or know you could feel…so many Coen brothers movies do that. It’s quite a gift.

Peter Jacobson: Johnny Branco in A Tough Case, Movie Executive in Inside Talk

What was your first reaction after reading the script?: My first reaction to Inside Talk [which is set in Hollywood’s executive suites] was that I know these people, I know them well. And this is very very funny.
In your mind, what distinguishes theatre from other performance mediums?: Taking the time to dig deep into the character, the material. And then the audience, the immediacy of the work’s impact on others. Wonderful.
What inspires you as an artist?: Great material and being around real talent. I also love the camaraderie of the theatre; this is a very fun group.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: Shakespeare...oops. Uh...Buster Keaton.

L-R: Peter Jacobson and Jason Kravits. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Jason Kravits: Lou Wald in Inside Talk

What inspirations have you drawn from for your role?: My play is about show business, and the desperation that comes with it…a feeling that everyone I know has in one way or another. It's not a hard reach to find experiences in my own life that parallel this character, albeit in different ways.
You were last here at Center Theatre Group for the pre-Broadway run of The Drowsy Chaperone in 2005. What is it like coming back?: I love playing here. It's a beautiful space and warm, friendly, supportive people. And a smart, receptive audience base as well!
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: I think that's a loaded word these days. Americana to me is about diversity, all the various pieces of culture that made their way over here from everywhere else…in good ways and bad. I think that word has become associated with a dreamy nostalgia for a very specific cultural point of view, and that has never rung true for me.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: Arthur Miller, Sammy Davis, Jr., Leonard Bernstein, Nina Simone, James Baldwin…so, so many more.

Saul Rubinek: Arthur Threadgill in A Tough Case, Jerry Sterling in Inside Talk

What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: For the play A Tough Case, I was inspired by my love of 1930s and ’40s noir private eye movies—they have some of the greatest character actors in movie history playing eccentric, memorable roles that were deftly created by a combination of quick sharp writing and bold performances. For the play Inside Talk I'm inspired by a number of movie producers I've worked with in the past, whose hearts are in the right place—I mean, who are passionate to tell stories that matter to them—but they still have to sell to make a living.
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: Cultural references that as varied and complex as the country's history: both the dark and the light—racism and apple pie, the “Stars & Stripes” and xenophobia, Westerns and genocide, the Statue of Liberty and internment camps, Hollywood and #metoo, the Declaration of Independence and Citizens United.
In your mind, what distinguishes theatre from other performance mediums?: Theatre embraces all art forms, lives in the present moment, is ephemeral, and is changed utterly by its audience.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: I just finished reading a biography of Frances Marion, an American screenwriter, journalist, author, and film director—the first person to win two Oscars for writing—now forgotten by the industry she was instrumental in creating. If I could time travel, I'd love to meet her.

L-R: Max Casella and Miriam Silverman. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Miriam Silverman: The Wife in The Urbanes

What was your first reaction after reading the script for your piece?: While The Honeymooners was the reference mentioned to me when auditioning, I had never seen The Honeymooners, so it meant nothing to me when reading the script. What it made me think of was Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty: the scene between the struggling cabbie and his distressed wife, but the funny version.
What inspirations have you drawn from for your role?: Not to drag Odets into it again but why not—I often imagine my character to be Hennie from Awake and Sing! The 15 years down the road scene when Moe didn’t make good and they are miserable but probably still have great sex.
What is your favorite thing about this cast and creative team?: Everyone was hilarious and fun and came at the material with a lot of joy.
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: Old stuff.

L-R: Joey Slotnick and Saul Rubinek. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Joey Slotnick: Wes in The Redeemers, Ed Curtin in A Tough Case, Joey Falcone in The Urbanes

What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: Certainly for The Redeemers I thought of the great photographer Shelby Lee Adams who spent lots of time in Appalachia. His images of the people and families are incredibly striking and beautiful and disturbing. For A Tough Case, it was The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep and those brilliant noir films of the 1940s. And for me, The Urbanes evokes The Honeymooners.
What do you enjoy most about working on pieces by Ethan Coen?: I feel incredibly fortunate because this is the fourth collaboration I’ve had with Ethan and Neil. I have so much fun with both those guys. Ethan’s words and characters are so much fun to play! I think we have a great shorthand with each other.
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: State fairs. Corn. Jazz. Though I don’t think any of those things appear in these plays…
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: Ooh this is a tough one. The first person that came to my mind was Will Rogers. But now there will be 20 more that I’ll think of…

Sam Vartholomeos: Carter in At the Gazebo, The Writer in Inside Talk

What was your first reaction after reading the scripts for your pieces?: Are they talking about what I think they’re talking about?
When someone says “Americana,” what’s the first thing that you think of?: V8s and big band music.
What inspires you as an artist?: Curiosity. Finding solace in being a student. In not always having the answer.
If you could travel back in time to meet any American artist, who would it be?: Frank Sinatra.

L-R: Joey Slotnick and CJ Wilson. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

CJ Wilson: Gary Allen in The Redeemers, Don Baines in A Tough Case

What was your first reaction after reading the script for your pieces?: I really enjoyed the humor. When I read, "I could say you two born aggrieved and was weaned on a pickle," I knew this would be fun. And that I loved the parts I'd be playing.
What inspirations have you drawn from for your roles?: I grew up in the South—there was a lot of inspiration there. And watching crime noir (The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep) for A Tough Case.
What is your favorite thing about this cast and creative team?: I'm very fortunate in that I've worked with some of the guys in the cast [Joey Slotnick and Jason Kravits], Neil, and Ethan before. It felt very comfortable. It's a great cast with a great sense of humor.
What inspires you as an artist?: I get inspiration from a lot of things: watching my friends perform, Linda Ronstadt's documentary The Sound of My Voice, people watching on the subway, (hope that doesn't sound creepy).

Sting Is Sailing into the Ahmanson

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 10:00:00 -0700

“I’m repaying a debt, if you like, to the community that raised me, that created me, that gave me the engine of my ambition—first of all, to escape. I didn’t want to work in the shipyard,” said Sting. “In hindsight, I realized I’d been given a gift. I’d been brought up in a very strong community”—Wallsend, on the coast of Northeastern England—“with an identity that was completely wrapped up in building ships, giant ships. The community was very proud of what they did. When that was taken away, the town was destroyed—in every way.”

The Last Ship is set against that backdrop of swift and savage decline—and while it’s a personal story for Sting, it’s also very familiar. “This is something that’s happening all over the West. When industries close down, communities are bereft,” he said. “They don’t know what to do, what are they, how do they identify themselves? So it’s a universal theme and a universal malaise.”

The show doesn’t offer solutions, but it does have a particular point of view. “This is not just limited to my town or limited to America. It’s everywhere,” said Sting. “It’s about human dignity—we’ve lost that sense of purpose, that sense of identity, that sense of community, that bond—that social bond. It’s not them and us. It’s just us, and we have to get back to that.”

L–R: Oliver Savile and Sting in “The Last Ship.” Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

I wanted to write a story about the richness and the value of community, the spirit of community.

Another major, universal theme of the show is “the agency of women. Women are very important in this play,” said Sting. “We need more women in power. Men have messed it up, we really have. This is one of the main tropes of the play: it’s women who save the day.”

In order to write this story, “I began to go back in my life to the environment that formed me, made me who I am. I started to revisit the people I’d known in that community, the people who worked in the shipyard, the people who were my neighbors, the people who were my friends,” recalled Sting. “I wanted to write a story about the richness and the value of community, the spirit of community.”

Sting will be playing a key person in that community at the Ahmanson. “He’s called Jackie White. He’s the foreman of the yard. He’s a very conflicted character because he’s loyal to the company that’s employed him since he was 14. He’s also loyal to his men who work in the shipyard and who are being royally shafted by the company. That split of loyalty is what ultimately destroys him,” said Sting. “I had no intention of being in the play myself until someone suggested it, and I’m so glad I did because I’m having the time of my life. I understand this character. His strengths, his weaknesses, his conflict actually coincide with some of mine, so that is where the sparks fly. It’s really a psychological exercise. It’s good therapy.”

Once the curtain rises, Sting is just one member of an ensemble of 18 actors and eight musicians; it’s a big, Broadway musical, after all. “The production value of the show is extraordinary. It’s something you haven’t seen in the theatre before,” said Sting. “We launch a ship at the end of the show, and it just gets people out of their seats and—wow.”