Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Have your Next Zoom Meeting at the Theatre

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:58:00 -0700

It’s easy to add our background images to your next video chat. Simply right-click on the image and save it to your computer. Then, follow the conferencing platform’s instructions to add the image to your video conferencing.

The Ahmanson-Taper sandwich.

Looking up at the Ahmanson.

Give me an A-H-M!

Have you ever looked this closely at the Ahmanson exterior?

Spotlight on you. Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging.

Perfect backgroud for your theatre daydreams.

That moment of waiting for the curtain to rise.

What set are you most excited to see in this space next season?

The iconic Taper.

Find your zen in the reflecting pool.

All about the Taper texture.

Look up at the sky next time you arrive for a matinee.

Look up at the sky next time you arrive for a spring/summer evening performance.

We are saving you a seat at the Taper.

The background for when you need everyone to FOCUS.

A quiet moment in front of the Douglas.

Cannot wait to turn all our lights back on, but in the meantime there is this.

This is what it feels like to be onstage at the Douglas before the show begins.

Our costume and prop shop is always bursting with color.

The fabric samples for your virtual sewing/knitting/crochet circle. Or happy hour.

For those bad hair days...

Launching a Theatre Career from the Living Room

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 11:05:00 -0700

“We’re all isolated in our homes, but a lot of people have been talking about how they felt connected by the event,” said Interim Education & Community Partnerships Director Camille Schenkkan. “It was a moment of connection, and it was something that wasn’t canceled. Plus, the ability to think about the future in a positive way was really nice.”

The event was originally planned to be in-person and feature a variety of workshops, one-on-one mentorship sessions, auditions, and professional headshots for attending students. With a few exceptions, the show went on—though in an entirely virtual setting. (Headshots are being planned for a later, safer date.)

Seventy-five to over 250 viewers watched five workshops, in Zoom webinar format, with presenters offering lectures and panels as well as Q&As. More than 200 students participated in one-on-one mentorship sessions with 40 established professionals on Zoom, Skype, and by phone. LA Stage Alliance coordinated self-taped auditions, offering feedback to the actors via email. And everything was completely free for student participants thanks to the generosity of our donors and our higher education partners USC School of Dramatic Arts, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and Chapman University College of Performing Arts.

The first workshop of the day was titled “The People You Hire: Agents, Managers & More,” and featured actor/director Jillian Armenante, agent Melissa Berger Brennan, actor Oscar Camacho, and playwright Emmanuel Wilson in a discussion moderated by comedian/actor Ammy Ontiveros.

Camacho and Armenante discussed how they found their early managers and agents (thanks in part to Center Theatre Group: a tip from someone here alerted Brennan to Camacho, and a role in The Cider House Rules at the Taper helped Armenante find her L.A. representation).

“There’s gold out there, and you have to stay open, and you have to say yes,” said Brennan about her approach to discovering new talent. It’s also about finding “something that excites me, something I can sell and push and get behind.”

Wilson advised artists to build a team that includes not just an agent and manager but also a good accountant to help manage the financial aspects of the work. He also warned against setting finding an agent as a goal. “If you’re doing what you love and you’re creating and you’re building relationships,” he said, “sometimes they’ll come to you.”

“Finding Your Collaborators: Making Theatre with Friends (Or Not)” featured three friends and collaborators: performer Christine Breihan, playwright/dramaturge John Guerra, and director Rachel Park. Breihan opened by offering her thoughts on the most important tenets of good collaboration: trust, communication, and mutual admiration.

Guerra tackled the issue of when to say no to working with a friend. “It’s a question of, what is my best role for this project?” he said. “It is OK to support your friends’ projects from afar, and sometimes that is the best way to help that project along.”

In the Q&A session, Park addressed a question about how to find collaborators when you don’t have friends or classmates who work in theatre. “Getting out and seeing the work that’s happening in the community that you want to be a part of becomes a really invaluable part of your growth and professional development as an artist,” she advised.

Katrina Frye of Mischief Managed, a business development company for artists and creatives, gave an interactive lecture called “100% That Boss: Entrepreneurship for Artists.” “If you’re an artist, you’re already an entrepreneur,” she said: artists and entrepreneurs are all problem solvers. She also offered her advice on building your brand, building momentum, and building connections and gave participants assignments to work on during and after the workshop.

Stage manager Anne L. Hitt drew on her 13 years of experience on theatre productions to talk about “Conflict Resolution for Stage Managers & Others.” She told many stories from different shows she had worked on as she shared strategies for defusing tension and conflict, dealing with complicated power dynamics, and more. “I’ve dealt with a lot of sticky situations,” she said. “It’s natural for there to be moments of tension or conflict.” Between the different personalities required to work together in theatre, the long hours, the tight deadlines, and the hard work, conflict is inevitable. But she had many recommendations for how to get through it.

The workshop portion of the day concluded with vedic meditation teacher and theatre artist Jamey Hood’s “Success and Self-Care for Artists,” a much-needed moment of zen for right now and the future. Hood began by speaking to the many current stressors, and a more positive way to consider this time “I think of it like this incredible pulling back of an arrow,” she said. “There’s all of this tension. We’re using this gap to pull back. When it’s time to tell stories again, we’re going to take aim and release.”

Many students, presenters, and mentors told us that the day was exactly what they needed right now.

“I’m a graduating senior in undergrad who had my showcase canceled. I was feeling lonely and hopeless about the future, but this workshop really helped me. I feel a lot more excited about my future in this industry now,” said Serina Estrada.

Going Pro “not only prepared me to enter the professional world as a graduating college student, but also just filled me with hope and purpose during this anxious time,” added Ruth Burgess.

Tania Verafield, an actor who mentored a number of students, felt that the virtual format had surprising benefits. “It was a joy. And I think somehow, doing it over the phone really allowed the students to ask some very vulnerable, real questions that I’m not sure they would have asked in person,” she said.

The digital format was also a boon for LA STAGE Alliance in hosting the auditions, said Director of Programs and Development Michaela Bulkley. “We were actually able to have more students receive feedback through the self-tapes, and it helps our producers learn a new model of reviewing audition materials that could improve their own casting systems as well,” said Bulkley. “While as theatre people, we know nothing can replace being in a room with other artists, the digital event still provided space for emerging artists and current professionals to connect and challenge themselves to think about the future of our industry.”

Schenkkan noted that going virtual also meant “we were no longer bound by distance. The event has always been primarily to serve students from Southern California universities, but this year folks from across the country could participate.”

And although stages are dark, these emerging professionals have their work cut out for them. “All of the workshops touched on the current crisis, and there were a lot of questions about how we work through this moment,” said Schenkkan. “There was a lot of good advice on giving yourself a break and proactive things you can be doing.”

And who knows? Maybe we’ll see some of them on our stages and behind our curtain in the coming seasons. “When I first came to town, I was cast in a play at Center Theatre Group, and it made my career. I have been a working actor ever since,” said actor and panelist Jillian Armenante. “I am so grateful for the many amazing programs and learning opportunities they offer to young theatre artists. Take advantage of their artistic leadership. In a city as massive as Los Angeles, it is nice to have an artistic home.”

Remembering Diane Rodriguez

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:30:00 -0700

Artistic Director Michael Ritchie reflected on the scope of Diane’s 24-year career at Center Theatre Group and the contributions she made during her time overseeing new play production from 2005–2019:

Diane was an artist and producer with a wealth of experience who was always looking forward, urging us to break boundaries and consider what the future of our art form would look like and what role we could play in that evolution. Her mark on this company and our international theatre community goes beyond any collection of work. Her most enduring contribution will be her sense of exploration. She felt that our most important tradition was the tradition of pushing boundaries and expanding the artform itself, both in how theatre is created and experienced. She helped imprint that trailblazing spirit into this organization’s DNA, and her impact on Center Theatre Group and her collaborators around the world will remain everlasting.

Diane got her start in the early 1970s, when she joined Luis Valdez’s famed Chicano theatre company El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, California, after graduating from UC Santa Barbara. She toured with El Teatro nationally and internationally for 10 seasons. “Diane ultimately amazed and impressed us all with the ascending arc of her evolution,” wrote Luis in the Los Angeles Times. He recalled her as

an amazingly unique, beautiful and creative spirit: an actor, playwright, director, producer, advocate and mentor to younger artists, and indefatigable political activist for the arts from Los Angeles to Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. She was in the end the distillation of all the forces that had molded her as she evolved into one of the most influential defenders of the American theater community in all its colors, works and vibrations.

Diane and her husband, José Delgado, did original research for Straight White Men (the first play by an Asian American female playwright on Broadway when it opened in 2018), Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s How to Be a Rock Critic, and Guillermo Calderón's Neva.

(L–R) Diane Rodriguez and Young Jean Lee in rehearsal. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Young Jean recalled their partnership on Straight White Men, which received a completion commission from Center Theatre Group:

Diane Rodriguez would walk into a room and the whole place would instantly light up with good energy. She was an incredibly powerful individual, but it was a joyful kind of power that lifted everyone up along with her. Diane was unfailingly supportive of and kind to artists, and she somehow never developed any kind of gatekeeper vibe, but rather always felt like a close friend or relative. I’m pretty sure she was one of the only female producers of color I ever worked with, and getting to collaborate with her was one of the highlights of my career.

Erik wrote that Diane “was in the business of making dreams come true,” adding that he and Jessica Blank “wanted to break as many theatrical conventions that we’d held dear along the way” in creating How to Be a Rock Critic.

Fear was my constant companion. But so was Diane. She was stronger than fear. Diane guided us with a gentle, clear vision—and made what could have been merely some interesting verbal spaghetti, soar. I never told her I loved her but I did. She made my dreams come true. She made us make magic. And then sent us on our way.

Erik Jensen in “How to Be a Rock Critic.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Straight White Men and How to Be a Rock Critic were part of a major initiative Diane directed at Center Theatre Group from 2009–2018 with the support and partnership of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In collaboration with 85 leading artists from around the world, we experimented with new models for developing hyper-collaborative works of theatre, including a number of other Center Theatre Group productions, among them Rude Mechs’ I’ve Never Been So Happy, Lars Jan and Early Morning Opera's The White Album, Rimini Protokoll’s The Wholehearted. The project culminated in the publication of A Roadmap to Innovation, designed to recognize the artists that were part of this partnership and to offer a useful resource for theatre-makers looking to continue pushing the boundaries of our form and to collaborate in new ways. Lana Lesley of Rude Mechs called the two productions the group worked on with Diane as “fantastic” experiences.

We learned about ourselves and fed our deepest area of artistic study: collaboration. We were better collaborators on subsequent commissions and productions because of this experience, and we are grateful for that too.

(L–R) Erin Meyer, Paul Soileau, E. Jason Liebrecht, Jenny Larson, and Kerri Atwood (obscured) in the World premiere production of “I’ve Never Been So Happy.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Roger Guenveur Smith and Richard Montoya developed their new play Venice is Dead, with Diane directing, as part of this initiative as well. Roger recalled:

Her eclectic achievements in our field are peerless. It was not enough for Diane to open doors for herself. She held them open for all of us, and challenged us to do the same. She did this by the force of sheer will and her exemplary talents as writer, director, performer, producer, and administrator.

And Richard, whom Diane also directed in 2018 in Culture Clash’s Bordertown Now at Pasadena Playhouse, remembered her as:

Our dear sister and collaborator was a force, always elegant, with a sense of the fabulous! I walked into a costume shed at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista a nervous kid 40 years ago—she gave me a sash and confidence and told me to get back into rehearsal with veteran triple threat L.A. actors. She directed Culture Clash with such brilliant panache in Pasadena we could only hug and laugh at the finish line. The loss is seismic—we will miss her smile and brilliant mind.

Patricia Garza, Line Producer, Special Artistic Projects at Center Theatre Group, worked with Diane on the hyper-collaborative initiative for six years. They recalled:

I had the privilege to bear witness to her vision, immense talent, and grace. She was always ahead of the curve in forecasting where the theatre field was headed. We would attend festivals together, and she would instantly hone in on an artist or an ensemble whose work maybe I didn’t initially respond to and gush about the possibilities. I learned to widen my lens and challenge my own artistic inclinations and I am so grateful to Diane, my mentor and dear friend, for ushering me into my current artistic career. I will be forever grateful and pay it forward, as she did.

In addition to her work at Center Theatre Group, directing, writing, and acting, Diane played a large role on the national theatre landscape, serving as president of the board of Theatre Communications Group, and in 2015, she was Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven (with El Teatro Campesino) and 2016’s Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue on our stages). Mendoza led a monologue workshop via video. “How we all just figured out a way to still lend a helping hand, to not give up when we could have, how a group of passionate artists who believe in what they do and come together to give back, and get the wonderful reception from those still hungry to learn and get fired up was just amazing. I found it very enlightening, fun, and lucky. It was special.”

Videos included workshops on college financing and decision-making, career advice from professionals across the field, from stage management to costume design, and even a relaxing tai-chi mini-workshop.

While most of the workshops were geared toward students, parents also received resources to help support their children’s artistic aspirations. “The more information I receive regarding different types of careers, college majors and financing, activities, and training available for my daughter to grow, learn, and succeed, the better equipped I feel to best support her future endeavors,” said Valenzuela’s mother, Jackie. “Frankly, my impetus to participate in these types of activities has been to support my daughter’s interest in the arts. However, as a mid-career professional, these workshops and programming also help me understand what other professional opportunities I’d like to pursue in the future.”

And in some ways, the virtual nature of the program provided more benefits than an in-person fair would have, allowing for participants from across the country to join in and giving everyone a digital resource archive. Plus, “having a space to pay close attention and having these resources so accessible made it easy for me,” said Cielo Valenzuela.

And although it wasn’t what we originally planned, the experience has provided us with a glimpse into the future of online arts programming. “Even before it happened, we have wanted to integrate in-person and virtual programming,” Schenkkan said. “Including online programming expands the capacity and accessibility for a lot of the work that we’re doing. This experience will change everything about the way we work, and those changes will be for the better.”