2020 | Center Theatre Group

In Elephant Room: Dust from the Stars, an eclectic triad of magicians turned astro-nots take you on a virtual trip through time and space. You’ll arrive in the distant year 2020 against a dystopian backdrop of near total planetary collapse—a mysterious plague ravages the earth, temperatures are heating up, chaos rules the streets, democracy han...

The Journey to the Elephant Room

“I’m trying to hook up my headphones. They’re being a little testy,” says actress Sabina Zúñiga Varela during the first virtual rehearsal of Mojada, one of the three Greek plays Chicanx playwright Luis Alfaro has adapted. “This is going to be part of the process,” replied Juliette Carillo, the director. “Dealing with our little tech...

From the Streets of L.A. to the Digital Stage

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! Throughout the years, Center Theatre Group has produced many shows that celebrate Hispanic, Latinx, and Chicano history in California, including Zoot Suit (1978, 2017), Chavez Ravine (2003, 2015), Valley of the Heart (2018), and more. These particular productions were presented in partnership with our artisti...

Scenes From the Vault—Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven

Before its Academy Award-nominated film adaptation in 1984 and its Broadway debut in February this year, A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller opened the Mark Taper Forum’s 16th season in 1982....

Scenes From the Vault—A Soldier's Play

Soft Power was the latest in David Henry Hwang’s long-running relationship with Center Theatre Group, which includes the World premieres of Flower Drum Song in 2001 and Yellow Face in 2007 at the Mark Taper Forum....

Scenes From the Vault—Soft Power

In 2009, Center Theatre Group produced Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s Parade at the Mark Taper Forum....

Scenes From the Vault—Parade

When the World premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was produced at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009, an exciting artistic partnership between Center Theatre Group and Rajiv Joseph was born. Not only was it Joseph’s first large-scale production at a major regional theatre, but the following year, the show was trasnferred to the Mark Taper...

Scenes from the Vault—Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

When Center Theatre Group’s Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson met with Luis Valdez to commission a play that was quintessentially Los Angeles—what came from their meeting redefined theatre history. When Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit first premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in association with Teatro El Campesino in 1978, it made history as...

Scenes from the Vault: Zoot Suit

With America preparing for its annual 4th of July celebration—albeit in a physically distanced way, perhaps unlike any time before—it must be remembered that the meaning of independence has never been equally applied to all Americans. This point is clearly taking center stage in the national dialogue, especially leading into this year’s Indep...

Exposing America's History Onstage

Like many of you, we have been following the news and watching in sadness and anger as another senseless moment of violence toward the Black community has taken place in our country. While we usually take our politics and civic discourse straight to the stage and our community programs, this moment calls for more. This is about human rights. As an...

We Commit to Change

Two of the most vibrant and wonderful spaces at Center Theatre Group rarely come into view for our audience members but are crucial to the art we put onstage: our costume and prop shop and warehouse in Boyle Heights (known as “The Shop”) and the backstage areas at our venues. These spaces are at their busiest and most exciting when they’re fi...

Shows, Interrupted: Block Party 2020