Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

From Songwriter to Stage

Center Theatre Group — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0700

From her solo career, Manchester knows about the power of music firsthand. “Over the years, it has been so touching how people reflect back what [my] songs mean to them,” she said.

Manchester’s songs also have a life of their own, with Roberta Flack, Dusty Springfield, and even the original Funny Girl herself Barbra Streisand, covering her songs.

Being in Funny Girl is a full circle moment for Manchester. She saw Streisand in the show on Broadway in 1964 before she covered Manchester’s “Just One Lifetime” in 1999. When she first landed the role of Mrs. Brice in the national tour, she emailed Streisand, who congratulated her on carrying the torch of this story for new audiences.

But her connection to the show goes even further—Manchester was approached by composer Jule Styne to recreate Fanny Brice in the 80s. But she turned down the role, focusing on her solo career and her family.

Decades later, playing Mrs. Brice at this moment felt like it was perfect timing.

“I bring so much of my life and experience to [this role] as a mom and, now, grandma,” she said. “When I was learning this role, [Mrs. Brice] sounds like all of the women I grew up with, she sounds like all of my aunts.”

The Los Angeles stop of the tour is particularly exciting since it will be a family affair. “You’ll hear my sister screaming the loudest, no doubt,” she said. But she is also excited that her children, grandchildren, and friends will also see the show since this is where she now calls home.

Manchester thinks this tour—the first National Tour of Funny Girl in 60 years—is also aptly timed.

“It’s such a warm-hearted, funny, thrilling evening at the theatre,” she said. “People will be stirred to have music comfort them, excite them, exhilarate them, and walk away with a spectacular memory of time in a musical theatre.”

The Loop

Jessica Doherty — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0700

‘[A Strange Loop] compresses twenty years of thought into a character who is experiencing these things in a discreet amount of time,” he said. “It reflects both the present moment and a whole lifetime of thoughts at the same time.”

Throughout the show, Usher grapples with his thoughts—portrayed by a Greek chorus that assumes many different characters throughout the show. He struggles with self-hatred, his sexuality, his religion, his race, his career, and his relationship with family—to name a few.

It may sound autobiographical, but Jackson assures it is not—the show is less about the moments that are directly from his life and more about the moments that bring Usher to his ultimate moment of clarity at the end.

Part of Jackson’s entry to theatre was through the church—both as a pianist for services and through the inherent theatricality of Sunday services. There, he learned a lot about music and Black musicality, which heavily influenced the show’s songs and themes.

“I am a Black theatre artist, and that means everything and nothing,” he said. “As a Black artist, I have a complex and sometimes contradictory experience and that is part of being alive and being human.”

In its one-hundred-and-forty-minute runtime, A Strange Loop explores a lot of these contradictions as well as the intersections of different aspects of Usher’s identities with both seriousness and humor.

In the song “Exile in Gayville,” Usher’s forays on dating apps begin with short snippets of “the sexual marketplace” that then sends him into a spiral of self-loathing. In “Tyler Perry Writes Real Life,” his thoughts transform into various Black historical figures like James Baldwin, Harriet Tubman, and Zora Neale Hurston call him a race traitor for not writing a gospel play for Tyler Perry. A major pivotal moment for Usher follows in a fervent ballad-turned-gospel chorus, “Precious Little Dream / AIDS is God’s Punishment.” At the end of the holy commotion, Usher tells his mother, “You wanted a gospel play / Well, this is the only way I knew how to do it.”

These vignettes came from a personal place for Jackson, stemming from many points in his yearslong creative process. “As a young 20-something, I got so lonely and angry and sad and scared but also very creative,” he said. “I took all of my demons and made art out of them.”

Jackson never thought his “Big, Black, Queer-Ass American Broadway Show” would make it to Broadway, but it did, earning many accolades like the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020 and the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022 along the way.

“I’m really grateful to have had all those years to spend thinking about ‘myself,’” he said. “I’m not the same person that I was when I began writing it, and, in other ways, I’m exactly the same person I was when I began writing it.”

But he said the show’s success wasn’t all “lollipops and roses.” He had made his dream come true— what’s next?

“Particularly after A Strange Loop, I’ve been casting my gaze outward to the world,” he said. “I got a lot of attention, and, getting that attention, was its own strange loop.”

His second musical, White Girl in Danger, satirized melodramatic Lifetime movies and daytime soap stories. The protagonist, Keesha, breaks free from the “Blackground” she is relegated to in the soap opera town “Allwhite.” While it is a different subject than A Strange Loop, he considers the musical to be somewhat of a sequel, as it reflects where his mind went after his journey with his first show. He’s also currently working on a horror film with A24 and Ari Aster and a “coming-of-rage-musical-comedy" closing this month at Playwrights Horizons based on the cult classic film Teeth.

Despite varying topics, the throughline of his work lies in how he challenges preconceived notions. “I’m always trying to push the boundaries of form as much as possible to connect with audiences and to communicate ideas that are maybe a little challenging, but also reflective of the human experience, the things that we maybe don’t like to talk about.”

He knows that this is not an easy task in the current political and artistic climate.

“I feel that we are entering, or re-entering, a more conservative time, artistic and culturally,” he said. “I also believe that it will be harder for me to do some of the things I want to do...but it won’t be impossible.”

As social media silos continue to grow, Jackson finds the act of bringing people together to the theatre in a truly inclusive way even more challenging. “There are all these movements to segregate everything in order to make things more inclusive, but I think that it’s doing the opposite,” he said. “But the art form is supposed to be something that literally everyone can access, but we don’t talk much about form, we talk a lot about content, and the content dictates exclusivity rules.” Some people have come up to Jackson to talk to him about the show and make a point to say that, as a person who does not fully align with Usher’s background that they enjoy the show despite it not being for them. But Jackson argues that it is for them—and it is for everyone.

And so, Jackson finds a new loop beginning. “I see my future being, in many ways, like how it started, with a lot of struggle... but eventually getting to a place where I can share my art with audiences and let them decide what they think about it.”

Paving Pathways for a Future in Theatre Administration

Jessica Doherty — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0800

The inaugural Getting Started: A Career in Theatre Administration Symposium took place at East Los Angeles College, immersing students in workshops and sessions about the many careers available in finance and accounting, marketing, human resources, community programs, communications, and more.

“We wanted students to walk away feeling excited and confident about their future, to be free to explore and be curious to learn more about what they want to do,” Creative Workforce Initiatives Director Aurora Ilog said of the event’s purpose.

Hear from some of the attendees about where the day led them!

Izzy

IZZY is trained as a stage manager. They attended the Box Office and Ticketing session led by Nicki Wilmot and were excited to learn about the software and other customer relations skills involved. “A lot of people don’t have a full understanding of [box office careers], they think we just sell tickets,” Wilmot said. “I never thought I would be a box office manager because it wasn’t really one that I thought about, so the idea that you can get [an idea of] all these...different jobs that are available early on is so incredibly helpful.”

Izzy also attended the General Management workshop, where they realized that the organizations they run could benefit from the organizational and technical know-how from someone in that field. As someone who hopes to merge a legal career with the arts, she was also excited to hear a closing speech from Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture who does the same.

Aviva

AVIVA had never been interested in HR before the symposium. “The idea of getting to work with people and getting to create a space where people feel empowered in their working environment is really appealing to me after today,” they said.

Mika

MIKA attended the Community Programing session with Director of Learning and Community Partnerships Jesus Reyes and Resident Teaching Artist Estela Garcia. They are not studying theatre, but have a passion for it nonetheless. “We learned about appealing to the culture outside the theatre community and around different neighborhoods to get them in touch with their creative sides,” they said.

Lorenzo

LORENZO wants to be a performer and director and felt that the social media session helped sharpen the skills he needs to succeed for a career in the arts. “There’s so many career possibilities in the theatre that’s not always associated with just directing or acting,” he said. “[Social media] is a fun, unique way to hone my skills while trying to get different opportunities for what I want to do.”

Reagan

REAGAN considers herself to be performer-oriented, but enjoyed learning about finances in a not-for-profit theatre company during one session. “I wasn’t really thinking administration was going to be a thing for me, but I loved how much community and communication goes into everything,” she said. “And it might be a really good thing for me to be able to do theatre administration because you can do both.”

But the learning didn’t end after this event—Education & Community Partnerships has year-round opportunities for folks at different points of life who are looking to find their way into a career in the arts. This past March, high school students and their guardians and educators attended the annual College and Career Fair for the Arts, which provided information, free headshots, and one-on-one college counseling to those interested in career and higher education opportunities in the arts. Looking ahead, the Going Pro event on April 20th and 21st is geared towards college and graduate students and their educators, and early career individuals focusing on the transition from higher education to professional life, with speed mentoring, workshops, panels, and a tech job networking mixer. And for individuals who are ready to gain hands-on experience in the field, Center Theatre Group offers internships, apprenticeships, and observerships for different disciplines and crafts. Internship applications for the summer are open until April 26th for graduates and May 3rd for undergrads.

Whatever path lies ahead of you, Center Theatre Group is there for you along the way. Stay in touch with Education & Community partnerships through our website or @ctgcommunity on Instagram.

The Man Behind the Curtain

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:23:00 -0800

In addition to co-writing the musical’s book, Mando Alvarado is a playwright and writer and producer for TV and film. It is safe to say that El Otro Oz is a departure from some of his previous work that tackles themes of death, war, and infidelity. But it still has the same heart and meaningful message behind it. Oz, in this version, is an amalgamation of various Latin American countries, with the impacts of colonization brewing in the background.

When writing El Otro Oz, Alvarado asked himself, “When your children grow up and they want to know what kind of writer you were...what will it say to them?”

Alvarado found theatre in the seventh grade. He initially had to take drama class as a general arts requirement and only hoped to pass so he could continue playing football after school. But he fell in love with it. He hopes that, through El Otro Oz, students can come to learn to love theatre, too.

Audience reactions might prove that to be true. “Kids are feeling like their journeys are being reflected, their own lives are being reflected through characters they can relate to,” Alvarado said. “It’s one of the reasons...I’m doing something right; this feels like we are doing more than just putting on a play to entertain.”

But entertain it does! The Atlantic Theater production was chosen as a New York Times Critics’ Pick and was extended until March 3^rd. A part of its success may be because Alvarado hopes there is something for everyone to learn from the show.

“I think it will make [audiences] feel okay about where [they] are as a teenager and the difficulties of peer pressure and looking at [their] parents and the sacrifices they made to reach where they’re at,” he said. “And we can all relate to that, generationally, what our parents...did to give you the life they didn’t have.” He added that he hopes parents in particular will leave with a better understanding of their children and awareness of what they are struggling with.

Another important aspect of the musical is that it is bi-lingual, in English and Spanish. He spoke of how there are not many bi-lingual musicals currently being produced in the United States, let alone ones written for younger audiences. He feels it speaks particularly to, “the heart of assimilation and straddling two worlds.”

Regardless of where audiences are from, Alvarado hopes audiences can relate to the characters onstage. “When kids are experiencing it, there are little moments where [they] go, ‘I’ve heard my mom talk about that, or my grandmother talks about that,’” he said.

Alvarado hopes for the future of the young audiences in attendance that theatre will continue to tell stories that reflect many different identities and cultures.

“The battle of traditional theatre and theatre that seeks to put underrepresented voices on stage I think will continue, just like the battle in our own country of identity and communities wanting to see themselves represented,” he said. “If I were to wave a magic wand, we would take a story at face value about what it feels like being a human being and find a way to relate to that as opposed to using identity as a way to define a story. I don’t know if we will ever get there...but I wish that [plays] all have value...not to check a box, but because it has something to say that we can all relate to.”

Bourne to Dance

Jessica Doherty — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:09:00 -0800

Now, he will continue his Los Angeles legacy with Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet this season at the Ahmanson Theatre. Take a look back at his previous work with Center Theatre Group over the years.