News And Blogs

For nearly 30 years, John Leguizamo has been creating and starring in landmark solo theatre productions that draw on his life to bring audiences around America laughter, understanding, and even catharsis. At the same time, of course, he’s graced our screens in everything from his recent Emmy®-nominated turn in When They See Us and roles in To Wo...

John Leguizamo Is Going to Rock You

“If you don’t see yourself represented outside of yourself, you just feel f*cking invisible,” explains John Leguizamo in Latin History for Morons (onstage at the Ahmanson September 5 – October 20, 2019). Though we’ve never said it in quite this way ourselves, that’s one of the central values of Center Theatre Group’s Student Matinee P...

2019/20 Student Matinees Showcase the Power of Representation

From Appalachia to Hollywood, drama to comedy, A Play Is a Poem is a cross-country cross-section of American theatrical history. Consisting of five short plays of disparate settings and genres, the fundamental connection these pieces share doesn’t begin onstage. Rather, it all starts with over a decade’s worth of collaboration between playwrigh...

Collaboration, Cast, and Poetry: What Makes a Play?

He’s regularly called a virtuoso, a master of his craft, and even a genius (per the MacArthur Foundation) and a clown prince (by no less than PBS). You’ve seen him in everything from TV shows like CSI and Sesame Street to his Tony Award®-winning stints in plays like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Fool Moon (roles he reprised with Center...

Bill Irwin Makes Beckett Pure Pleasure

Lighting and sound design. Origami and storytelling. Playwriting and play readings. Zine-making and redacting. Angelenos from across the city engaged in these activities over the course of four free, open-to-the-public workshops Center Theatre Group hosted over the summer to pilot expanding the reach, scope, and audience of our community programmin...

Community Workshops Bring Angelenos Together

"You're listening to "30 to Curtain," a Center Theatre Group podcast. I'm Doug Baker, Center Theatre Group's Producing Director and I'll be your guest host for this episode. I work closely with Artistic Director Michael Ritchie to bring productions to our three theaters, the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre. Joining us fo...

30 to Curtain: Kevin McCollum and 'The Play That Goes Wrong'

Do you remember your first real payday? The work leading up to it probably (hopefully) involved some kind of learning experience and skills acquired, but probably didn’t teach you event planning and production, marketing, and audience engagement, plus offer professional development opportunities in group consensus, time and budget management, mee...

The Next Generation of Arts Leaders Starts Here

In the midst of their June 5 – July 7, 2019 Ahmanson run, the company of Indecent celebrated their 300TH performance of this production, which has moved from New York to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company and finally to Center Theatre Group over the past few years. A number of cast members, as well as playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecc...

The Woman who Knows the Sounds of ‘Indecent’ Better than Anyone

From the earliest productions of God of Vengeance to the similar rediscoveries of the work by both playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, Indecent represents the culmination of over 100 years of social, cultural, religious, and theatrical history. For greater context, here are some of the milestones of the creation and production of...

A Journey of Passion

Dear Evan Hansen. Something Rotten!, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. Three of the most delightful Broadway shows of the past few seasons have two things in common: they made their Los Angeles premieres at the Ahmanson Theatre, and they were made possible by donations given to a discretionary fund to invest in Broadway-bound shows to ens...

Center Theatre Group Invests in Broadway

How many adults in the United States today identify as trans? What’s the difference between gender identity and gender expression? What does cisgender mean? What’s the best way to find out a colleague, friend, or patron’s gender pronoun?

Building a More Inclusive Company with TransCanWork