News And Blogs

The set of Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith’s Until the Flood transports audiences back to the late summer of 2014, when Ferguson, Missouri boiled with unrest after teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson. In the aftermath of the incident, the town’s grief was palpable, and on the pavement where Brown d...

Mourning, Minimalism & Motion

Sting—yes, that Sting—believes in the power of women. “Women are very important in this play—men have messed it up, we really have,” the Grammy®-winning songwriter, musician, and actor said in an interview last year about the musical he created and stars in, The Last Ship. “This is one of the main tropes of the play: it’s women who s...

'We Need More Women in Power'

Here at Center Theatre Group, we’re no strangers to showcasing spectacular love stories by way of musical theatre. The Ahmanson, in particular, has visited the crossroads of song, dance, and romance continuously since its first season more than 50 years ago through today with The Last Ship....

When Love Takes Center Stage

Five and a half years ago, Ferguson, Missouri, became the focus of national attention following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown. Until the Flood—onstage at the Douglas January 24 – February 23, 2020—is acclaimed playwright and performer Dael Orlandersmith’s latest solo show, an urgent exploration of the social uprising that succeeded...

Ferguson, Missouri: A Timeline

Mat Diafos Sweeney is a true multi-hyphenate creator: a composer-director-writer-designerchoreographer who makes theatre and performance pieces that defy easy characterizations. “I talk about the work that I make as ‘junkyard opera,’ both because of the different mediums that I’m working with in visual art and choreography and music and tex...

And the 2020 Sherwood Award Goes to…Performance Maker Mat Diafos Sweeney

“What’s it like to punch someone in the face?” playwright Ngozi Anyanwu asked mixed martial artist Ashlee Evans-Smith. They were sitting in the Kirk Douglas Theatre rehearsal room, where the 2019/20 L.A. Writers’ Workshop had just kicked off with its annual Salon. From a clinical psychologist and Jesuit priest to an anthropologist and Afric...

Behind Salon Doors