News And Blogs

Quick: What city is home to the world's best, most diverse community of playwrights? The answer is becoming increasingly clear: Los Angeles.

Playwrights on Fire

How does a new (play with a) musical get made? To quote Soft Power, It Just Takes Time. In this case, that’s four years, 13 readings and workshops, and the partnership of a crackerjack creative team of American theatre all-stars. But before all that, there was breakfast, as Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie and playwright Dav...

Four Years, Two Breakfasts, and One Big Commission

The Sherwood Award for emerging theatre artists is awarded each year to an innovative and adventurous Los Angeles-based theatre artist of promise. This year’s finalists are Hana Kim, Gina Young, and Marsian De Lellis. We asked them a few questions about how they innovate and what’s led them here....

Meet the 2018 Richard E. Sherwood Award Finalists

Late June. Sunset. Silver Lake. A group of writers chat about living in Los Angeles and their upcoming projects. Among them are Hollywood showrunners, nationally produced playwrights, and award winning screenwriters. What do they all have in common? They’ve all participated in the L.A. Writers’ Workshop, a Center Theatre Group program devoted t...

Inside the Writers Room

Pablo Santiago speaks slowly and carefully, pausing between phrases as he considers his words. He brings this same thoughtfulness to his lighting design. Santiago’s unique style has been recognized with the 2017 Sherwood Award for emerging artists.

Pablo Santiago Wins the 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award

2016/17 is a season of firsts at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The 13th season at our space in Downtown Culver City is jam-packed with five World premieres, one American premiere, and our inaugural Block Party. It is also a season that reflects the diverse and innovative ways regional theatres like Center Theatre Group commission new work, collaborate...

Raising Collaboration to an Artform

The weekend of November 5–6, 2016 marked the kickoff of Center Theatre Group’s 2016/17 Los Angeles Writers’ Workshop. The seven participating playwrights came together at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for a Salon weekend featuring conversations with local experts—selected by the playwrights individually—on the subjects of their plays. We asked...

Playwrights, Professors, a Politician, and a UFO Researcher Meet at the L.A. Writers' Workshop

Throughout the summer and early fall of 2016, Center Theatre Group’s artistic staff worked hard to prepare for the 20 productions that will play our Los Angeles stages in the upcoming season. But they were also traveling 2,500 miles across the country to New York City to participate in workshops and readings of nine different plays and musicals i...

The Center Theatre Group Plays you Haven’t Heard of—Yet

Seventy-five playwrights have participated in the Center Theatre Group L.A. Writers’ Workshop since 2004. From the established wordsmith to the promising wunderkind, playwrights at all stages in their careers have spent a year with us getting support in the critical early stages of a new work’s development. There are only four requirements for...

Seven Writers Walk into a Room…

Storytelling. Heat. Passion. Coffee. These were the sounds, smells, and feelings in Rehearsal Room C in The Music Center Annex over a weekend in early June, at the culminating retreat of the L.A. Writers’ Workshop. Each year, Center Theatre Group supports a small group of local playwrights as they research and write a new work while receiving fee...

2015/16 L.A. Writers’ Workshop Culminates in a Circus of Ideas and Stories

On June 5, 1951, a Latino African-American surfer named Nick Gabaldon paddled 12 or 13 miles north from the Santa Monica-Venice border to the Malibu Pier—a journey that cost him his life. Gabaldon had taught himself to surf at the Ink Well, a section of beach at the end of the Santa Monica Pier reserved for African-Americans; he couldn't sim...

Richard Montoya and Roger Guenveur Smith Excavate ‘American Venice’