News: Onstage

LA Times' Mike Boehm sees how 'Rock Critic' hits an honest chord

It was just a year and a half ago that Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen staged their work-in-progress How to be a Rock Critic as a reading at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Los Angeles Times arts reporter and pop music critic Mike Boehm delves into the story behind the story:...

Bringing ‘Used to Was (Maybe Did)’ from page to stage

One of the incredible joys of my job as Center Theatre Group’s artistic development program manager is to see a project grow and change from the beginning. I remember the day when Associate Artistic Director Diane Rodriguez passed along the script of Used To Was (Maybe Did) by playwright Brian Dykstra to me. I could feel the excitement and e...

The Man Behind the Music

Inner Circle members received a rare glimpse into the orchestra pit of the Ahmanson Theatre at the Inner Circle’s most recent Up Close Dialogue as producing director Doug Baker sat down with Jay Alger, the music director of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Up Close Dialogues are opportunities for members of the Inner Circle to hear Cent...

The Rock Critic’s Journey

“The first Mistake of Art is to assume that it’s serious” – Lester Bangs

From "Freed-Man" to Free: The Distance of the Journey

This article was originally written by Lynell George for the program for the production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone directed by Phylicia Rashad at the Mark Taper Forum in spring 2013. The below post is an excerpted version of the original article. Center Theatre Group's Los Angeles National Finalists of the August Wilson Monologue Compet...

Bid Whist

In Immediate Family, emotions boil to a crisis point over a game of cards. The Bryants sit down to play Bid Whist as an alternative to arguing. At first, the trash-talking is done in good fun and with love. As the game progresses — although the words they use are about the game — it starts to get personal. They end up attacking and ganging...