News And Blogs

“Nothing in this play is what it appears to be,” Actor Eugene Lee says of A Soldier’s Play.

February is Black History Month, an annual observance that honors the important people and events in Black culture and the history of the United States. The month highlights the love, success, and bond Black people share and the contributions they have made as a community and for the country, while also honoring and recognizing the strife they have...

The Black Artists of Yesterday, Today, and the Future

You give a living thing a little chance to grow. That lyric, written by Marsha Norman for The Secret Garden, neatly captures the spirit of hope that has engaged fans of the 1911 children’s literature classic, its countless movie and TV adaptations and, of course, Norman and Lucy Simon’s 1991 Tony Award-winning musical....

Taking Time to Grow

This month’s 2:22 – A Ghost Story at the Ahmanson Theatre follows a couple and their friends as they attempt to discover what is haunting their home at 2:22 am each evening. But 2:22 – A Ghost Story isn’t the only spectral sensation to have appeared on our stages. Take a look back at some of the spooky stories that have graced our stages....

A Haunted History: Ghastly Ghosts of Center Theatre Group’s Past

When Alex Alpharaoh was two months old, he and his 15-year-old mother were almost killed in a bomb blast in La Limonada, a shantytown in Guatemala City. To escape the violence, they began their journey to the United States, where they would start their lives anew in Los Angeles, albeit in the shadows, undocumented.

Out of the Shadows and onto the Stage

“It was great because it wasn’t just for me–this is for us. This is for Black people. I hear a story that I see myself reflected in, and it’s right here. And that’s really special.” —Bruce Lemon, Co-Artistic Director of Watts Village Theater Company

In Not a Moment, But a Movement, 3 Theatres Join in the Pursuit of Elevating Black Artists

“I’m trying to hook up my headphones. They’re being a little testy,” says actress Sabina Zúñiga Varela during the first virtual rehearsal of Mojada, one of the three Greek plays Chicanx playwright Luis Alfaro has adapted. “This is going to be part of the process,” replied Juliette Carillo, the director. “Dealing with our little tech...

From the Streets of L.A. to the Digital Stage

Before its Academy Award-nominated film adaptation in 1984 and its Broadway debut in February this year, A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller opened the Mark Taper Forum’s 16th season in 1982....

Scenes From the Vault—A Soldier's Play

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

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

Dael Orlandersmith starts the conversations her audiences need. In her newest groundbreaking work, Until the Flood—onstage at the Douglas from January 21 – February 23, 2020—that means thinking and talking about Ferguson, Missouri, where in 2014 a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. After succes...

How Dael Orlandersmith Speaks to People

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Soldiering On