News And Blogs

All three stages at Center Theatre Group have hosted artists whose stories reflect our diverse community since our doors opened in 1967, but this fall marks an important moment. At the Ahmanson, Taper, and Douglas, three powerful female playwrights—all theatre artists of color—have works onstage simultaneously: Dominique Morisseau, book writer...

Three Playwrights. Three Stages. Three Journeys.

From both an urban development and stylstic standpoint, industrial design has become incredibly popular in American culture, embraced for both the history it evokes and its more utilitarian qualities. This trend provides an interesting juxtaposition to Lynn Nottage’s Sweat—onstage August 29 – October 7, 2018 at the Mark Taper Forum—a play t...

Industrial Design Meets Set Design

Costume designer Raquel Barreto had a unique opportunity to dive headfirst into the work of a playwright she loves when Center Theatre Group tapped her to design both Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (onstage January 27 – February 25, 2018) and Water by the Spoonful at the Mark Taper Forum (onstage January 31 – March 11,...

Costume Designer Raquel Barreto Talks All Things Elliot Trilogy

The cast members of Water by the Spoonful took a break from rehearsals to tell us what drew them to this play and these roles, their experiences in Los Angeles theatre, and where they’re finding inspiration.

The 'Water by the Spoonful' Cast Spills

Quiara Alegría Hudes’ award-winning Elliot Trilogy of plays—Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, Water by the Spoonful, and The Happiest Song Plays Last—have appeared at theatres around the country over the past decade. Now, for the first time, they are onstage concurrently in one city. From January 27 through March 19, lucky and ambitious Angelenos...

One Playwright. Two L.A. Theatre Companies. Three Acclaimed Plays.

No one needs to tell a native Angeleno that car culture is rooted deep in Los Angeles. As immortalized in George Lucas’s American Graffiti, cruising is forever enmeshed with youth culture and music. Inspired by the cruisin’ oldies of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—and Bob Gaudio's red "Caddy" convertible—in Jersey Boys (onstage at the A...

Top Five Cruising Boulevards of L.A.

Look, I’d do anything for a sandwich because I know what a sandwich is, one poor, hungry man tells another in Rajiv Joseph's Archduke (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through June 4, 2017). In Joseph's darkly comic take on the origins of World War I, global history hinges in part on three young Serbs' desire for sandwiches. Will they assassinate...

Five Serbian Sandwiches Worth Going to War For

Archduke, which plays the Mark Taper Forum through June 4, 2017, takes place in the days and hours before the event that is widely regarded as the beginning of World War I—the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Playwright Rajiv Joseph hopes that the play will get audiences thinking about World War I as not so distant or forei...

Wonder Woman, Uncle Sam, and ‘Archduke’

Rajiv Joseph’s World premiere Archduke, onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through June 4, 2017, is based on the event credited for launching World War I—the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. While The Great War has been endlessly studied and written about, the young Serbian men behind the assassination are largely a mystery. Archduke fic...

Who Killed Franz Ferdinand?

"It feels like I'm coming home to this theatre because in many ways my career began here back in 2009,” said playwright Rajiv Joseph of returning to Center Theatre Group with the World premiere of Archduke. "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was my first significant production,” he recalled. “We spent two consecutive spring times in Los Angeles...

From Baghdad to Sarajevo—And Back To Center Theatre Group

The name “Gavrilo Princip” may not mean much to you. After all, Princip lived a rather uneventful life in early 20th century Serbia…that is, until he shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, almost single-handedly setting into motion events that would lead to World War I and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Princip and “The...

Six High-Profile Assassins You’ve Probably Never Heard of