News And Blogs

A peace pipe. A vial of arsenic. A mango-wheat beer. A necklace that can ward off evil spirits. An intricately carved jewelry box.

From Product Design to Props

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.

In Spring of 2017, the bar Eastside Luv was transformed into a theatre. Inside the tiny Boyle Heights venue young crowds danced to 1980s pop, drank sangria, and gossiped in English and Spanish. It was quintessentially Los Angeles. It was Chisme y Queso.

Chisme y Queso

From 2012–2016, three of Southern California’s leading regional theatres programmed ambitious initiatives to engage local communities—primarily Latinx—they felt were underrepresented as patrons at their theatres. With funding from the James Irvine Foundation’s Exploring Engagement fund, all three companies experimented with partnerships...

Working in Community

Across the street from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, tucked tightly onto a corner, is a very small bar. And although it’s early on a Sunday evening, inside the very small bar is a very big party.

Gossip, Cheese, and Theatre in Boyle Heights

Block Party is our new celebration of Los Angeles Theatre. In January, we announced that we would be collaborating with three local theatre companies to make this inaugural event a reality. Coeurage Theatre Company, The Fountain Theatre, and The Echo Theater Company are each one piece of the ecosystem that is Los Angeles theatre, and their stories...

Welcome to the Neighborhood

This month, we’re proud to have productions at three theatres—plus a bonus live art theatrical experience—that demonstrate our commitment to diversity in every sense of the word.

Civil Rights, Memoirs, and a World Premiere Playwright

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 costume designer Jenny Foldenauer, lighting designer Pablo Santiago, and video designer Keith Skretch. All three are exceptional designers known for pushing boundaries and imp...

Meet the 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award Finalists

Andrew Thiels has bought, built, and hunted down everything from dead bodies and antique refrigerators to handmade Amish wheelbarrows and vintage motorcycles for Center Theatre Group’s stages. Thiels, who became Properties Manager in 2013 and began freelancing for us in 2004, sat down with us to share some fun facts about his craft.

Prop Manager Andrew Thiels on 'Wild Goose Chases' and 'Making Fantasies Realities' Onstage

When we first developed our Boyle Heights programming three years ago, we laid what would become the foundation of our work at a community engagement strategies brainstorming session. One of the many lists we made was titled “Barriers of Participation,” alongside another list of solutions for said barriers. One of the first items we listed was...

Making Sure No One Gets Lost in Translation

We offer all of our free community workshops in and around The Shop, Center Theatre Group’s costume and prop shop in Boyle Heights, in Spanish and English. At any given workshop we host, at least three quarters of the participants are Spanish-only speakers, and almost everyone is bilingual.

Teaching Artist and Prop Master Extraordinaire Merrianne Nedreberg