News And Blogs

Lighting and sound design. Origami and storytelling. Playwriting and play readings. Zine-making and redacting. Angelenos from across the city engaged in these activities over the course of four free, open-to-the-public workshops Center Theatre Group hosted over the summer to pilot expanding the reach, scope, and audience of our community programmin...

Community Workshops Bring Angelenos Together

Amidst news of family separations and migrant caravans at the Mexico-United States border, Luis Valdez’s Valley of the Heart—onstage October 30 – December 9, 2018—could not have come to the Taper at a more pertinent moment.

'Valley of the Heart' Community Conversations Revisit Japanese American Internment and Redress, and Envision a More United America

A Tuesday afternoon in September found playwright and MacArthur Genius Luis Alfaro rewriting his newest work in an at once unlikely and completely appropriate setting: a Los Angeles public library parking lot in Boyle Heights.

A New Play Debuts in Boyle Heights

On a Saturday morning in June, a multigenerational group of friends and family gathered around sewing machines and bolts of colorful fabrics at Center Theatre Group’s The Shop.

Stitching Together Craft, Family, and Community in Boyle Heights

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

Why don’t we see more Asian Americans onscreen and onstage with accents that aren’t played for laughs? Is it OK for a Japanese actress to play Korean or Taiwanese? And why, if they live in New York City, don’t the characters on Friends have any friends who aren’t white?

The Politics of Casting

In 2018, Ahmanson audiences will experience Soft Power, a World premiere from theatrical titans David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home).

Center Theatre Group Partners with East West Players on 'Soft Power'

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

“Los Angeles is a city where, in many ways, it is hard to connect with other human beings,” said Center Theatre Group Director of Social Strategy, Innovation and Impact Leslie Johnson.

Creating Connection Through Community Conversations