News And Blogs

A summit at the Kirk Douglas Theatre brings together BIPOC artists and theatre makers from across Southern California to collaborate and create change.

Coming Together at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, opening the Kirk Douglas Theatre season this February, recounts Wong’s rise to “mutual-aid doomsday cult leader” and “sweatshop overlord” after creating a community of Aunties to sew masks for vulnerable communities at the start of the pandemic. This group then grew nationwide, and her performance about...

Getting to know Kristina Wong

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

Eleven Participants Are Part of the Inaugural Group That Recognizes and Supports Excellence in Emerging Leaders As we continue to look at our organization and see how to grow and improve, and in response to Center Theatre Group’s “Commitments to Change,” the organization launched the CTG Leadership Circle, a program intended to uplift, celebr...

Center Theatre Group Launches CTG Leadership Circle

“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

When the World premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was produced at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009, an exciting artistic partnership between Center Theatre Group and Rajiv Joseph was born. Not only was it Joseph’s first large-scale production at a major regional theatre, but the following year, the show was trasnferred to the Mark Taper...

Scenes from the Vault—Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

With America preparing for its annual 4th of July celebration—albeit in a physically distanced way, perhaps unlike any time before—it must be remembered that the meaning of independence has never been equally applied to all Americans. This point is clearly taking center stage in the national dialogue, especially leading into this year’s Indep...

Exposing America's History Onstage

Two of the most vibrant and wonderful spaces at Center Theatre Group rarely come into view for our audience members but are crucial to the art we put onstage: our costume and prop shop and warehouse in Boyle Heights (known as “The Shop”) and the backstage areas at our venues. These spaces are at their busiest and most exciting when they’re fi...

Shows, Interrupted: Block Party 2020

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