News And Blogs

Center Theatre Group has remained the first and only West Coast theatre to embrace my voice as a writer. I write African comedies, explained Ghanian American playwright Jocelyn Bioh. There are so many beautiful layers to my continent, and I feel rewarded in knowing that I’m adding to the conversation of how the African diaspora is reflected [ons...

Playwright Jocelyn Bioh Blends Comedy and Culture in ‘School Girls’

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.

Good friends are hard to find—and oftentimes harder to keep. And even the most challenging female friendships can be legendary with the right gals by your side. In honor of School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play—onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre September 2–30, 2018—we’re paying tribute to some of the most iconic girl squads in p...

Five Girl Squads that Are Friendship Goals

Los Angeles has more theatre companies per capita than any city, and is a place writers flock to looking for opportunities across every form of media. But it can still be hard for playwrights to find one another and find support for their theatrical endeavors.

A Festival by Locals, For Locals

When the cast members of School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play—onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre September 2–30, 2018—are in the same room, it feels a lot like being in a real class.

The Class of ‘School Girls’ Dishes

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

We can’t wait to showcase the work of three multi-talented artists at our inaugural L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival: New Plays Forged in L.A. on June 23, 2018. Sylvan Oswald, Dan O’Brien, and Zakiyyah Alexander are among the 89 playwrights who have participated in Center Theatre Group’s L.A. Writers’ Workshop since 2005. Before we stage r...

Meet the 2018 L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival Playwrights

Quick: What city is home to the world's best, most diverse community of playwrights? The answer is becoming increasingly clear: Los Angeles.

Playwrights on Fire

From ancient Greek tragedies to the Japanese Noh and Kabuki styles that developed in the 14th and 17th centuries to the English Renaissance traditions we know best from Shakespeare (see: Twelfth Night, a man playing a woman playing a man), gender-swapping has been integral to the history of theatre. Way back when, the reason why was simple: women w...

Roles of a Different Bent

Los Angeles has a long and storied history of LGBTQ rights activism. The city was the site of some of the earliest mass demonstrations against police persecution and the birthplace of the nation’s first widely distributed gay and lesbian publications, including The Advocate. As activism paved the way for acceptance in the second half of the 20th...

LGBTQ History Worth Celebrating

At first glance, the words jazz and politics do not necessarily sound like harmonious ideas.

Can Music Make Democracy?