News And Blogs

The journey of veteran director Shirley Jo Finney to the Kirk Douglas Theatre’s Block Party with The Fountain Theatre’s Citizen: An American Lyric began two and a half years ago, when Fountain co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs called to ask her if she had read Claudia Rankine’s New York Times bestseller Citizen. Or maybe it began in 1997, wh...

'Citizen: An American Lyric' Brings Healing Power to Block Party

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

Fifty years ago this month, on April 9, 1967, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre were dedicated at a star-studded event. Actor Gregory Peck proclaimed, “Tonight marks the realization of what seemed an impossible dream. Since we didn’t inherit great cultural monuments, we had to create our own.” Speaking before the opening production at...

Our 50th Anniversary, A Sondheim Classic, and a Celebration of L.A. Theatre

Failure: A Love Story was handed to director Michael Matthews by playwright Philip Dawkins, a friend of Matthews from his days working in Chicago theatre in the early 2000s. It was only fitting that the play should find its first home in Los Angeles at Coeurage Theatre, a company full of transplanted Chicagoans. Now, Failure is playing April 14–2...

The Journey of 'Failure: A Love Story' from a Softball Field to the Douglas

"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