News And Blogs

Fifty years to the week of Center Theatre Group’s beginning, and the opening of the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum, the Los Angeles Times marked our anniversary with three stories that look to our past, present, and future.

The ‘Los Angeles Times’ Marks our Golden Anniversary

In honor of our 50th Anniversary, we are mining our archives for gems that highlight important and interesting moments from throughout Center Theatre Group’s history. This “Note on the Play” by Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson appeared in the program for our very first production, The Devils, which opened on April 14, 1967. The Devi...

Do Devils Exist

This theatre building represents a path by which a journey can begin: it is a tool, not the creative end in itself. By stimulating new work, by heightening the sense of participation of the audience, by evolving a style of acting and producing that can cope with the varied repertoire today’s audiences demand, we have set our sights on important g...

Our Controversial Beginnings

The current revival of Zoot Suit marks both "a major social event in Los Angeles history"—the real events the play is based on—and "a major cultural event"—the 1978 World premiere at the Mark Taper Forum was "the first time a Chicano play had been given a mainstage production anywhere in the country, in the world, even," explained Michael Rit...

Passing the Baton of Art and Activism

In honor of our 50th Anniversary, we are mining our archives for gems that highlight important and interesting moments from throughout Center Theatre Group’s history. The following is an excerpt from a note by Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson in the program for the 1978 World premiere of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. With Zoot Suit...

Evolving Stages

Zoot Suit is not merely performed in English and Spanish. The characters also speak caló, a patois or dialect that is one of the highly distinctive ways the pachuco has of projecting himself. According to one scholar, caló developed in barrios all around the country to give each region its own particular idiom and phrases....

A 'Zoot Suit' Glossary

On August 17, 1978, Los Angeles theatre, Latino theatre, and American theatre changed forever with the opening of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. “When the character of El Pachuco, memorably played by Edward James Olmos, swaggered onto the Taper stage, Chicano theatre became American theatre,” explained writer/director Luis Valdez. Valdez ca...

How 'Zoot Suit' Changed Theatre Forever

Center Theatre Group mourns the loss of our Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson, who passed away on October 2, 2016. Davidson led the company for 38 years, transforming Los Angeles into a center of the regional theatre movement and changing the American artistic and cultural landscape in the process.

Center Theatre Group Mourns Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson

Almost exactly 101 years after Arthur Miller’s birth, Center Theatre Group is thrilled to be bringing the work of one of America’s master playwrights back to our stages to open our 50TH Anniversary Season. Our history with Miller began in December 1972, our sixth season, with a highly successful production of The Crucible starring Charlton Hest...

Arthur Miller Wows Center Theatre Group Audiences Once Again

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum September 1 – October 16, 2016) was written shortly after August Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977. There, Wilson worked as a cook for a social services agency, earning $88 a week. It was enough money to give him the freedom to write, and from that freedom sprang the story of a...

Coming Full Cycle