News And Blogs

The American Civil War is the backdrop of Suzan-Lori Parks’ new play, Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), which plays the Mark Taper Forum April 5–May 15, 2016. But this tale of a slave who must decide whether to fight in the war on the side of the Confederacy also offers insight into racial dynamics and identity...

Conversations from the Classroom: Teaching Theatre Students About Access, Equity, and Inclusion

Steeped in anti-war and civil rights movements as a young man, Robert Egan was ﬁrst drawn to theatre because it could help combat the racial and political injustices of the social world in which he found himself. So he threw himself in. He was a Producing Director here at the Mark Taper Forum for 20 seasons. He launched the Taper’s New Work Fes...

A Road Map to Gentleness

Through the Looking Glass seeks to foster a dialogue between the communities of Montebello and Leimert Park by creating a play inspired by individual residents’ autobiographies—written not by themselves but by their counterparts in the other community. For seven months, Center Theatre Group and playwright and poet Jerry Quickley hosted workshop...

Two L.A. Communities Peer 'Through the Looking Glass'

Over the past six months, Montebello and Leimert Park community members have been writing their own stories—and those of their counterparts in the other community—for Through the Looking Glass, which aims to create a dialogue that will bridge understanding between two distinctly different L.A. neighborhoods. In weekly workshops, participants dr...

'Through the Looking Glass' Reflects on 'Appropriate' and 'The Christians'

The Center Theatre Group Writers’ Workshop, a program designed to foster the next generation of great American playwrights, has generated approximately 70 new plays in the past decade. Many of these shows have gone on to acclaimed world premieres, but only two have made their way back to Center Theatre Group’s stages. The second is Sheila Calla...

Having 'Salad' - and Eating It, Too

Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex, which plays the Mark Taper Forum from January 27 through March 6, 2016, begins with a dinner party thrown by two college students, Charlotte and Jonny, for Charlotte’s parents—a party teetering on disaster as Charlotte invites her parents to dine on undressed salad and unbuttered bread while se...

On Sex, Detective Fiction, Dinner Parties, and Edward Albee