News And Blogs

When playwright and MacArthur “Genius” Luis Alfaro was a child, his mother would bring him to shows at the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum—but she would wait in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power while he sat in the audience, enraptured. Alfaro became an usher in 1979 and eventually became part of Center Th...

The Local Theatre Movement

Google Martin McDonagh—whose play The Beauty Queen of Leenane is onstage at the Mark Taper Forum November 9 – December 18, 2016—and you very quickly learn a few things. One is that in 1997, he famously (and drunkenly) cursed off Sean Connery. (Which is true.) Another is that in that same year, he became the first playwright since Shakespeare...

The Irascible Irish Genius of Martin McDonagh

June 26, 1996—20 years ago this year—August Wilson ascended the stage at the national conference of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for professional theatres, to deliver the keynote lecture. Wilson had long been one of the nation’s most eminent playwrights, and the audience of theatre community members from acr...

The Ground on Which I Stand

In politics, it’s cliché to say that “image is everything,” but in Jon Robin Baitz’s newest play—which is set to have its World premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre October 23 – November 20, 2016—image is the only thing. At the center of Vicuña is a real estate tycoon and reality TV star turned presidential candidate and his tailor,...

A World Premiere Ripped from the Headlines

We interrupted Throw Me On the Burnpile and Light Me Up writer and performer Lucy Alibar and director Neel Keller in the midst of rehearsals and asked them to explain what makes this play a totally unique piece of theatre for the Center Theatre Group Podcast. Listen in full or enjoy the edited excerpt below. Throw Me On the Burnpile and Light Me Up...

A Conversation with Lucy Alibar and Neel Keller

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