FACT SHEET
CENTER THEATRE GROUP
of Los Angeles
MARK TAPER FORUM * AHMANSON THEATRE * KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE
Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director Charles Dillingham, Managing Director
Gordon Davidson, Founding Artistic Director
Founded in 1967, Center Theatre Group (CTG), a not-for-profit organization, is
one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming
subscription seasons year-round at the 745-seat Mark Taper Forum and the 1,600 to 2,000seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk
Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
With the Taper, the Ahmanson and the Douglas, CTG has a combined subscription
audience of 55,000-plus and a total audience exceeding 750,000 a year.
Center Theatre Group’s mission is to provide Los Angeles, national and
international audiences with the greatest range of theatrical entertainment available from
one theatre company, from first-run Broadway musicals and dramas to explosive
productions of the classics to groundbreaking new works. CTG believes that the art of
theatre is a cultural force and has the power to transform the lives of individuals and
society at large.
Michael Ritchie is the artistic director of Center Theatre Group. In his first two
seasons at CTG’s helm (2005-2007), Ritchie selected 37 productions for the three
theatres, including 13 world premieres and four American premieres.
In CTG’s 2005-2006 season he produced 22 productions including at the
Ahmanson the U.S. premiere and pre-Broadway run of the musical “The Drowsy
Chaperone,” which moved to Broadway and received more Tony Awards than any other
musical of the 2006 season, and the world premiere and pre-Broadway presentation of the
John Kander/Fred Ebb/Rupert Holmes musical “Curtains”; at the Taper the world
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premiere of Culture Clash’s “Water & Power”; and at the Douglas the American
premiere of David Greig’s “Pyrenees.”
For CTG’s current season (2006-2007), Ritchie selected 15 productions, five of
which are world premieres including Jason Robert Brown’s new musical “13,” Lisa
Loomer’s “Distracted” and David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” at the Taper, and
Douglas Steinberg’s “Nighthawks” and the CTG/Deaf West Theatre musical “Sleeping
Beauty Wakes” at the Douglas. The current Ahmanson season features a wide range of
Broadway musicals and dramas, including the 2006 Tony Award®-winning Best Musical
“Jersey Boys.”
CTG Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson led the Taper for 38 years, the
Ahmanson for 16 years, and produced the inaugural season at Douglas Theatre. He
remains as a consultant to CTG through 2007.
As one of the top resident theatres in the country, the Taper has guided and
developed an impressive number of Tony Award® and Pulitzer Prize-winning plays,
including “Children of a Lesser God,” “The Shadow Box,” “The Kentucky Cycle” and
“Angels in America,” and has earned a number of distinguished honors including a Tony
Award® for Theatrical Excellence. Two Taper plays, “The Kentucky Cycle” and “Angels
in America,” were the first to receive the Pulitzer Prize without initially having a New
York production. And in the 1994 Tony Awards® three out of the four plays nominated
for Best Play were Taper plays. More recent Taper productions include August Wilson’s
“Radio Golf,” “Gem of the Ocean” and “King Hedley II,” the revival of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song” with a new book by David Henry Hwang, the
American premieres of David Hare’s “Stuff Happens” and Joshua Sobol’s “iWitness,”
and the West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s “Romance.”
At the Ahmanson Theatre, CTG has presented a wide variety of dramas, musicals,
comedies and classic revivals, including 13 plays by Neil Simon (six of them world
premieres, including the Tony Award®-winning “Biloxi Blues”) as well as the works of
such other leading American playwrights as Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson, A.R.
Gurney, Terrence McNally, John Guare and Edward Albee. More recent highlights
include the premieres of Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake,” “Cinderella,” “The Car Man”
and “Edward Scissorhands,” Tony Kushner’s musical “Caroline, or Change” and Sidney
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Kingsley’s “Dead End.” The Ahmanson has been represented on Broadway as a coproducer of the revival of Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus;” Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake;”
August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” “Two Trains Running” and “Seven Guitars;”
Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella;” “Smokey Joe’s Café;” the current Broadway
hit “The Drowsy Chaperone;” and “Curtains,” which opens on Broadway in March 2007.
The Kirk Douglas Theatre, the newest member of CTG’s family of theatres, is
currently in its third season at its home in the heart of Culver City.
The Douglas, which CTG transformed from a historic 1940s Streamlined
Moderne-style movie house into an intimate 317-seat live theatre venue, was named for
the theatre’s initial major donor, Kirk Douglas. The theatre opened in October 2004 and
during that first season six world premieres were presented including Jon Robin Baitz’s
“The Paris Letter,” Charles L. Mee’s “A Perfect Wedding,” and Nancy Keystone’s
“Apollo Part 1: Lebensraum.”
In the second and third seasons at the Douglas, with Ritchie’s commitment to
recognize and support fellow Los Angeles theatre artists and help those artists reach a
broader audience, CTG presented the Robey Theatre/Greenway Arts Alliance production
of “Permanent Collection” by Thomas Gibbons in 2006, and the Playwrights’Arena/
TDRZ production of “Dogeaters” in 2007.
These two seasons also included six world premieres including the solo work of
artists such as Roger Guenveur Smith, Jerry Quickley, Dan Guerrero and Adriana Sevan,
and a rare revival of William Inge’s “Come Back, Little Sheba” featuring S. Epatha
Merkerson.
Other Center Theatre Group Programs
Two important programs that help CTG cultivate new plays and bring new
audiences to the theatre are P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth), and the New
Play Production Program.
P.L.A.Y., which was established in 1971, is CTG’s award-winning youth theatre
and education program that reaches 35,000 young people annually. P.L.A.Y. tours
Southern Californian schools with original plays, brings students to see mainstage shows
in all three theatres, conducts intense, in-school residencies and provides easy-to-use
website guides for each CTG play.
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The New Play Production Program is a unique and comprehensive program which
ensures that a variety of new theatrical work will be produced on CTG’s stages. The
program is designed not only to foster the development of new work, but the production
of new work, from artists within the diverse communities of Los Angeles as well as from
across the nation and abroad. Under the guise of the New Play Production Program,
CTG commissions artists to write new plays, musicals and other theatrical projects;
creates partnerships with Los Angeles companies to present or co-produce their work;
develops major (large-scale) theatrical works and musicals and collaborates with other
producers to share expenses and insure the future life of the projects; and fosters artists in
residence.
Center Theatre Group’s Community Programs
CTG’s community programs include a comprehensive ticket discount program,
Hot Tix, sponsored by American Express, which provides $20 tickets for the general
public that can be purchased in advance by phone or in person; Operation Discovery,
which provides low cost tickets to halfway houses, prisons, churches and community
groups; low-priced student subscriptions; Project D.A.T.E. for deaf audiences, which
offers summaries (mailed in advance) and pre-show seminars, performances and postshow discussions (all signed); Audio Description, which provides audience members
with the option of hearing audio description of the performance through headsets (which
are offered free of charge) while experienced audio describers guide the patrons through
the production, describing sets, costumes and the onstage action; Neighborhood Nights,
where audiences enjoy a private post-show reception with members of the show’s
company; Stage Talks, regularly-scheduled, post-show discussions with guest speakers,
and the actors, designers and director from the production. The Taper, the Ahmanson and
the Douglas are wheelchair accessible and provide Sennheiser Sound System headsets for
the hard of hearing.
Center Theatre Group Subscriptions and Passport
A CTG subscription guarantees the best seat in the house. Subscribers are offered
free ticket exchange, free replacement of lost tickets, priority ticket offers to nonsubscription events and other subscriber perks. Passport is a theatre membership that
saves time and money and gives flexibility to the audience member. Passport allows the
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purchase of tickets to every show at the Taper or the Ahmanson Theatre for up to 50%
off the single ticket price.
Center Theatre Group’s Phone Numbers and Web Site
To Charge Tickets by Phone
To Charge Tickets Online
(213) 628-2772
www.CenterTheatreGroup.org
Group Sales
Subscriber Services
For the Deaf Community
CTG Voice Mail
(213) 972-7231
(213) 628-2772
TDD (213) 680-4017
(213) 972-7353
CTG Press Office
CTG Press Office E-mail
(213) 972-7376
Press@CenterTheatreGroup.org
Web Site
www.CenterTheatreGroup.org
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