Zoot Suit at Center Theatre Group, Performances magazine February 2017

©Ignacio Gomez

FEBRUARY 2017

CTG-MTF_COVER_0217-Zoot Suit.indd 1

1/5/17 1:52 PM

Depictions of homes or other features are artist conceptions. Please see a Sales Associate for details and visit theparkbankershill.com for additional disclaimers. ©February 2017, Zephyr Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. BRE #01983285

DIRECT ACCESS ELEVATORS UNINTERRUPTED APPROACH FEWER COMPLICATIONS IT’S A LOT TO TAKE IN ONLY 60 HOMES NOW AVAILABLE

1/13/17 2:44 PM

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 2

8THOF WONDER THE WORLD. ...”

“THE

—Joe Heard, former White House photographer

“

—

“I just wish there is a way that I could cry out to mankinds, they owe it to themselves to experience Shen Yun.” —Jim Crill, veteran producer, watched Shen Yun 4 times

ER !

D OR DAY TO performances magazine_8.125x10.875_V4.indd 1 CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 1

MAR 10 - APR 30, 2017

12/16/16 1:57 PM 1/11/17 3:44 PM

Dear Audience Member, This month, Center Theatre Group brings you two productions that broke new ground artistically and in terms of representing different aspects of the American experience onstage.

When Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit made its World premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 1978, the Chicano story had long been part of the American story and the L.A. story. But that hadn’t been reflected on the nation’s stages.

Zoot Suit became a major hit and the first Chicano play on Broadway. We’re proud to be bringing this important play back for its first Los Angeles revival as part of our 50 Anniversary Season. Unfortunately, this story of racial injustice remains all too relevant; fortunately, we are once again able to provide a forum for it at the Taper.

TH

Over the past decade, Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home has become a classic of LGBT literature. The all-star team of Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori adapted it into a Broadway show that went on to win five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Alison Bechdel—whose character is played by three talented actresses of three different ages—may be the most groundbreaking and multidimensional lesbian character ever to appear in a major musical. It’s an honor to share her story with you. ®

These two works are part of a long Center Theatre Group tradition of sharing diverse stories. We invite you to read more about it in the segment of our 50 Anniversary timeline in this issue, which highlights 1978–1987, and explore more content—including photos, video, music, and newspaper clippings— on our full digital timeline at CenterTheatreGroup.org.

TH

Sincerely,

Michael Ritchie artistic director, center theatre group

Center Theatre Group Board of Directors 2016/2017 Officers BOARD MEMBERS

Gary Frischling

Michael Rogers

EMERITUS

PAST PRESIDENTS

Pamela Beck

Eric R. Garen

Harold Applebaum

Lew R. Wasserman†

Thom Beers

Patricia Glaser

Monica Horan Rosenthal

Ronald J. Arnault

Marshall Berges†

Miles Benickes

Manuela Cerri Goren

Judith Beckmen

Armand S. Deutsch†

Kiki Ramos Gindler

Gail Berman-Masters

Susan Grode

Ava Fries

Walter Mirisch

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Diana Buckhantz

Aliza Karney Guren

Phyllis Hennigan

Henry C. Rogers†

Dannielle Campos Ramirez

Darell L. Krasnoff

Stephen F. Hinchliffe, Jr.

Richard E. Sherwood†

William R. Lindsay

Mara Carieri

Richard Kagan

J. David Haft†

Dale S. Miller

Susanne Daniels

Amy R. Forbes

Louise Moriarty

Sandra Stern

Lawrence J. Ramer†

SECRETARY

Nancy Olson Livingston

Nancy de Brier

Quentin D. Strode

O. Kit Lokey

Stephen F. Hinchliffe, Jr.

TREASURER

Jo Muse

Cástulo de la Rocha

Edward B. Nahmias

Marshall Trenckmann

Walter Mirisch

Phyllis Hennigan

Vin Di Bona

Kim White Peterson

Sue Tsao

Diane Morton

Richard Kagan

Dante Di Loreto

David Quigg

Bradford W. Edgerton, MD

Michael Ritchie

HONORARY CHAIRMAN

Lew R. Wasserman† CHAIRMAN

William H. Ahmanson PRESIDENT

Brindell Roberts Gottlieb VICE PRESIDENT

Bruce L. Ross

Jody Lippman

Laura Rosenwald Stephen D. Rountree Donna Schweers Elliott Sernel Jack Simon Maggy Simon

Matthew Walden

Martin Massman† William H. Ahmanson †deceased

2 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 2

1/11/17 3:44 PM

Perform

“First Republic waives ATM access fees worldwide, making business travel easy.”

D U N C H A RT S

Emma E. Dunch, President (right); Elizabeth W. Scott, Industry Advisor (left)

(855) 886-4824 or visit www.firstrepublic.com New York Stock Exchange Symbol: FRC Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 3

Performances Oct 15 DunchArts ND2015.indd 1 CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 3

8/13/15 3:18:23 1/11/17 3:44 PM PM

National Council of Jewish Women | Los Angeles

Youth Educational Programs and Services Teaching the next generation one child at a time through art and literacy programs in schools, shelters and community-based programs.

Center Theatre Group Publications 2017 Editor Sarah Rothbard Art Director Deanna McClure Copy Editors John Johnson, Arielle Laub, Liz Lin, Kathryn Mackenzie, James Sims Designers Irene Kaneshiro, Javier Vazquez, Tara Nitz Explore More CenterTheatreGroup.org Contact the Editor Content@CTGLA.org 601 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Published By SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEDIA GROUP Publisher Jeff Levy Editor in Chief Benjamin Epstein Art Director Carol Wakano Production Manager Ellen Melton Production Artist Diana Gonzalez Contributing Designer Heidi Schwindt Editor Suzanne Ennis Web Editor Christina Xenos Advertising Director Lyle Laver

Your Donations to NCJW | LA’s Council Thrift Shops Directly Support Our Youth Programs

Donate Today! Make a Difference!

E I G HT CO NVE NI E NT LOCATION S West Los Angeles 11801 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Granville)

Pico-Robertson Area 8520 W. Pico Blvd. (at La Cienega)

Van Nuys 14526 Victory Blvd. (west of Van Nuys Blvd.)

West Los Angeles 10960 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Veteran)

Mar-Vista Area 12120 Venice Blvd. (at Grandview)

Mid-Wilshire Area 360 N. Fairfax Ave. (at Oakwood)

Studio City 12203 Ventura Blvd.

Canoga Park 21716 Sherman Way (east of Topanga Canyon Blvd.)

Council Thrift Shops 800-400-6259 Council TalkLine 877-655-3807

ncjwla.org

Store shopping hours: 10:00 am to 7:00 pm Donation drop-off hours: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Account Managers Kerry Brewer, Tim Egan, Julie Hoffman, Jessica Levin Poff, Heather Price, Crystal Sierra Business Manager Leanne Killian Riggar Advertising Services Dawn Kiko Cheng Administration Amina Karwa, Danielle Riffenburgh Honorary President Ted Levy

For information about advertising and rates, call Southern California Media Group 3679 Motor Ave, Suite 300 Los Angeles, CA 90034 Telephone: (310) 280-2880 FAX: (310) 280-2890 Visit Performances Magazine www.socalpulse.com

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE is published monthly by Southern California Media Group to serve theatrical attractions throughout the west. © 2017 Southern California Media Group All Rights Reserved.

Southern California Media Group 3679 Motor Avenue, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90034, Telephone: (310) 280-2880 FAX: (310) 280-2890

4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE Perf-Ad-Literacy-loc-2-3pg.indd 1 CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 4

11/17/16 1:45 PM 1/11/17 3:44 PM

02-Febr

PICASSO'S WOMEN

G A L E R I E

M I C H A E L

Opening reception Saturday, March 4 from 3:00 - 7:00pm 224 NORTH RODEO DRIVE | BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210 | Monday-Friday 10-7 | Sunday 11-5 | 310 273 3377 | www.galeriemichael.com | art@galeriemichael.com PABLO PICASSO, 1881 - 1973 | Portrait de jeune Fille, d'après Cranach le Jeune. II, 1958

02-February-Picasso.indd 4 CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 5

12/23/16 2:07 PM 1/11/17 3:44 PM

AT A GLANCE

TICKET INFO

Center Theatre Group is a nonprofit theatre company that produces and presents at the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum at The Music Center of Los Angeles, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. For ticketing, the latest news from our theatres, and more, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org.

TICKETING & AUDIENCE SERVICES

SEASON TICKETS

ACCESS

Customer service, ticket donations, gift certificates, event information.

Telephone hours: Mon 10am–5pm, Tue–Fri 10am–8pm, Sat 12pm–8pm, and Sun 11am–7pm.

Except major holidays.

Season ticket holders receive early access to performances in the best seats we have— at a discount—plus a host of exclusive benefits.

Center Theatre Group makes its performances and facilities accessible for patrons in wheelchairs; patrons who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have low vision; and patrons with other disabilities. Call or visit CenterTheatreGroup.org for more information.

213.628.2772

WALK-UP BOX OFFICE Center Theatre Group’s walk-up box office is located in front of the Ahmanson and is open Tue–Sat 12pm–8pm, Sun 11am–7pm, and closed on Monday. Remote box offices at the Taper and Douglas open two hours before performances.

213.972.4444

GROUP SALES

213.972.7231 Discounts are available for groups of 10–15 or more and for corporate employee/client ticket programs. Enjoy VIP service and access to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public.

213.628.2772

STAGE TALKS

213.628.2772

Lively post-show discussions led by staff who are often joined by cast members are held on select performances.

PHOTOGRAPHS & RECORDINGS

Flash photography can be dangerous to performers and is very distracting to audiences. Photography and any other type of recording device are unlawful, unless authorized by Center Theatre Group. Your use of a ticket constitutes acknowledgment of willingness to appear in authorized photographs and video in public areas of The Music Center and the Kirk Douglas Theatre and releases Center Theatre Group, The Music Center, and all others from liability resulting from the use of such photographs.

IN THE THEATRE DONATIONS

213.972.7564 Center Theatre Group is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that uses the art of theatre to broaden horizons and illuminate new perspectives by producing and presenting shows on three stages, by offering free education and community programs, and by cultivating artists of all generations. Our work is made possible thanks to the generous support of our donors.

LATE SEATING To minimize disruption, patrons not seated when the performance begins will be asked to wait in the lobby until an appropriate break. Latecomers may also be given alternate seats until intermission.

SMOKING IS PROHIBITED Smoking of any kind, including electronic devices, is prohibited.

FRAGRANCES Please refrain from wearing strong perfumes and cologne. Many people are allergic to heavy scents.

YOUNG CHILDREN AND BABIES Children under age six are not admitted, unless the production is advertised for younger audiences.

Regardless of age, everyone must have a ticket and be able to sit quietly through the performance.

Babes in arms are not admitted.

LOST & FOUND Contact a head usher or call the lost and found clerk at 213.972.2600 for the Ahmanson and the Taper. Contact the performance manager at 213.972.4435 for the Douglas.

FIRST AID In case of injury or illness, please see an usher.

6 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 6

1/11/17 3:44 PM

— OPERA NEWS

PAT R I C I A R A C E T T E

BY RICHARD STRAUSS

CONDUCTED BY JAMES

CONLON

6 SHOWS ONLY! FEB 18–MAR 19

TICKETS FROM $19 LAOPERA.ORG | 213.972.8001 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 7

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 7

1/11/17 3:44 PM

AROUND CENTER THEATRE GROUP COSTUME DISPLAYS AT THE AHMANSON (AND AROUND L.A.) Stop by the second floor of the Ahmanson to learn more about making costumes for theatre with a glimpse into how two designers created period pieces for recent Center Theatre Group shows: Ilona Somogyi for Grey Gardens and Emilio Sosa for August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. More displays are up at libraries all around town and will rotate every few months among Benjamin Franklin Library, Malabar Library, and Robert Louis Stevenson Library in Boyle Heights, Studio City Branch Library, and the Alma Reaves Woods—Watts Branch Library.

Congratulations,

ON DECEMBER 16, 2016, DONORS GATHERED FOR DINNER at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion before the opening night performance of Amélie, a New Musical to celebrate and hear choreographer Sam Pinkleton discuss the creative process behind the show.

Regional Finalists!

(l–r): Timothy Regler, Brindell Roberts Gottlieb, and Rob Carson.

Twelve talented Southern California high school students will take the stage of the Mark Taper Forum on Monday, February 27, 2017 in the August Wilson Monologue Competition Los Angeles Regional Finals, presented by the Center Theatre Group Affiliates. Congratulations to Joey Aquino, Luke Baxter, Kelly Bouslaiby, Hollis Dohr, Asa Ferguson, Hannah Franklin, Elija Hall, Habin Lee, Arjang Mahdavi, Ehvinny Mora, Alexander Villaseñor, and Aryana Williams.

8 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 8

1/11/17 3:44 PM

In the week leading up to the December 16, 2016 opening of Amélie, a New Musical at the Ahmanson Theatre, a group of intrepid gnomes traveled around Los Angeles taking in the sights before walking the red carpet with their handlers. See more gnome pics on Instagram at @AmelieGnome and @CTGLA.

Center Theatre Group’s 50 Celebration May 20, 2017 TH

Be a part of the biggest event in Center Theatre Group’s history: a spectacular, epic evening celebrating our past, present, and future in honor of our 50 Anniversary. The highlight of the evening will be a one-night-only production at the Ahmanson Theatre featuring some of the most talented artists of our time. Artists scheduled to appear include: TH

Nathan Lane Sutton Foster Phylicia Rashad Sir Matthew Bourne Rajiv Joseph More to come!

Don’t miss out on the most fabulous birthday party ever! Call Charity Wu at 213.972.3139 or email CWu@CTGLA.org to find out how to reserve your spot.

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 9

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 9

1/11/17 3:44 PM

HOW ‘ZOOT SUIT’ CHANGED THEATRE FOREVER (l–r): Rose Portillo, Daniel Valdez, Evelina Fernández, Edward James Olmos, Rachel Levario, and Mike Gomez in Zoot Suit. Photo by Jay Thompson.

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 calls Zoot Suit the “great-grandfather” of Latino theatre and credits it with “creating potential for success of Latino artists.”

This is true on both an individual and collective level. “I remember seeing the play at the Taper and then two years later seeing the movie [which Valdez also wrote and directed] on Sunset Boulevard at the Cinerama Dome,” said Culture Clash’s Richard Montoya.

“Both events were just jaw-dropping, kind of we-had-arrived moments. We had arrived in terms of Chicanos in L.A. We had arrived in terms of the level of professional theatre.”

Playwright and actress Evelina Fernández, a founding member of Los Angeles’ Latino Theater Company, was still in college when she was cast in the original Zoot Suit. “I’m not being overly dramatic when I say, ‘It changed my life,’” she said. “It set me on the path of making theatre my life’s work.” It also put Los Angeles—and the rest of the country—on notice that an audience in the Latino community and beyond was ready and eager to hear Latino stories.

Center Theatre Group Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson had asked Valdez to consider writing a play that would reflect the history of Los Angeles. Valdez was already intrigued by the story of the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot suit riots, as well as by a pachuco character. In 1977, Davidson commissioned Zoot Suit for the Taper. “Apparent in the 1940s and obvious by the 1970s, the dynamic, growing multicultural milieu of Los Angeles was the undeniable wave of the future,” said Valdez. “Gordon had the wisdom and prescience to see it coming. Instead of resisting or ignoring change, he generously gave the voices of the new American theatre an opportunity to speak for themselves.”

America, and especially Los Angeles, listened. Close to half a million people saw Zoot Suit in Los Angeles over the course of a year—first in its sold-out run at the Taper and then at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood before it headed to Broadway. Valdez estimated that approximately half of those in attendance in L.A. were new theatregoers. “I’ve always believed that theatre is a creator of community and that community is a real creator of theatre,” he said.

That’s just one reason why he’s excited to be bringing Zoot Suit back to the Taper through March 19, 2017 for its first Los Angeles revival in honor of Center Theatre Group’s 50 Anniversary. For as much progress as has been made over the past few decades, the play is “unfortunately as relevant as ever,” he said.

TH

Center Theatre Group Teaching Artist Juan Parada, who is helping lead our Student Matinee programming around Zoot Suit, will be seeing the play onstage for the first time—but he has felt its impact already. “My brother reminded me that Zoot Suit was the first film we saw when we moved to L.A. from El Salvador,” said Parada.

“Zoot Suit marks the first for many people: the first Chicano/Latino play to make it to Broadway, the first big hit for the actors, the first time seeing your story told on the big screen."

This, to Valdez, is part of the magic of this play. “I want to create a common vision that speaks to an audience,” he said. And if there is a time when we need to find a common vision it is indeed now.

“Zoot Suit is one of the great plays of the American canon,” said Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie. “A play about discrimination. About anger. About violence. And although it takes place in the 1940s and was written in the 1970s, that discrimination, that violence, that anger, still exists. And we still have a forum—the Mark Taper Forum—to not only tell that particular story, but also to use that as starting point for a dialogue that helps to change the narrative.”

Read more about the legacy of Zoot Suit at CenterTheatreGroup.org.

Thank you to Bank of America, our title sponsor for Zoot Suit at the Taper.

10 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 10

1/11/17 3:44 PM

My wealth. My priorities.

My partner.

You’ve spent your life accumulating wealth. And, no doubt, that wealth now takes many forms, sits in many places, and is managed by many advisors.

Unfortunately, that kind of fragmentation creates gaps that can hold your wealth back from its full potential. The Private Bank can help.

The Private Bank uses a proprietary approach called the LIFE Wealth Cycle to find those gaps—and help you achieve what is important to you.

SM

To learn more, contact: Simone Branigan Vice President, Senior Private Wealth Advisor 310-550-6460 simone.branigan@unionbank.com or visit unionbank.com/theprivatebank

Wills, trusts, foundations, and wealth planning strategies have legal, tax, accounting, and other implications. Clients should consult a legal or tax advisor.

©2016 MUFG Union Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Union Bank is a registered trademark and brand name of MUFG Union Bank, N.A. PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 11

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 11

1/11/17 3:44 PM

WHERE FASHION, THEATRE, EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY COLLIDE

‘Zoot Suit’ Student Matinees Take Over the Taper The clothes make the man. It may be a cliché, but for the characters of Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, and for retail giant Macy’s, it holds more than a kernel of truth. And for the approximately 2,000 students attending Center Theatre Group’s Zoot Suit Student Matinees on February 21–23, 2017 at the Mark Taper Forum, learning about the ways fashion can show our affiliations, communicate beliefs, and make social statements will be a key way into this story of young people fighting for justice in 1940s Los Angeles.

supports our Zoot Suit Student Matinees and over 5,000 nonprofit organizations focusing on areas including arts and culture.

In the Los Angeles area alone in the past year Macy’s has contributed to the Natural History Museum, Grand Performances, Rogue Artists Ensemble, Dance DTLA at The Music Center, and the Museum of Tolerance in addition to Center Theatre Group.

“We believe that supporting the arts is key to being a contributing member of a strong, vibrant community,” said Macy’s Combined L.A. District Grants Committee Captain Daniel Walters. “The Student Matinee program is bringing theatre to a broad swath of Los Angeles students—a crucial arts education experience. Plus, what better show for us to support, and to show young people the power of storytelling, than Zoot Suit, which tells the story of an important piece of our community’s history?”

Participating Student Matinee educators attended a conference to immerse themselves in the play and its world and to prepare to bring it into their classrooms. Their students will engage in a variety of activities before and after their trip to the Taper, including receiving educational materials and visits by teaching artists to some classes.

Pre-show activities will use fashion to explore how personal transformation can impact a community. The young Chicanos of Zoot Suit wear the play’s eponymous uniform as a statement of their identity—and as a way to build community. Students will discuss this example of self-expression and connect it to their lives and experiences today. They will also learn about the power of language, the story of the creation of Zoot Suit and the history behind it, and the relationship between racial intolerance and media bias. The matinees themselves will be followed by question-and-answer sessions with the cast and crew, and post-show classroom activities that will delve deeper into issues presented in the play, including racial injustice.

Macy’s support is making this comprehensive theatre adventure possible for participating students and educators, all of whom attend for a nominal fee. “We’re proud to be a part of this program,” said Walters. “Zoot Suit is an epic event for Los Angeles, and seeing the show— and participating in the activities around it—might be life-changing for many of these students.”

12 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 12

1/12/17 1:45 PM

ON,

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 13

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 13

1/11/17 3:44 PM

GETTING READY FOR THE PARTY

Center Theatre Group, Block Party, and the L.A. Theatre Companies Taking the Douglas by Storm In June we announced our inaugural Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre—a celebration of Los Angeles theatre featuring three recent productions from local companies. In just three months, we received over 70 applications. Now, we are proud to announce the collaborators we will be working with to make Block Party a reality: Coeurage Theatre Company, the Echo Theater Company, and the Fountain Theatre.

“Los Angeles has more live theatre seats than New York City, and I am happy to help bring audacious, out-of-the-box productions from these companies to the Douglas stage,” said Aliza Karney Guren, who is providing major support to Block Party. “I am excited to be a part of a program that supports conversation in dialogue between theatres in Los Angeles,” she said.

That dialogue began well before the final companies were chosen, after extensive conversations and meetings involving every department across Center Theatre Group.

“It became obvious during the process that theatre in Los Angeles is alive, vibrant, and daring,” said Miles Benickes, who is providing generous funding to Block Party. “All participants spoke with passion about their mission, their message, and their desire to create theatre that is both entertaining and challenging.”

Bernard K. Addison and Simone Missick in Citizen: An American Lyric. Photo by Ed Krieger.

Everyone agreed that our choices “represent some of the very best work in Los Angeles,” said Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie. “They demonstrate the diversity of our city and the risk-taking that’s happening here.”

The first of those productions, onstage at the Douglas April 14–23, 2017, is Failure: A Love Story from Coeurage Theatre Company, which was founded in 2009 to make impassioned theatre accessible for all audiences.

Coeurage presents work on a strict pay-what-you-can model that we are working together to incorporate into the Block Party production. Failure explores the lives, loves, and deaths of three sisters and the man who falls in love with them in 1920s Chicago.

Following Failure April 30–May 7, 2017, is the Fountain Theatre’s Citizen: An American Lyric. Established in 1990, the Fountain has presented 30 World premieres and 38 Los Angeles premieres and received more than 260 awards. Adapted from Claudia Rankine’s 2014 awardwinning book of poetry, Citizen is a kaleidoscopic portrait of race (and racism) in America that made its World premiere in 2016 at the Fountain.

The third company participating in Block Party is the Echo Theater Company, who brings their production of Dry Land to the Douglas stage May 14–21, 2017. Dry Land tells the story of a budding friendship between two high school girls as one struggles to terminate a pregnancy. Founded in 1997, the Echo Theater Company is one of L.A.’s most ardent supporters of new work. They have presented 60 productions (48 of which were World premieres) and founded the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

“I’m proud that Center Theatre Group is throwing this inaugural Block Party in Los Angeles,” said Michael Ritchie. "We hope that it’s the start of something as vibrant and longstanding as the city itself.”

Read more on our blog at CenterTheatreGroup.org.

“They demonstrate the diversity of our city, the risk-taking that’s happening here, and the quality and creativity of theatre in Los Angeles.”

14 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 14

—Michael Ritchie

1/11/17 3:44 PM

wallis16

Winter @

The Wallis Celebrate Winter with an exciting mix of Theater, Dance, Music and more!

WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 1 - 2

ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop ARTS & IDEAS: CONVERSATIONS @ THE WALLIS FEBRUARY 3

Stephen Schwartz

THEATER FEBRUARY 9 - MARCH 5

Twelfth Night

Kneehigh Theatre’s 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips THEATER MARCH 7 - 26

Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo CHAMBER MUSIC MARCH 9 - 10

Ralph Kirshbaum & Shai Wosner: Beethoven THEATER MARCH 14-19

Filter Theatre & RSC’s Twelfth Night

CONNECT WITH US:

310.746.4000 | TheWallis.org PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 15

wallis1617_W@TW_ads_Perf_Feb_1.indd 1 CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 15

12/21/16 2:29 PM 1/11/17 3:44 PM

INVESTING IN NEW TALENT Humanitas Prize Winner Ngozi Anyanwu’s First Play will Premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

Throw a stone in Los Angeles and if you don’t hit a pressed juice bar or an actor, you’re probably going to impale a writer.

The question of how to tap into one of this city’s great natural resources—its pool of writing talent—is in part what drove Center Theatre Group to collaborate on last year’s Humanitas Playwriting Prize recognizing the best new unproduced play by a writer based in Southern California.

In February 2016, Ngozi Anyanwu, a recent UC San Diego graduate who was primarily based in L.A., became the first Humanitas winner. Her debut play, Good Grief, will have its World premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in March 2017.

When Anyanwu won the prize, she was awarded $5,000 toward a Southern California production of Good Grief and a reading of the play at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. She hoped the recognition, the cash, and the reading would lead to a premiere, but it was also her very first play.

“I thought I would be doing this in a basement with a bunch of friends,” Anyanwu said. Instead, she now has the stage of one of the country’s largest theatre companies.

“Center Theatre Group has been hugely supportive, and it’s amazing to be working with people who have a relationship with this work, because they have been with the piece for so long. They have as much at stake in it as I do,” she said.

Ngozi Anyanwu at a reading of Good Grief. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

She gives a great deal of credit Center Theatre Group for opening both our own doors and others to a new talent. “When the Humanitas Prize was announced it was everywhere— Variety, Playbill, BroadwayWorld,” she said.

“Theatres began asking about my play, and asking to read it. Even if people couldn’t produce it, they were interested in it. Half the battle of a playwright is even getting an organization to read your work.”

Currently working on her second play, Anyanwu will also star in the premiere of Good Grief, which is sure to raise her profile even further.

But regardless of where this journey takes her next, she feels a sense of responsibility as a rising young playwright.

“The theatre world needs to hold itself accountable for the theatre we are making and who we are making it for,” she said. “We tend to look to New York as the mecca of having things to say, but that’s not true. We need to not treat our playwrights as if they don’t have anything to say on a national scale.” She added, “Local narratives are just as important as national narratives.”

Good Grief is deeply personal; the story of a daughter of Nigerian immigrants struggling to process the death of her best friend. “The play is about something everyone goes through— working through grief. It’s healing and beautiful to share that with people,” said Anyanwu.

16 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 16

1/11/17 3:44 PM

“A RAVISHING FUSION OF DRAMA, DANCE AND SONG.” – LA Times

APR 21 – MAY 14, 2017 ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING WORKS OF MUSICAL THEATRE

JUNE 2 – 25, 2017

LA MIRADA THEATRE

TICKETS ON SALE NOW (562) 944-9801 • www.LaMiradaTheatre.com

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 17

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 17

1/11/17 3:44 PM

BRIDGING THE GAP Theatre Workshops Expand the Impact of Boyle Heights, Leimert Park, and Montebello Community Programming When done right, theatre makes the audience forget that actors are actors, that stories are invented. We forget that as people the characters onstage and the writers of the work have likes and dislikes, families and friends, hardships and triumphs. But what happens after the curtain closes on a performance? Who has just left the stage, and where do they go?

Center Theatre Group’s Community as Creators program has grappled with this question by engaging individuals in Los Angeles communities in the creation and performance of theatre. Over the past two years, with the support of the James Irvine Foundation, Center Theatre Group worked to create original works of theatre with members of the Boyle Heights, Leimert Park, and Montebello communities. The culmination of months of workshops and rehearsals took place in October 2015, with performances of Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven by Boyle Heights community members at Grand Park, and in February 2016, with readings of Through the Looking Glass in Montebello, Leimert Park, and at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. But we didn’t want individual artistic journeys to pause or end there. Over and over again, community members told us how these experiences had transformed their lives—and that they wanted the transformation to continue. We wanted to deepen our relationships with them, too.

The Bridge Program was launched, again with the Irvine Foundation’s support, to “bridge” the gap between the end of these productions and what comes next.

“It’s important that a project isn’t just a one-off engagement process. We want to build on people’s continuing curiosity,” said Estela Garcia, a Center Theatre Group Teaching Artist and Community Liaison, as well as the facilitator of the Bridge Program. “These participants have gone from community members to artists. It’s a holistic experience. Some of our participants have caught the bug to continue performing, and they don’t

Boyle Heights community members with Center Theatre Group Teaching Artist Juan Parada (second from right) at a Bridge Program workshop.

know where to start. It’s a way to help them develop more skills that are specialized to the craft.” From October 2016 – January 2017, Center Theatre Group hosted monthly workshops in professional theatre training in Leimert Park, Montebello, and Boyle Heights to deepen participants’ learning and help them implement the tools already learned in the Community as Creators program professionally, in their communities, and in their everyday lives.

“The Bridge Program has enabled me to share what I have learned, whether it’s through my writing or my daily practice as a high school teacher,” said Benin Lemus, who participated in Through the Looking Glass.

In Acting for the Stage, Vocal Technique, Movement and Dance for the Stage, and Musical Theatre workshops, participants expanded their theatre skills, honed their craft as actors and storytellers, and further developed their camraderie with their fellow artists. All participants were also invited to bring a guest from the community in order to expand the program’s impact.

At the culmination of the Bridge Program, participants from all three communities will come together for dinner with a special speaker before attending a production of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. There, they’ll see how all of the skills they have learned connect to create a fully realized production.

An artist, actress, and teacher who grew up in South Los Angeles, Garcia has a personal connection to the project. “I needed a safe space for artistic expression growing up, but there wasn’t a place for that. Because of that, I jump at any opportunity to create bridges between the arts and the community. Programs like this give people an opportunity to take a chance on themselves and on their artistic voice.”

18 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 18

1/11/17 3:44 PM

“City National helps keep my financial life in tune.”

So much of my life is always shifting; a different city, a different piece of music, a different ensemble. I need people who I can count on to help keep my financial life on course so I can focus on creating and sharing the “adventures” of classical music. City National shares my passion and is instrumental in helping me bring classical music to audiences all over the world. They enjoy being a part of what I do and love. That is the essence of a successful relationship.

City National is The way up® for me.

Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor, Educator and Composer

Find your way up.

SM

To learn more about how we can help keep your financial life in tune, visit cnb.com/Tuned4LA

©2017 City National Bank

or call (866) 233-3561.

City National Personal Banking

CNB MEMBER FDIC PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 19

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 19

1/11/17 3:44 PM

& C A B I N E T RY • L I G H T I N G • H A R D WARE • PL U M BING

ad design . design@bluemetropolis.com • photography . edrudolphphotography.com

CE R A M I CS • G L ASS • M O SAI C S • PAV E R S • S T O N E

P R O U D L Y

S E R V I N G

Y O U

S I N C E

1 9 8 4

W W W. M I S S I O N T I L E W E S T. C O M

S O U T H PA S A D E N A 8 5 3 M i s s i o n S t r e e t

•

626.799.4595

nex t doo r to Missio n West Kitchen & Bath

1227 5th Street

•

S A N TA M O N I C A

310.434.9697

next to Wh ol e F ood s p a rkin g lot o n 5th street

C O S TA M E S A 1 6 6 4 N e w p o r t B l v d

•

949.515.TILE (8453)

nex t doo r to Ou tback Steakhou se restaur ant

W W W. M I S S I O N W E S T. B I Z

905 Mission Street

•

South Pasadena

•

California • 91030 626.799.3503

20 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 20

1/11/17 3:44 PM

50TH SEASON 2017/18 FIRST SEASON PRODUCTION

ZOOT SUIT

Written and Directed by Luis Valdez January 31 – March 19, 2017 BONUS PRODUCTION

REMOTE L.A.

By Rimini Protokoll Concept, script, and direction by Stefan Kaegi Co-directed by Jörg Karrenbauer March 12 – April 2, 2017 SECOND SEASON PRODUCTION

ARCHDUKE

By Rajiv Joseph Directed by Giovanna Sardelli World Premiere April 25 – June 4, 2017 THIRD SEASON PRODUCTION

HEAD OF PASSES

By Tarell Alvin McCraney Directed by Tina Landau September 13 – October 22, 2017 FOURTH SEASON PRODUCTION

WATER BY THE SPOONFUL

By Quiara Alegría Hudes Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz January 31 – March 11, 2018 FIFTH SEASON PRODUCTION

SOFT POWER

By David Henry Hwang Directed by Leigh Silverman World Premiere April 4 – May 13, 2018 ©Ignacio Gomez

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 1

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 1

1/24/17 4:03 PM

GIFTS OF $5,000,000 AND ABOVE The Ahmanson Foundation Brindell Roberts Gottlieb

As we celebrate our 50TH Anniversary Season, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the following donors who have made extraordinary investments in Center Theatre Group’s future.

Their support will ensure that Center Theatre Group—and Los Angeles audiences and artists— enjoy another 50 years of theatrical excellence.

GIFTS OF $1,000,000 AND ABOVE The Annenberg Foundation Kirk & Anne Douglas Kiki & David Gindler Patricia Glaser & Sam Mudie Aliza Karney Guren & Marc Guren Ann & Stephen F. Hinchliffe, Jr. The Los Angeles County Arts Commission Laura & James Rosenwald & Orinoco Foundation Sue Tsao

GIFTS OF $500,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous Amy Forbes & Andrew Murr Jerry & Terri Kohl Deena & Edward Nahmias Michael Ritchie & Kate Burton Elliott Sernel

GIFTS OF $250,000 AND ABOVE Joni & Miles Benickes Diana Buckhantz & the Vladimir and Araxia Buckhantz Foundation Nancy & Eric Garen Vicki King Renee & Meyer Luskin Donna Schweers & Tom Geiser

GIFTS OF $100,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous Derek & Yvonne Bell Mara & Joseph Carieri Cindy & Gary Frischling Jody & David Lippman Bill Resnick & Michael Stubbs Deidra Norman Schumann

Center Theatre Group would also like to thank the following donors for making commitments to the 50TH Anniversary Campaign through increased giving to our Annual Fund and through legacy gifts to our Endowment: Pamela & Dennis Beck, Anne Bruner & Jim Bremner, Nancy & Donald de Brier, Darell & Elizabeth Krasnoff, Jo Muse, Patrick Owen & Norman Dixon, Cheryl A. Shepherd, Sunshine Stone, Hope Landis Warner.

Legacy Gifts $1,000,000 AND ABOVE Judith & Thomas Beckmen Diane & Leon Morton $500,000 AND ABOVE Richard & Norma Camp Susan A. Grode Linda S. Peterson Other Legacy Gifts Shirley & Irving Ashkenas, Bill Cohn & Dan Miller, Steven Llanusa & Glenn Miya, M.D., Gloria Lothrop, Carol & Douglas Mancino, Nan Rae, Randy & Bruce Ross P 2 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 2

1/24/17 4:03 PM

MICHAEL RITCHIE Artistic Director | STEPHEN D. ROUNTREE Managing Director | DOUGLAS C. BAKER Producing Director GORDON DAVIDSON Founding Artistic Director

presents

Presented in association with El Teatro Campesino

Written and Directed By

Luis Valdez Choreography

Songs Composed by

Music Director

Associate Director

Maria Torres

Lalo Guerrero

Daniel Valdez

Kinan Valdez

With

Brian Abraham Mariela Arteaga Demian Bichir Melinna Bobadilla Oscar Camacho Stephani Candelaria Raul Cardona Fiona Cheung Tiffany Dupont Caleb Foote Holly Hyman Kimberlee Kidd Rocío López Jeanine Mason Tom G. McMahon Andres Ortiz Michael Naydoe Pinedo Matias Ponce Rose Portillo Gilbert Saldivar Richard Steinmetz Evan Strand Bradford Tatum Raphael Thomas Daniel Valdez Scenic Design

Costume Design

Lighting Design

Sound Design

Christopher Acebo

Ann Closs-Farley

Pablo Santiago

Philip G. Allen

Projection Design

Wigs by

Fight Director

Casting

David Murakami

Jessica Mills

Steve Rankin

Rosalinda Morales Pauline O’con, csa Candido Cornejo, Jr.; csa

Associate Artistic Director

Production Stage Manager

Executive Producer El Teatro Campesino

Neel Keller

David S. Franklin

Phillip Esparza

Dedicated to the memory of Gordon Davidson.

Zoot Suit was originally commissioned by Center Theatre Group and had its World premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 1978.

JANUARY 31 – MARCH 19, 2017 MARK TAPER FORUM This production of Zoot Suit is generously supported in part by our title sponsor, PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 3

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 3

1/24/17 4:03 PM

CAST El Pachuco......................................................................... Demian Bichir Henry Reyna....................................................................... Matias Ponce his family:

Enrique Reyna................................................................ Daniel Valdez Dolores Reyna..................................................................Rose Portillo Lupe Reyna.......................................................... Stephani Candelaria Rudy Reyna......................................................................Andres Ortiz his friends: George Shearer............................................................Brian Abraham Alice Bloomfield........................................................... Tiffany Dupont his gang: Della Barrios................................................................Jeanine Mason Ismael ‘Smiley’ Torres....................................................Raul Cardona Joey Castro................................................................ Oscar Camacho Tommy Roberts.................................................................Caleb Foote Elena Torres..................................................................... Rocío López Bertha Villareal....................................................... Melinna Bobadilla the downey gang:

Rafas...........................................................................Gilbert Saldivar Guera.......................................................................... Kimberlee Kidd Ragman......................................................... Michael Naydoe Pinedo the law:

Lieutenant Edwards.................................................Richard Steinmetz Sergeant Smith...........................................................Bradford Tatum the press:

Press...................................................................... Tom G. McMahon Cub Reporter.................................................. Michael Naydoe Pinedo Newsboy...................................................................Raphael Thomas the court:

Judge F.W. Charles..................................................Richard Steinmetz Bailiff.........................................................................Bradford Tatum

UNDERSTUDIES Should an understudy substitute for a listed performer, it will be posted in the lobby at the time of the performance.

Bertha Villarreal—Mariela Arteaga Dolores Reyna—Melinna Bobadilla El Pachuco—Raul Cardona Rudy Reyna—Oscar Camacho Alice Bloomfield—Kimberlee Kidd Della Barrios/Lupe Reyna—Rocío López Rafas/Marine/Joey Castro/Sergeant Smith/ Bailiff/Bosun’s Mate—Michael Naydoe Pinedo Enrique Reyna/Ismael ‘Smiley’ Torres— Gilbert Saldivar Tommy Roberts/Cub Reporter—Evan Strand George Shearer/Press/Lieutenant Edwards/ Judge F.W. Charles/Prison Guard— Bradford Tatum Swabbie—Raphael Thomas STAGE MANAGERS Michelle Blair Susie Walsh TIME/PLACE Fall of 1942 through fall of 1944 in the Los Angeles barrios, San Quentin Prison, and the mind of Henry Reyna.

INTERMISSION Zoot Suit will be performed with one intermission.

the prison:

Guard......................................................................Richard Steinmetz the military:

Bosun’s Mate..............................................................Bradford Tatum Sailor............................................................. Michael Naydoe Pinedo Marines...................................................Caleb Foote, Gilbert Saldivar Swabbie........................................................................... Evan Strand others: pachuca trio

La Pachuca Manchuka.................................................. Fiona Cheung

Please turn off all electronic devices such as cellular phones, La Pachuca Lil Blue........................................................ Holly Hyman PDAs, beepers, and watch alarms. The use of any recording La Pachuca Hoba........................................................Mariela Arteaga device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, with orCaptains. without flash, is strictly prohibited.

Dance ...................................

Kimberlee Kidd, Raphael Thomas

Fight Captain.........................................................................Caleb Foote

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Los Angeles skyline images provided by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Additional projection support generously provided by NEC and Sound Design.

Zoot suits for the 38TH Street Gang, the Downey Gang, and the understudies generously supported by El Pachuco Zoot Suits, Fullerton, CA.

P 4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 4

1/24/17 4:03 PM

MUSIC “Perdido” By Juan Tizol | Performed by Duke Ellington “Zoot Suit Boogie” By Lalo Guerrero “Échale Un Quinto al Piano” Music & Lyrics by Felipe Valdés Leal “La Zenaida” By Samuel M. Lozano “Chucos Suaves” Music & Lyrics by Lalo Guerrero “Vamos a Bailar” Music & Lyrics by Lalo Guerrero “Henry and Della Theme” By Daniel Valdez “Aquellos Ojos Verdes” Music by Nilo Menéndez | Lyrics by Adolfo Utrera “Marijuana Boogie” Music & Lyrics by Lalo Guerrero “Let’s Go To Court” By Daniel Valdez “Sleepy Lagoon” By Harry James “In the Mood” By Glenn Miller Orchestra “Fiesta Mexicana” By Jorge Negrete “Handball” By Daniel Valdez “Zoot Suit Boogie” By Lalo Guerrero “Bugle Call Rag” By Jack Pettis, Billy Meyers & Elmer Schoebel | Performed

by Benny Goodman Orchestra “American Patrol” By Frank White Meacham | Performed by Glenn Miller Orchestra “Aztec Episode” By Daniel Valdez “Saint Louis Blues March” By W.C. Handy & Glenn Miller “Soldado Razo” By Felipe Valdés Leal

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 5

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 5

1/24/17 4:03 PM

The 1978 Zoot Suit cast.

Zoot Suit is a milestone in the artistic dialogue of the last quarter of the 20TH century because it lays claim to an unbounded theatre that gets its juices from a particular identity but reaches beyond that identity.

P 6 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 6

1/24/17 4:03 PM

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A COMMUNITY AND BEYOND

Steven D. Lavine and Janet Sternburg

We dedicate this essay to Gordon Davidson (1933–2016), who nurtured Zoot Suit every step of the way. —SDL and JS

O

ccasionally a work of art emerges that defines a cultural moment and points to its future. In 1978, audiences in the United States were privileged to see such a work: Zoot Suit, performed first in Los Angeles and nine months later on Broadway where theatre critic Jack Kroll described the play as a “key event in the consciousness of a community.” With the benefit of hindsight, we would add, “in the consciousness of the broader community we call world culture.”

Luis Valdez, writer and director of Zoot Suit, speaks to this point when he says, “I wrote Zoot Suit for an American audience,” by which he means that the lives he is depicting should resonate beyond Chicano experience. When El Pachuco literally breaks through a giant newspaper to bound onto the stage in his black hat with its jaunty red feather, he is not only a man who wears a zoot suit of the 1940s. He is tempter, storyteller, shadow self, Aztec god, Mephistophelian devil, the embodiment of the conflicts of the play, the one who defines the play for us as real and stylized, historical fact and myth. The character refuses to be limited to any one definition; his identities are multiple.

Zoot Suit is a milestone in the artistic dialogue of the last quarter of the 20TH century because it lays claim to an unbounded theatre that gets its juices from a particular

identity but reaches beyond that identity. To this day, the play implicitly poses questions that continue to define our era: to whom does an artist speak, from what community, and beyond?

BEFORE ZOOT SUIT Even before Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez had established himself as the leading force in Chicano theatre. The son of migrant farmworkers, Valdez first realized his vision of a Chicano theatre in the fields of Delano, California. Founded in 1965 as the cultural arm of the United Farm Workers, El Teatro Campesino began its life by performing on flatbed trucks in the middle of the fields, its actors, subject matter, and audiences all drawn from the workers who were fighting for better conditions.

It was a theatre meant to inspire, and it did. By giving back life experience transformed by humor and satire, the Teatro provided the replenishment and encouragement that the striking workers needed. By laying claim to the truth that theatre could be made from one’s own life, the Teatro spoke to students and community groups who began a national movement. By the mid-1970s, close to 100 teatros were performing in the southwestern United States, addressing a broad range of Chicano political and social concerns. In

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 7

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 7

1/24/17 4:03 PM

this new century, we in the United States heard the ongoing life of that inspiration when Barack Obama adopted “Yes, we can” as his slogan, consciously using the motto of the United Farm Workers, “Sí, se puede.”

ZOOT SUIT The play is based on the Sleepy Lagoon Murder, the name that newspapers and radio commentators used to describe the murder of José Diaz, whose body was found at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir in southeast Los Angeles, California, on August 2, 1942. The murder led to the criminal trial and conviction of 21 Latino young men. While the decision was later reversed on appeal, the trial itself lacked the rudiments of due process. The episode was seen as the precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots a year later when U.S. sailors and marines roamed the streets of Los Angeles, savagely attacking anyone wearing a zoot suit, that emblem of urban bravado mixed with extravagant style. More than 600 Latino youths were arrested.

It is a horrifying story of virulent racism. It is also the story of a human being, Henry Reyna, the protagonist of Zoot Suit, his face brimming with hope at the beginning of the play, the wide smile of Daniel Valdez (Luis’ brother, who played Henry in the original production) lighting up his workingclass family even as they bemoan his decision to enter the Navy. By the end of the play, we have seen that face disfigured by beatings, transfigured by love, defeated by demons, both outer and inner, matured and saddened by grim determination, even as his future is still in question.

It is Luis Valdez’s triumph both to give us a person whose fate matters to us as we watch his tragedy unfold, and also to create a new merger of naturalistic with expressionistic theatre so that Henry’s plight cannot be reduced to the story of one man. From the opening barrio dance it is clear that the inclusive stylization speaks to a new generation, for there among the Chicano youth is the JapaneseAmerican dancer, Manchuka, and Swabbie, an American (presumably Anglo) sailor. El Pachuco extends the reach to African-Americans, singing, “The Hepcats up in Harlem wear that drape shape/Como los pachucones down in L.A.” Nothing like this had been seen on the American stage: an outpouring of energy, inventiveness, of tragedy mixed with comedy, of the Brechtian European tradition put into the bodies of urban street kids.

One defining moment is the encounter between Henry and El Pachuco when Henry is already in jail. “Go into the barrio of the mind,” El Pachuco whispers in his ear, “forget the barrio, forget the family,” offering the temptation of oblivion, of drugs. Henry speaks back to El Pachuco in what is far more than a simple rejection of temptation. He undergoes a series of dawning revelations: what begins as an accusation (“You’re the one who got me here”) becomes an acknowledgment of self: “You’re my worst enemy, best friend. Myself.”

Until this point, opposites have dominated the play as outward manifestations; when Henry is about to enlist, he is told, “Forget the war overseas; yours is on the home front.” Now the audience feels that the play is also serving the inner life, that Henry will no longer feel torn apart but rather, in the Walt Whitman sense, he will know that he contains multitudes.

The towering strength of the play is that it does not try to reconcile opposites but rather to admit them into a range of possibilities, perhaps most obviously so in its variant endings. There is the “official” tragic ending, in which an imprisoned Henry becomes a killer himself. Then there is another possibility: Henry is killed in the Korean War. Or he marries his sweetheart and raises his family in Los Angeles. Or…?

There are no answers and no inevitable future. These are possibilities that belong to all of us, existential choices and life trajectories that are real and possible, all part of the layered life of the play.

ZOOT SUIT AND THEATRE IN THE AMERICAS Theatre in the United States has always sought its distinctive voice, one that defined it as separate from its European theatrical inheritance. What does it mean, that elusive notion of an “American theatre?” This was a question posed

by Clifford Odets and Arthur Miller in mid-century America, answered through the prism of immigration, class, and the dangers of McCarthyism.

What does it mean to speak of the American experience?

Or experiences? This is a question posed in the ’60s and the ’70s, when distinctiveness was emerging from the nation’s diversity, and racial, ethnic, and gendered groups put forth the claims of separate identities. In the ’70s and

P 8 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 8

1/24/17 4:03 PM

Luis Valdez (center) and the 1978 Zoot Suit cast.

’80s, previously unheard voices emerged, all challenging the narrow definitions of what theatre could be. Along with the development of Chicano theatre, African-American, Caribbean, feminist, and AsianAmerican artists were all entering into a productive fray, creating work that was shaped by the challenge of finding new artistic ways of representing identity.

In the work of Luis Valdez, we see something different: an explicit tension between community and the broader world. Valdez’s work presents a plurality of voices and points of entry that Valdez says is the American experience. That definition is why Valdez is especially pertinent to our time now. As Valdez put it in a 1988 interview in American Theatre magazine: “I feel that the whole question of the human enterprise is up for grabs.”

The diversity of the United States and the connection among all the Americas are realities that can be ignored only through a willed blindness.

The question posed by Zoot Suit’s radical theatrical terms of 1978 is: what sort of alternatives exist in the United States, beyond racism and violence? Various possibilities are portrayed: the creation of an emblematic style such as that of the pachuco, heroic but selfdestructive; the multi-ethnic composition of the defense committee that effectively worked with the families of the Chicano youth to win their PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 9

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 9

1/24/17 4:03 PM

STEVEN D. LAVINE AND JANET STERNBURG (husband and wife) have long worked at the forefront of cultural change.

(l– r) Center Theatre Group Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson, Luis Valdez, and Cesar Chavez.

appeal. Ultimately these possibilities are seen as insufficient to the immensity of the problem. Valdez again: “I don’t think this country has come to terms with its racial question…and because of that, it has not really come to terms with the cultural question of what America is.”

In the nearly four decades since Zoot Suit, much has changed, but the challenges it posed still stand, demanding a renewed vision of the United States and ultimately the Americas. The diversity of the United States and the connection among all the Americas are realities that can be ignored only through a willed blindness.

Have we begun to see a vision of a new multi-racial, multidimensional poetics? Yes, up to a point: influences between and among identities; the shedding of those identities entirely; the poking fun of old stereotypes and re-using them for a new mix; the new connections being forged between theatre in the United States and theatre of Central and South America. Zoot Suit continues to exert its pressure precisely because it articulated the vision; it walked the path between community and beyond, creating a trail that we are still on.

Steven D. Lavine is president (1988 – present) of the California Institute of the Arts, where he has created opportunities for educating multidisciplinary artists in bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees, as well as creating national models for the creation of new work through CalArts’ performance space, REDCAT, and for the forging of new relationships among an arts college and its communities through the Community Arts Partnership. Lavine is also the co-author of Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display and Museums and Communities.

He is proud to note that Luis Valdez served on the Board of Trustees at California Institute of the Arts from 1990–1996.

In 1970, Janet Sternburg, writer and photographer, discovered an unopened box at National Educational Television containing videos of early actos; these became the basis for her 1970 feature documentary El Teatro Campesino, broadcast nationally and shown at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. In 1980, W.W. Norton published her now-classic book The Writer On Her Work; Julia Alvarez, in her introduction to the 20TH anniversary edition, wrote, “It was a first: seventeen women laying claim to rooms of their own in the mansion of literature.” Sternburg is also the author of two books of memoirs, White Matter and Phantom Limb. A monograph of her photography, Overspilling World, has been published in 2016 by Distanz Verlag with a foreword by Wim Wenders.

Copyright 2016 Steven Lavine and Janet Sternburg. This essay was originally commissioned by the U.S. Embassy, Mexico, as an introduction to the 2013 Spanish language version of Zoot Suit.

P 10 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 10

1/24/17 4:03 PM

WHO’S WHO BRIAN ABRAHAM (George Shearer).

Regional: Tarzan: The Musical (3-D Theatricals); The Odd Couple (Laguna Playhouse); Metamorphoses (Ensemble Theatre Company); Superior Donuts (San Diego Rep); Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Best Featured Actor, ion theatre).

Los Angeles: Superior Donuts (The Geffen Playhouse); Bars and Measures (Theatre @ Boston Court); Macbeth, The Seagull, Wedding Band (Antaeus Theatre Company); The Engine of Our Ruin (Victory Theatre). TV: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Good Fortune, Drake & Josh, Victorious, The Shield, As the World Turns. Brian is on the acting faculty at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, is a proud member of Antaeus Theatre Company, and has a BFA in acting from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

MARIELA ARTEAGA (La Pachuca Hoba, understudy for Bertha Villareal) is thrilled to be performing for the first time at the Mark Taper Forum in Zoot Suit. Born in Miami, FL, Mariela graduated from the prestigious New World School of the Arts.

Some of her credits include: Theatre: Steve Wynn’s ShowStoppers (Encore Theater). TV: Jane the Virgin, General Hospital, Harry’s Law, and Deal or No Deal. She would like to thank her family, friends, and everyone involved in making this dream a reality. @theofficialmariela DEMIAN BICHIR (El Pachuco) is an Academy Award nominated actor who grew up in the theatre with his parents and brothers in his native Mexico.

His body of work includes: Theatre: Shakespeare’s Richard III and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Eugene O’Neill’s Ah Wilderness! (National Theatre Company), Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound and The Odd Couple, Peter Shaffer’s Equus (Helénico Theater), Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata (UNAM Theater), and Huang’s Swimming with Sharks directed by his brother Bruno Bichir (Insurgentes Theater). US regional: By the Waters of Babylon (Geffen Playhouse). Select films: A Better Life (Oscar, Independent Spirit, and SAG Award nominations), The Hateful Eight, Savages, Che: Part One and Part Two, Machete Kills, The Heat, Rojo Amanecer, Sexo, pudor y

lágrimas, Hasta Morir (Best Actor, Mexican Academy), Hidalgo (Best Actor, Huelva Film Festival), 7:19. Upcoming: Alien: Covenant, Lowriders, Walden, and A Circus Tale & A Love Song (directorial and writing debut). TV: Weeds, The Bridge. He is the ACLU’s Ambassador for Immigrants Rights.

He is thrilled to make his debut at the Taper.

MELINNA BOBADILLA (Bertha Villareal, understudy for Dolores Reyna). New York: Sonia Flew (Players Theatre), Bochinche (INTAR), Fuente Ovejuna (Thalia Theatre/ Cross Border Project, international tour—Spain). El Teatro Campesino (ETC): Actos, La Virgen del Tepeyac, La Carpa de los Rasquachis, La Pastorela, Corridos, The Magic Twins. Center Theatre Group/ETC: Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven. Regional: Rain of Gold (Western Stage); Bless Me, Ultima (Teatro Visión). Other L.A.: Orange is The New Musical (LATC/Kefi Studio), Enter Stage Right (24th STreet Theatre). Film: The Other Barrio, Immigrant Zero.

TV/digital series: Gente-fied (Official 2017 Sundance Film Festival Selection, Macro Ventures, dir. Marvin Lemus, exec. producer America Ferrera). MA, New York University; BA, UC Berkeley. Deep gratitude to my parents, Alicia & Cesar, sister Massiel, Abuelos y familia Chavez & my love Mohamad R. Instagram: @MelinnaB. MelinnaBobadilla.com OSCAR CAMACHO (Joey Castro, understudy for Rudy Reyna). TV: Wicked City, For the Defense. Film: Face 2 Face, Regression. Oscar was an Ahmanson fellow at the California Institute of the Arts where he received his MFA. He also received his BA from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a native of Miami, FL and is repped by CESD and Vision LA. You can follow him on Instagram @oicamacho.

STEPHANI CANDELARIA (Lupe Reyna) is a musician from San Juan Bautista, California. She began her music career at the age of 16, performing classic rancheras and boleros on the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, Stephani has performed cumbia and other Latin dance styles with innovative music groups such as La Misa Negra, Candelaria, and the La Junta Collective. Her work as a vocalist has prompted NPR’s Alt.Latino to recognize her as “an artist to watch PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 11

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 11

1/24/17 4:03 PM

out for.” Relatively new to the theatre world, Stephani has appeared in El Teatro Campesino’s La Virgen del Tepeyac and La Pastorela, and Casa 0101’s Trio Los Machos.

RAUL CARDONA (Ismael ‘Smiley’ Torres, understudy for El Pachuco) is delighted to partake in this historic Center Theatre Group production. A veteran musical theatre actor, dancer, and singer, Raul has performed in musical productions such as The Wiz and Fame. He has also starred in many El Teatro Campesino (ETC) productions including Bandido and the World premieres of Corridos Remix and Mummified Deer, and played El Pachuco in the 25TH Anniversary National Tour of ETC’s Zoot Suit.

Other touring credits include work with Lalo Guerrero’s Papa Lalo Y Las Ardillitas, Selena Forever, and Veteranos, A Legacy of Valor. TV and film credits include: Enlightened, Outlaw, The Defenders, and Where the Sky Is Born. He dedicates his work to his family, colleagues, and students at PUC CALS Early College High School.

Miami, The Big Bang Theory, The Glades, NCIS, 90210, CSI: NY, The Whole Truth, and Melrose Place, among others. Film work includes portraying Queen Esther in One Night with the King (2006), opposite Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole, for which she won a CAMIE award. She also starred in The Work and the Glory (2004) and Cheaper by the Dozen opposite Steve Martin (2003).

CALEB FOOTE (Tommy Roberts/Marine).

Regional: Teenage Dick (National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center). Los Angeles: Hansel & Gretel Bluegrass (24th STreet Theatre). Education: University of Michigan, BFA theatre performance. This is for Grandma Peggy. A huge thank you to my loving family, Ashley Wible of KMR, and Ricky Rollins.

FIONA CHEUNG (La Pachuca Manchuka).

Los Angeles: Takarazuka!!! (East West Players); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles); Othello and Richard III (Independent Shakespeare Company). Regional: Learned Ladies of Park Avenue (TheatreWorks); Cats (Sierra Repertory Theatre); Happy Slap (Aurora Theatre Company); Li’l Abner and Mack and Mabel (42nd Street Moon). Film: Mergence, Generation Now, Silent Alarm, Falling for Grace. TV: Xavier: Renegade Angel. Fiona is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the Juilliard School drama division (Group 42). Thanks, always, to the Cheung family.

HOLLY HYMAN (La Pachuca Lil Blue).

National/international tours: Ailey II; Ladies First w/Missy Elliott; As I Am w/Alicia Keys; The Original High w/Adam Lambert. Broadway: Wicked (ensemble, LA/SF companies, Joe Mantello). Los Angeles musical theatre: Twist: An American Musical (ensemble/ Josephine Baker understudy, Pasadena Playhouse, Debbie Allen); Take On Me (featured, Prospect Theatre, Wilkie Ferguson III, Jamal Sims). Award shows: BET, AMA, Soul Train, I Heart Radio, Billboard, etc. Film: Hairspray (principal, Adam Shankman); Across the Universe (Julie Taymor); Rock Paper Dead (principal, Tom Holland). Commercials: Ford, Tropicana (OCP); AT&T (OCP); Target (OCP); Chipotle (OCP); Kay Jewelers (OCP); etc. PSAs: Too numerous to mention. Television: Grey’s Anatomy, Franklin & Bash, The Fosters, Bosch, etc. Thanks and praise to the Creator!

TIFFANY DUPONT (Alice Bloomfield) is best known for her portrayal of Frannie Morgan on ABC Family’s hit drama series Greek from 2007–2011 and most recently for her recurring role on TNT’s crime drama Murder in the First opposite Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson. Other television work includes Reckless, Anger Management, NCIS: Los Angeles, Mom, Hawaii Five-0, Supernatural, Franklin & Bash, Castle, CSI:

KIMBERLEE KIDD (Dance Captain/Guera, understudy for Alice Bloomfield) began dancing at eight years old in her hometown of Wilmington, NC. Upon graduation, she began performing around the world on cruise ships. She eventually landed in Los Angeles where she extended her passion to acting. Some of her credits include Glee, The Mentalist, Jane the Virgin, and Ted 2.

P 12 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 12

1/24/17 4:03 PM

50 YEARS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP

Key Shows and Moments in our History

Top: The cast of Zoot Suit. Center (L–R): Mike Gomez, Rachel Levario, Edward James Olmos, Daniel Valdez, and Rose Portillo. Photos by Jay Thompson. Below left: Olmos as El Pachuco. Photo by Martha Swope.

1978–1987 During Center Theatre Group’s second decade, we cemented our position as one of the nation’s foremost regional theatres and a home for diverse artists breaking new ground.

See more highlights from the decade and the rest of our 50-year history on our digital timeline at CenterTheatreGroup.org

AUGUST 17 – OCTOBER 1, 1978 Zoot Suit, written and directed by Luis Valdez, makes its World premiere at the Mark Taper Forum before going on to an extended run at the Aquarius in Hollywood, becoming the first Chicano play on Broadway, and being adapted into a feature film.

“On opening night, when the character of El Pachuco, memorably played

by Edward James Olmos, swaggered onto the Taper stage, Chicano theatre became American theatre.”

DECEMBER 8, 1978 – JANUARY 20, 1979 Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz (below) star at the Ahmanson Theatre in the World premiere of They’re Playing Our Song, with book by Neil Simon, music by Marvin Hamlisch, and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager.

—Luis Valdez

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 1

12/14/16 11:37 AM

1978–1987 50 YEARS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP John Rubenstein and Phyllis Frelich in Children of a Lesser God. Photo by Jay Thompson.

1979 Improvisational Theatre Project, our youth program, begins facilitating workshops for students with special education needs.

OCTOBER 25 – DECEMBER 9, 1979 Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff, directed by Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Gordon Davidson, makes its World premiere at the Taper, then transfers to Broadway where it wins Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actress, and Best Actor. ®

(Clockwise from left) Stephanie Zimbalist, Brent Carver, Anthony Hopkins, and Michael Bond in The Tempest. Photo by Jay Thompson.

MAY 17 – JULY 1, 1979 Anthony Hopkins plays Prospero in The Tempest at the Taper.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

JANUARY 17 – MARCH 2, 1980 Tony Curtis and Joyce Van Patten in the World premiere of Neil Simon’s I Ought to Be in Pictures at the Taper.

The play heads to Broadway where Dinah Manoff earns a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and goes on to reprise her Taper role in the movie version.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 2

12/14/16 3:52 PM

L-R: Ernest Thompson. Dorothy Loudon, and Katharine Hepburn in rehearsal for The West Side Waltz.

JANUARY 21 – MARCH 14, 1981 Ernest Thompson, winner of the first George Seaton Award for Playwrights, was commissioned to write a new work for the Ahmanson. The West Side Waltz, starring Katharine Hepburn and Dorothy Loudon and directed by Noel Willman, makes its World premiere.

The production moves to Broadway later that year and earns Hepburn a Tony nomination for Best Actress.

1981 With Other Voices focusing on disabled theatre artists, the Taper becomes the only regional theatre in America with a professional playwriting program for artists with disabilities.

SEPTEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 5, 1981 Elizabeth Taylor (right) stars in The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (left) at the Ahmanson.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 3

12/14/16 3:56 PM

1978–1987 50 YEARS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP

OCTOBER 8 – NOVEMBER 20, 1982.

Angela Lansbury and John McMartin star in the American premiere of A Little Family Business at the Ahmanson.

(L–R) Robert Hooks and Denzel Washington in A Soldier's Play.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

MAY 27 – JULY 31, 1982 Jeffrey Tambor and Elizabeth Huddle in A Flea in Her Ear at the Taper.

AUGUST 19 – OCTOBER 2, 1982 A Soldier’s Play at the Taper features Denzel Washington.

DECEMBER 10, 1982 – JANUARY 29, 1983 Matthew Broderick in the World premiere of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs at the Ahmanson.

He wins a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play after the show moves to Broadway.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 4

12/14/16 11:38 AM

Photo by Jay Thompson.

JUNE 14 – AUGUST 19, 1984 Gordon Davidson and Arthur Miller at work on The American Clock before its West Coast premiere at the Taper.

The cast of A Little Family Business.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

AUGUST 11 – SEPTEMBER 25, 1983 Kirstie Alley and James Morrison in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Taper.

MARCH 28 – MAY 12, 1985 In the Belly of the Beast, which got its start as a Taper, Too production, plays the Taper. From 1982–1991, Taper, Too presented intimate plays in the smaller setting of the 100-seat black box theatre of the John Anson Ford Cultural Center in Hollywood.

(L–R) Carl Franklin, Andrew Robinson, and Andy Wood in In the Belly of the Beast. Photo by Jay Thompson.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 5

12/14/16 3:58 PM

1978–1987 50 YEARS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP

NOVEMBER 22, 1985 – JANUARY 11, 1986 (L–R) Donna Bullock, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, and Keith Carradine in Foxfire at the Ahmanson.

DECEMBER 8, 1984 – FEBRUARY 2, 1985 Matthew Broderick and Penelope Ann Miller in the World premiere of Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues at the Ahmanson, which goes to Broadway and wins the Tony for Best Play.

APRIL 4 – MAY 26, 1985 Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers star in Neil Simon’s reworking of The Odd Couple for two female leads at the Ahmanson, with Tony Shalhoub also in the cast.

They head straight to New York’s Broadhurst Theatre, where Shalhoub makes his Broadway debut.

(L–R) Sally Struthers, Tony Shalhoub, Lewis J. Stadlen, and Rita Moreno in The Odd Couple.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 6

12/14/16 11:38 AM

JUNE 7 – JULY 13, 1986 Kate Mulgrew in Hedda Gabler at the Taper at the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

MARCH 27 – MAY 11, 1986 (L–R) Kathy Bates and Anne Pitoniak in ’night, Mother at the Taper.

(L–R) Mary Martin, Ahmanson Artistic Director Robert Fryer, and Carol Channing.

JANUARY 23 – MARCH 29, 1986 Mary Martin and Carol Channing star in the World premiere of Legends! by James Kirkwood, directed by Clifford Williams at the Ahmanson.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 7

12/14/16 4:01 PM

1978–1987 50 YEARS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP

OCTOBER 10 – NOVEMBER 30, 1986 Ian McKellen in Wild Honey at the Ahmanson.

DECEMBER 5, 1986 – JANUARY 25, 1987 Lauren Bacall and Mark Soper in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth at the Ahmanson.

JANUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 15, 1987 The Taper hosts the World premiere of Lanford Wilson’s seminal Burn This, a play confronting LGBT themes that moved to Broadway and later the West End, featuring Joan Allen and John Malkovich.

Photo by Jay Thompson.

CTG_TIMELINE_77-87.indd 8

12/15/16 10:32 AM

ROCÍO LÓPEZ (Elena Torres, understudy for Della Barrios/Lupe Reyna). New York: Sonia Flew (The Players Theatre), Brave Ducks (Int’l Fringe Fest), Song of Solomon (Salgado Productions). Los Angeles: La Victima (UCLA Freud Playhouse), ChicabaRent (Creating Arts Company), Orange Is The New Musical (LATC). Film: The Heat, Ana. Music: Hank Lane Orquestras, Loisaidas Mucha Bachata, SHE (pop girl group). BA UCLA, MA NYU. So grateful to be a Teaching Artist for Center Theatre Group and beyond excited to be a part of this production of Zoot Suit! Mad flaming love to my friends and familia for believing in me and standing with me on this artistic journey. So excited to be launching KidzLA this year—a performing arts company for kids. KidzLA.com. Follow the adventures on IG @iheartRocio. Pues Órale!

JEANINE MASON (Della Barrios). Season five winner of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance. Theatre: Cock (Creative Works Theatre). Film: Default (opposite David Oyelowo), The Archer, The Muddy.

Television: Of Kings and Prophets (opposite Ray Winstone), Bunheads, You’re the Worst, Awkward., Major Crimes, Daytime Divas, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI, Big Time Rush, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Hollywood Heights, and The Fresh Beat Band. Nominations: Best Lead Actor (Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema—Understudy). Para mis abuelos. Mama, Papa y Abuelo Chino.

TOM G. McMAHON (Press) is honored to make his Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum debut in Zoot Suit. Other L.A. theatre: Sunset Boulevard, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Musical Theatre West); Damn Yankees, Kiss Me, Kate, Peter Pan (Cabrillo Music Theatre); Serrano The Musical (Matrix Theatre); Promises, Promises (Musical Theatre Guild); Bronies: The Musical (Third Street Theatre). TV: How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, Weeds, Rake, Bad Judge, Sam & Cat, I Didn’t Do It, Ringer, and History of the World…For Now.

ANDRES ORTIZ (Rudy Reyna). South Bay: Valley of the Heart (El Teatro Campesino/ San Jose Stage) and Viva La Causa among others (El Teatro Campesino).

Dallas Fort Worth: Animals Out of Paper (Amphibian Stage Productions), Titus Andronicus (Kitchen Dog Theater), In the Beginning (Dallas Theater Center), The NeverEnding Story (Dallas Children’s Theater).

MICHAEL NAYDOE PINEDO (Ragman/Cub Reporter/Sailor, understudy for Rafas/ Marine/Joey Castro/Sergeant Smith/Bailiff/ Bosun’s Mate). As a professional dancer and actor, Pinedo has been part of several performing companies, music videos, national commercials for brands such as Apple, and has danced alongside James Corden on The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special. He has also been on the creative side of the industry with his production team Boogiezone. They have successfully created shows such as Speakeasy 360°, Dystopia, and ZirQus!? On top of all of this, he is a nationwide traveling hip hop instructor who strives to create movement to enrich many local youth programs. Pinedo is a proud Mexican who is blessed to get the opportunity to be a part of a substance filled show such as Zoot Suit.

MATIAS PONCE (Henry Reyna).

New York: Handball by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld (2014 SummerStage Festival). Regional: Short Eyes by Miguel Piñero (2012 International Hispanic Theatre Festival, Adrienne Arsht Center). L.A.: Short Eyes and Faith, Part I of A Mexican Trilogy by Evelina Fernández (Los Angeles Theatre Center), Dominica: The Fat Ugly Ho by Stephen Adly Guirgis (Urban Legends One Act Festival, Urban Theatre Movement).

Film: Flight World War II. Television: Lie to Me, Victorious, Sam & Cat, Rizzoli & Isles, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Game Shakers, Lopez, The Mindy Project. Thanks to my Mother and Father, manager Tina Treadwell, my friends who I know most dearly, and those that I once knew. To Luis Valdez, thank you for your words. matiasinmotion.com

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 13

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 13

1/24/17 4:03 PM

ROSE PORTILLO (Dolores Reyna).

Center Theatre Group: Zoot Suit (Della), The Wood Demon, The Traveler, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, The Day You’ll Love Me. L.A. (About…

Productions): Properties of Silence, Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe, They Shoot Mexicans, Don’t They?, Memory Rites, Vox, Bleeding Through, Correct Posture of a True Revolutionary, L.A. Real, Know Your Place. Regional: Death and the Maiden (San Diego Rep); The Granny (The Old Globe); Man of the Flesh (South Coast Rep); Spinning into Butter (director); Maria, Maria, Maria, Other People’s Money, Cyrano, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Mixed Blood Theatre). Broadway: Zoot Suit. NY Public: L.A. Real. Film: … and the earth did not swallow him, Zoot Suit, Mean Season, Where the Buffalo Roam, The Heretic/Exorcist II. Playwrights’ Arena Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contributions to L.A. Theater. Faculty, Pomona College.

GILBERT SALDIVAR (Rafas/Marine, understudy for Enrique Reyna/Ismael ‘Smiley’ Torres). Tours: Jennifer Lopez Dance Again, Christina Aguilera Stripped and Back to Basics. Film: Shine, Chocolate City and Chocolate City: Vegas, Stomp the Yard, Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again. Television: East Los High seasons two–four, Dexter, The Closer, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Grammys, American Music Awards, MTV Movie Awards, Latin Grammys, Premios Lo Nuestro, and Tu Mundo.

RICHARD STEINMETZ (Lieutenant Edwards/Judge F.W. Charles/Prison Guard). Veteran of the Off-Broadway and N.Y./L.A. stages. Films include The One, Crazy/Beautiful, Boys on the Side, Slaves of New York, Skyscraper, and others.

TV guest star on Monk, Cold Case, CSI, Heroes, Clubhouse, Crossing Jordan, Sports Night, Millennium, Law & Order, and many others.

Contract & recurring roles on General Hospital (Joe Scully, Jr.), Passions (Martin Fitzgerald), Loving (Jeff Hartman), and Melrose Place (Jimmy Stanley). Richard has coached football at Venice High for the past 18 years and also teaches scene study at the New York Film Academy. He shares the honor with Bob Hope of hosting the Miss World Pageant for four consecutive years. Richard was awarded a lifetime achievement award for community service in Los Angeles

from President Obama, presented personally by Gov. Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

EVAN STRAND (Swabbie, understudy for Tommy Roberts/Cub Reporter) grew up in Huntington Beach, California. He has been dancing classical ballet for 20 years and has performed in Japan, France, and China. A highlight of his ballet career was partnering former ABT principal dancer Julie Kent. Recently, Strand performed in Hairspray Live! on NBC and a national commercial tied to the show. He feels fortunate to be stepping onto the Mark Taper Forum stage in the revival of Zoot Suit for Center Theatre Group’s 50TH Anniversary. Manager: william@optimisment.com.

BRADFORD TATUM (Sergeant Smith/ Bosun’s Mate/Bailiff, understudy for George Shearer/Press/Lieutenant Edwards/ Judge F.W. Charles/Prison Guard).

Pasadena Playhouse: 12 Angry Men. Film: Powder, Down Periscope, The Stöned Age. TV: (partial list) Westworld, Glee, Magic City, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Mentalist, Cold Case, ER, NYPD Blue. He is also an author. His debut novel Only the Dead Know Burbank was published by HarperCollins in the fall of 2016.

RAPHAEL THOMAS (Dance Captain/ Newsboy, understudy for Swabbie) began his training at the Asbury Park Technical Academy of Dance before attending such schools as Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, Kirov, and The Rock School.

His love of dance came from watching the late greats such as the Nicholas Brothers, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gregory Hines, and Michael Jackson. He later found a new journey in the realm of hip hop and contemporary fusions after training with Rhapsody James in her Motivating Excellence Season Two program and later becoming assistant choreographer in her R.ED Rhapsody En Dance company. Being a member of the company and experiencing its creative freedom in expression and power has allowed him to grow in aspects in and out of the industry, cultivating his creative palette.

DANIEL VALDEZ (Enrique Reyna, Music Director) is best known for roles in the movies La Bamba, Zoot Suit, The China Syndrome, Which Way Is Up?, and Born in East L.A.

P 14 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 14

1/24/17 4:03 PM

He was also featured in two national tours in Canciones de Mi Padre and Selena Forever. As an actor, musician, and composer, he has written original music for films and plays, including Zoot Suit, and was a producer and driving force behind La Bamba. He has composed three musical “Oratorios” which tell the histories of U.S. cities. Daniel continues a residency with Su Teatro in Denver, CO and is currently working with them on several projects to create original material for 2017. Today, Daniel celebrates 50 years in the co-founding of El Teatro Campesino with his brother Luis.

LUIS VALDEZ (Playwright and Director) founded the internationally renowned and Obie Award-winning El Teatro Campesino (The Farm Workers’ Theater) in 1965 during the United Farm Workers (UFW) struggle and the Great Delano Grape Strike in California’s Central Valley. His involvement with Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the early Chicano Movement left an indelible mark that remains embodied in all his work. Valdez’s screen credits include Zoot Suit, La Bamba, The Cisco Kid, and Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution. Awards include LA Drama Critics Circle awards, Bay Area Critics awards, the George Peabody Award for excellence in television, the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Governor’s Award from the California Arts Council, and Mexico’s prestigious Aguila Azteca Award.

He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In 2007, he was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship as one of 50 artists so honored across the United States. Valdez was recently inducted into the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as a director. In September 2016, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama at the White House.

KINAN VALDEZ (Associate Director) is a neo-fusionist theatre artist who combines elements of mythic storytelling, physical movement, popular music, and visual pageantry to create participatory theatrical spectacles for the 21ST century. As a playwright and director, Kinan explores the intersections between the mundane and the mythic—through original works and adaptations of ancient mythology premised on the collision of diverse

performance traditions. Currently, Kinan serves as the Producing Artistic Director of the world-renowned theatre company El Teatro Campesino.

MARIA TORRES (Choreography) is a critically acclaimed theatrical and commercial choreographer, director, and performer. Broadway: On Your Feet!, Swing! (Broadway & national tour; Tony/ Drama Desk/Lucille Lortel/Theater World noms). Off-Broadway: Four Guys Named José (Lucille Lortel/Carbonelle nominee), The Donkey Show (A.R.T.), Latin Heat, Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz, Salsa Kingdom, Mambo Kings, The Skin of Our Teeth (Public Theater). Regional: Man of La Mancha (5th Avenue). Stage: DJ Live Show (Clio Award), Don Omar “King of Kings” (US tour), Disney’s Golden Mickeys (international tour). Film: Dance With Me (Alma nom), Enchanted (Critics Choice/Oscar nom), El Cantante, Fugly, Physical Attraction. TV: Latin Billboard Awards (Telemundo), America’s Got Talent (NBC), So You Think You Can Dance (Fox), TURN: Washington’s Spies (AMC). Current: Havana Music Hall (director/choreographer, development); Pasión (immersive theatre); Amas Musical Theatre (AIR); co-founder of MTEAF. LALO GUERRERO (Music) is internationally recognized as the “Father of Chicano Music” in a career that spanned eight generations. The Tucson native wrote music and lyrics in every Latino music genre for hundreds and hundreds of songs which he recorded beginning in the 1930s until a final 2003 session for Ry Cooder and his Chavez Ravine CD. His honors were many including an NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Guerrero was declared a national folk treasure by the Smithsonian Institution and in 1997 President Bill Clinton presented the troubadour with the National Medal of Arts. He was the first Chicano ever to receive the nation’s highest arts award.

Guerrero continued to entertain to standing ovations months before his guitar was silenced on March 17, 2005 at the age of 88.

CHRISTOPHER ACEBO (Scenic Design). Broadway: All The Way (2014 Tony Award Best Play). CTG: Chavez Ravine (Ovation Award, costumes), Water & Power, Electricidad, Lydia, Waiting for Godot (Ovation nomination, costumes), Living Out, Palestine, New Mexico, Breakfast, Lunch and PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 15

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 15

1/24/17 4:03 PM

Dinner. Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Associate Artistic Director, 10 seasons): All the Way, Fingersmith, Head Over Heels, King Lear, A Streetcar Named Desire, Equivocation, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Wiz, among others. NYC/ Lincoln Center: The Clean House. BAM: Throne of Blood. Other credits include: Culture Clash (seven World premiere productions), American Rep, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie, Yale Rep, Denver Center, Kennedy Center, South Coast Rep. Oregon Arts Commission Vice Chair. TCG Board of Directors. Former ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company. UC San Diego, MFA; Cal Poly SLO, BA. Para mis padres.

ANN CLOSS-FARLEY (Costume Design) is an award-winning Los Angeles-based designer. Credits include Shanghai Disneyland, Women Laughing Alone With Salad, Hopscotch: A Mobile Opera, The Pee-wee Herman Show (Broadway), Disney’s Toy Story: The Musical, Eric Idle’s What About Dick?, Pride and Prejudice, A Musical, Billy Elliot, The Behavior of Broadus, Discord, The Cunning Little Vixen, Carnage, Rabbit Hole, Broadway Bound, Coney Island Christmas, Around the World in 80 Days, and many more. This project has allowed Closs-Farley to explore a piece of Los Angles history that has challenged her part in its current narrative and has made her excited about her participation in its future.

PABLO SANTIAGO (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer originally from Chiapas, Mexico who designs for theatre, opera, dance, and gallery work. Santiago found a home in Los Angeles while he worked in the film industry for 15 years before obtaining an MFA in lighting design from UCLA and transitioning into live stage design. He is the winner of the 2017 Richard Sherwood Award. His design in Premeditation was nominated for an Ovation Award in 2014 and he won a Stage Raw Award for The Brothers Size in 2015. Recent highlights include Breaking the Waves at the Perelman Theater for Opera Philadelphia and the Skirball Center in NYC for the PROTOTYPE festival and A Mexican Trilogy at LATC. Upcoming projects include Destiny of Desire at Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

PHILIP G. ALLEN (Sound Design). Credits include Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks on Broadway; the 2002–2005 national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar; A Chorus Line, Spamalot, Hair, Chicago, and The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl; Deaf

West’s Spring Awakening; The Ten Commandments at the Dolby Theatre; Harps and Angels: The Music of Randy Newman, Pippin, The House of Blue Leaves, The Talking Cure, Like Jazz, Big River, and Flower Drum Song at the Mark Taper Forum; and all 15 seasons of Reprise Theatre Company shows at UCLA. Mr. Allen created and oversees the BFA program in sound design at USC. DAVID MURAKAMI (Projection Design) is a projection designer, screenwriter, and film director focused on integrating emerging technologies with traditional stage performance. Past projection designs include Minnesota Opera’s Das Rheingold, Dead Man Walking, Champion, Peter Pan, The Little Prince, Heart of Darkness, and Trouble in Tahiti, along with the American premieres of Anya 17, Heart of Darkness, and the World premiere of Luis Valdez’s Valley of the Heart. His current projects include designing Philip Glass’ Les Enfant Terribles with Opera Parallèle and directing his sixth feature-length film Morningstar.

JESSICA MILLS (Wigs) thrives on variety. A graduate of UNCSA (’09) in wigs and makeup design, her most recent production was Merrily We Roll Along in Beverly Hills, and her work has included wigs and makeup for Disney Cruise Lines, Nashville Opera, LA Opera, Opera Coeur D’Alene, wig and makeup design for Cloud 9 at Antaeus Theatre Company, designing the hair and makeup for the opening video of the Independent Spirit Awards (2015), and a Makeup Artist and Hairstylist Guild Award nominee for makeup crew on Spamalot at the Hollywood Bowl. When not attached to a show, she designs and builds for individual clients at her studio.

STEVE RANKIN (Fight Director). Mark Taper Forum: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Immediate Family, What the Butler Saw, Burn This, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Palestine, New Mexico, The House of Blue Leaves, The School of Night, Water & Power, Electricidad, The Talking Cure, Gem of the Ocean, Mules, The House of Bernarda Alba. Other theatre: Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ahmanson

P 16 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 16

1/24/17 4:03 PM

Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe (Associate Artist), Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Asolo, Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, San Diego Opera, Seattle Opera. Broadway: Dr. Zhivago, Macbeth, Memphis, Guys and Dolls, The Farnsworth Invention, Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy, Getting Away With Murder, Two Shakespearean Actors, Twelfth Night, The Real Inspector Hound, Anna Christie, Dracula. Off-Broadway: The Third Story, Pig Farm, The Night Hank Williams Died, Below The Belt. Mr. Rankin played Poins and staged the fights for Henry IV, Parts I and II (Lincoln Center). He plays mandolin with Susie Glaze and the New Folk Ensemble.

ROSALINDA MORALES, PAULINE O’CON, AND CANDIDO CORNEJO, JR. (Casting) bring together diversified experiences from the theatre, independent, network, and studio casting worlds. Uniting their professional relationships in the agency and management community and utilizing various sources outside of the normal casting search criteria, M-O-C Casting works collaboratively with filmmakers, producers, and directors in creating a cast that showcases the increasingly diverse population of audiences that exists today.

PHILLIP ESPARZA (Executive Producer, El Teatro Campesino) has over 47 years of experience in the performing arts as an actor, technical director, media production specialist, and producer. He is a founding member of El Teatro Campesino. Esparza has coordinated and managed worldwide, national, and regional tours of live and film productions including Zoot Suit (play & movie), La Bamba (the film), La Pastorela (play & film), and The Cisco Kid (TNT Film). He has produced work at the Aratani Japan America Theatre, the Marines’ Memorial Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the Winter Garden Theatre, The Old Globe, and numerous small and community based theatres.

Esparza currently serves as the Operations Manager of California State University Monterey Bay World Theater and as Board President of the Digital Media Foundation of Salinas, California.

DAVID S. FRANKLIN (Production Stage Manager). Center Theatre Group highlights: An Enemy of the People, Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème, The Cherry Orchard, Curtains, Nightingale, The History Boys, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Parade, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,

The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Randy Newman’s Harps and Angels, God of Carnage, Waiting for Godot, Los Otros, Red, Humor Abuse, The Steward of Christendom, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bent, The Christians, Disgraced, and A View From the Bridge.

Other Los Angeles: Los Angeles Theatre Center in its heyday from 1985–1990, Pasadena Playhouse, and Geffen Playhouse. Regional: Seattle Rep, Intiman Theatre. New York: Public Theater. Tours: Europe—Quotations from a Ruined City, Law of Remains (with Reza Abdoh’s Dar a Luz company).

MICHELLE BLAIR (Stage Manager) has worked on over 30 productions for Center Theatre Group. Some highlights include The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Mystery of Love & Sex, The Christians, Bent, What the Butler Saw, Marjorie Prime, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Sunshine Boys, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Backbeat, Red, Vigil, Leap of Faith, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Parade, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Nightingale, all wear bowlers, Flight, Nothing But The Truth, Stones in His Pockets, Topdog/Underdog, and “QED” at Lincoln Center Theater. Other favorites include The Pee-wee Herman Show at Club Nokia, A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters with Cornerstone Theater Company, and Jersey Boys in Las Vegas. Graduate of the University of Southern California and the University of Amsterdam.

Mom to eight-year-old Liam and four-year old Imogen.

SUSIE WALSH (Stage Manager). In Los Angeles, Susie has stage managed over 100 shows at theatres such as the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre, the Geffen, LATC, the Wallis, and the Pasadena Playhouse. Favorites include Leap of Faith, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Waiting for Godot, The Heiress, Flower Drum Song, Living Out, Stuff Happens, Arcadia, The Drowsy Chaperone, Minsky’s, The Price, and Endgame. In New York, Susie stage managed Putting it Together with Carol Burnett.

CENTER THEATRE GROUP MICHAEL RITCHIE (Artistic Director) is in his 12TH season as Center Theatre Group’s Artistic Director, and has led over 190 productions to the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 17

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 17

1/24/17 4:03 PM

Forum, and Kirk Douglas Theatre stages including the premieres of six musicals that moved to Broadway—The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, 13, 9 to 5: The Musical, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and Leap of Faith—and the Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. STEPHEN D. ROUNTREE (Managing Director) joined Center Theatre Group in 2014 as its new Managing Director. He was previously the President and CEO of The Music Center (2002–2014) and concurrently the CEO of the Los Angeles Opera (2008–2012). He served the J. Paul Getty Trust for 22 years, starting in 1980 as Deputy Director of the Getty Museum, then Director of the Getty Center Building Program, and in 1998, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Getty Trust. He currently serves as a trustee of Occidental College, The Ahmanson Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and Polytechnic School.

DOUGLAS C. BAKER (Producing Director) is now in his 27TH season at Center Theatre Group. He is an active member of the Broadway League, the Independent Presenters Network, and is a proud member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. In May 2013, Doug received the Broadway League’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement in Presenter Management Award.

NEEL KELLER (Associate Artistic Director).

For Center Theatre Group, Neel has directed the World premieres of Lucy Alibar’s Throw Me On The Burnpile and Light Me Up, Dael Orlandersmith’s Forever, Kimber Lee’s different words for the same thing, Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, and Jessica Goldberg’s Good Thing as well as productions of Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad, David Greig’s Pyrenees, and Stones in His Pockets. Other recent productions include the World premieres of Julia Cho’s Office Hour at South Coast Repertory and Dael Orlandersmith’s Until The Flood at the Repertory

Theatre of St. Louis. As a producer at Center Theatre Group Neel has worked closely with the creative teams of a wide range of plays and musicals. He is a member of The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Directors Guild of America.

NAUSICA STERGIOU (General Manager, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre) has worked professionally supporting artists in theatres of all shapes, sizes, and locales including many seasons at Center Theatre Group as General Manager and, previously, as Audience Development Director. She oversees mainstage productions at the Taper and Douglas, as well as new play commissions and developmental productions through Center Theatre Group’s New Play Development.

Nausica has taught at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, and advises and works with local nonprofits including Hollywood Orchard.

GORDON DAVIDSON (Founding Artistic Director) led the Taper throughout its first 38 seasons, guiding over 300 productions to its stage and winning countless awards for himself and the theatre—including the Tony Award for theatrical excellence, Margo Jones Award, The Governor’s Award for the Arts, and a Guggenheim fellowship. The Kentucky Cycle and Angels in America (Part One) won the Pulitzer in consecutive years and, in 1994, three of the four plays nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play were from the Taper (Angels in America won). In 1989, Gordon took over the Ahmanson and, in 2004, he produced the inaugural season in the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

P 18 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 18

1/24/17 4:03 PM

ADDITIONAL STAFF FOR ZOOT SUIT

Production Assistant................................................................. Kelly Merritt Resident Assistant Lighting Designer......................................Heather Graff Lighting Apprentice................................................................Cynthia Ayala Assistant Set Designer..........................................................Rick Anderson Assistant Costume Designers...........Kathryn M. Poppen, Adriana Lambarri Assistant Choreographers..............................Aciel Hardison, Reina Hidalgo Prop Artisan................................................................................ Eric Babb Prop Carpenter....................................................................... Patrick Smith Prop Shopper.............................................................................Erin Walley

CREDITS Costumes provided by the Center Theatre Group Costume Shop and additional staff: Tailor—Swantje Tuohino; First Hand—Pamela Walt; Stitchers—Bert Henert, Suzanne Mayberry, Stephanie Molstad, Susan Pratt, Jennifer Wolff; Stock Attendant—Heidi Johnson.

Rehearsal and production photography by Craig Schwartz.

THANK YOU Lillian Leyvas Villegas & the Leyvas Family, Ignacio Gomez, Dan Guerrero, David Ocampo, Jose Montoya, Alvaro Renteria, Jackie Pimentel, Pat Birch, and Jose Delgado.

Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, Thomas A. Walsh, Ann Hassett, and Bob Niemack.

ONLINE CenterTheatreGroup.org #ZootSuit Like us on Facebook Center Theatre Group Follow us on Twitter @CTGLA Subscribe on YouTube CTGLA Follow us on Instagram @CTGLA

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association. This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The following employees are represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Machine Operators, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada, AFL-CIO, CLC: Stage Crew Local 33; Local Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Local 857; Wardrobe Crew Local 768; Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Local 706. The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers in LORT Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829.

The Press Agents, Company and House Managers employed in this production are represented by the Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Managers.

The Director and choreographer are members of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Inc., an independent national labor union.

Center Theatre Group is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the American Arts Alliance, the Broadway League, Independent Producers’ Network (IPN), LA Stage Alliance, National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and the Theatre Communications Group (TCG).

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 19

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 19

1/24/17 4:03 PM

¡Órale! L.A.

The Sweetheart Deal

Written and Directed by Diane Rodriguez

May 4 – Jun 4, 2017 At the Los Angeles Theatre Center

More great theatre from Center Theatre Group and El Teatro Campesino, who brought you ZOOT SUIT.

Water by the Spoonful Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

Jan 31 – Mar 11, 2018 At the Mark Taper Forum

Valley of the Heart

Written and Directed by Luis Valdez

2017–2018 Season At the Los Angeles Theatre Center

glossary Reprinted from the program for Zoot Suit’s 1978 World premiere. 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.” Examples include: Abusado – Shape up, wise up Aguitala – Control yourself Bato – Dude, guy Borlo – Dance Bribón – Wise guy Cabrón – Bastard Cálmenla – Calm down, cool it Carnal/Carnala/Carnalillo – Brother/sister/ little brother Chale – No Chango – Monkey Chicas Patas – Chicano Chingón – Big shot Chula – Pretty girl Es puro basilón – It’s only fun Ese/Esa – Man, dude, hey man/ woman, girl Foquiar – Screw you

Gabacho – Anglo, gringo, paddy, white American Hay te watcho – See you later, see you there Huisa – Girlfriend Jaina – Girlfriend, woman Jefita/Jefito – Mother/father La Jura – The law (“Trucha la jura!” – Watch out, the cops!)

Me la rayo – For sure, it’s the truth, I swear Menudo – Tripe soup Mira! – Look!

Nel! – No! (More forceful than chale) No te hagas gacho – Don’t be gauche Órale – Hey, right on Pedo – Hassle, excitement, “hot air” Pendejadas – Stupidities, nonsense Pendejo – Idiot

Pinche – Lousy Ponte abusado – Wise up, get smart Puro pedo – Bullshit Puro relajo – Bullshit Puto – Whore Que desmadre – What a mess Ruca – Wife, girlfriend Ruco – Old Simón – Yes Sura – Soiled, unclean Surote – Bad (good) dude Te curas – Can you beat it Verdolaga – Naïve, hick Watcha! – Look!

Y qué – So what?

Ya estubo – That’s enough Ya me estás cayendo gordo – You’re being a pain in the ass Ya pués – That’s enough

P 20 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 20

1/24/17 4:03 PM

A Conversation with Luis Valdez, Culture Clash, and Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie

Passing the Baton of Art and Activism 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 Ritchie to an audience at the Tom Bradley Room atop City Hall. Ritchie was interviewing Zoot Suit writer/director Luis Valdez and the members of Latino theatre trio Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza) for a group of Center Theatre Group supporters. Calling Luis Valdez “both an artist and an activist,” Ritchie asked him to give the audience “a sense of both the arc of the creation of this show—and your own personal path within it.”

“Zoot Suit is a quintessential Los Angeles play,” said Valdez. “It represents the fabric of this city, the internal strife, the Sturm und Drang of Los Angeles, what forced it to be the city that it is today: human confrontation, but eventually resolution.” He added that for Americans, “cultural expression is your most basic human right, so it is my privilege to be back at the Mark Taper Forum to celebrate the resurgence of Zoot Suit and…of a certain kind of social consciousness in Los Angeles that takes us into the future.”

Ritchie then introduced Culture Clash and their relationship to Valdez. “In some ways, you are inheritors of an art, and you had a mentor as artists and activists,” said Ritchie. “Luis had an influence on your careers, individually and collectively. Had you seen Zoot Suit originally? And where are you today in bringing this art form and this activism even further into the 21ST century?”

“We’re all alumni of El Teatro Campesino,” the theatre company Luis Valdez co-founded, said Richard Montoya, adding that they learned their

work ethic there. “In terms of Zoot Suit being an inspiration, it’s haunting for me. El Pachuco is our founding father in many ways.”

Herbert Siguenza called Valdez “immeasurable and essential…for Latino theatre makers.” When he was starting out in theatre in the 1970s, “the only scripts that were out for us as Latino writers were Luis Valdez’s early works.” In a sense, he said, Valdez “is our Shakespeare.”

Ric Salinas echoed his partners. “There would be no Culture Clash without Luis and El Teatro Campesino,” he said. He said that when Culture Clash writes and performs Chicano stories “that are very specific, they become universal. That’s what Zoot Suit does. …I think our strength as writers and as a group is that we’re able to take that baton that Luis gave us, and keep with it. We’re actors and activists simultaneously.”

Valdez recalled a gathering of fellow Chicano artist-activists at El Teatro Campesino to talk about what they could do to change California. “One of the things that we all agreed on, we realized, was that we’re very angry, we’re very political—we need humor.” The artist, curator, and producer René Yañez went back to San Francisco and staged a comedy concert starring Culture Clash in 1984 as a direct result of that meeting. “We needed to laugh. These guys made us laugh, and it was a tremendous release and a revitalization of the community,” said Valdez.

The connection between art and activism—and having a good time—remains vital to Zoot Suit as well. “The fact is, I’m trying to recapture American history. I’m singing the song of America, and Zoot Suit happens to be one of the most catchy tunes I’ve ever put together,” said Valdez.

Listen to the entire conversation on the Center Theatre Group Podcast at CenterTheatreGroup.org.

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 21

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 21

1/24/17 4:03 PM

1

In the rehearsal room for

1. The cast of Zoot Suit.

2. (l-r) Writer/director Luis Valdez and Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie.

3. (l-r) Luis Valdez and associate director Kinan Valdez.

4. (l-r) Cast members Kimberlee Kidd, Melinna Bobadilla, RocĂ­o LĂłpez, Jeanine Mason, Tiffany Dupont, and Fiona Cheung.

5. Cast member/music director Daniel Valdez and cast member Rose Portillo.

6. (l-r) Cast members Oscar Camacho, Matias Ponce, Caleb Foote, and Michael Naydoe Pinedo.

7. (foreground) Cast members Rose Portillo and Demian Bichir. (background) El Teatro Campesino Executive Producer Phillip Esparza and Luis Valdez. all photos by craig schwartz.

2

P 22 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 22

1/24/17 4:03 PM

3

4

6

5

7

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P 23

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 23

1/24/17 4:03 PM

MICHAEL RITCHIE Artistic Director | STEPHEN D. ROUNTREE Managing Director DOUGLAS C. BAKER Producing Director ARTISTIC NEEL KELLER.................................... Associate Artistic Director KELLEY KIRKPATRICK...................... Associate Artistic Director DIANE RODRIGUEZ.......................... Associate Artistic Director LINDSAY ALLBAUGH.................................. Associate Producer PATRICIA GARZA .........Artistic Development Program Manager BEATRICE BASSO .........................................New Work Advisor JOY MEADS .... Literary Manager/Artistic Engagement Strategist ANDREW LYNFORD .......................................Casting Associate IAN-JULIAN WILLIAMS ......... Program Coordinator, Block Party DAVID ADJMI (FADIMAN), SHEILA CALLAGHAN (FADIMAN), STEVE CUIFFO, JUSTIN ELLINGTON, WILL ENO (FADIMAN), MATT GOULD, DANAI GURIRA, JENNIFER HALEY, DAVID HENRY HWANG, JOE ICONIS, NAOMI IIZUKA, BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS, RAJIV JOSEPH, KIMBER LEE, GRIFFIN MATTHEWS, LAURAL MEADE, RICHARD MONTOYA, DAN O’BRIEN, DENIS O’HARE, LEE OVERTREE, LISA PETERSON, PLAYWRIGHTS ARENA, WILL POWER (FADIMAN), RIMINI PROTOKOLL, RAINPAN 43, MARCO RAMIREZ, KEN ROHT, MATT SAX, ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH, RIPE TIME, TRACEY SCOTT WILSON (FADIMAN)...... Commissioned Artists

EMMET KAISER.............. Master Carpenter (Mark Taper Forum) ROBERT RUBY......... Master Propertyman (Mark Taper Forum) WILLIAM MORNER....... Master Electrician (Mark Taper Forum) BONES MALONE.......... Master Soundman (Mark Taper Forum) DENNIS SEETOO..... Wardrobe Supervisor (Mark Taper Forum) RICK GEYER....................................Hair & Make-up Supervisor

(Mark Taper Forum) LINDA WALKER .............. House Manager (Mark Taper Forum) CHRISTY WEIKEL .......................................Production Manager

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) CHRISTOPHER REARDON......... Assistant Production Manager

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) AARON STAUBACH....................................... Master Electrician

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) ADAM PHALEN .................. Head Audio (Kirk Douglas Theatre) SEAN MEYER ............... Light Board Programmer and Operator

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) KATIE POLEBAUM....... Stage Supervisor (Kirk Douglas Theatre) CAMBRIA CHICHI......................................Wardrobe Supervisor

(Kirk Douglas Theatre)

ELIZA CLARK, FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG, DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU, DAVID MYERS, QUI NGUYEN, HERBERT SIGUENZA, DEBORAH STEIN ............................... L.A. Writers’

Workshop Members

KRYSTIN MATSUMOTO............. Assistant Production Manager CHAD SMITH................................ Associate Technical Director LEE O’REILLY................................. Assistant Technical Director SEAN KLOC.........................................................Shop Foreman

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS LESLIE K. JOHNSON........................ Director of Social Strategy,

Innovation and Impact KATHRYN MACKENZIE ........... Department Operations Director TRACI KWON........................ Arts Education Initiatives Director CAMILLE SCHENKKAN........ Next Generation Initiatives Director JESUS REYES........................ Community Partnerships Director ADAM NICOLAI...................... Arts Education Program Manager FELIPE M. SANCHEZ........Emerging Arts and Arts Professionals Program Associate JENNIFER HARRELL................................. Operations Assistant KHANISHA FOSTER............................ Resident Teaching Artist DEBRA PIVER...................................... Resident Teaching Artist

ANDREW THIELS...................................................Prop Director MERRIANNE NEDREBERG.................. Associate Prop Manager JON WARD........................................... Associate Prop Manager CANDICE CAIN............................................... Costume Director BRENT M. BRUIN.................................Costume Shop Manager MADDIE KELLER.........................................Costume Generalist WHITNEY OPPENHEIMER.................................. Shop Assistant SWANTJE TUOHINO.......................................................... Tailor ELIZABETH LEONARD................................... Facilities Manager JULIO A. CUELLAR...........................................Driver/Custodian BO FOXWORTH, BRIAN SLATEN ................................... Drivers PETER WYLIE........................................ Production Coordinator

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION NAUSICA STERGIOU...................................... General Manager

(Mark Taper Forum, Kirk Douglas Theatre) JEFFREY UPAH ............ General Manager (Ahmanson Theatre) KATIE SOFF........................................... Asst General Manager

(Mark Taper Forum, Kirk Douglas Theatre, NPD) CASEY MCDERMOTT...............General Management Associate MEGAN ALVORD...........................................Company Manager

(Mark Taper Forum, Kirk Douglas Theatre) ERIC SIMS.................................. Director of Theatre Operations

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) TOM BURMESTER....................... Audience Experience Design/

Front of House Manager (Kirk Douglas Theatre) MAX OKEN...................Facility Manager (Kirk Douglas Theatre) JAQUELYN JOHNSON................Associate Audience Experience ...................Designer (Kirk Douglas Theatre, Mark Taper Forum) LAUREN BAXA....................... Assistant Performance Manager

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) SONDRA MAYER.....................................Concessions Manager

(Kirk Douglas Theatre) ALANA BEIDELMAN................................... Executive Assistant

to the Artistic Director EVELYN STAFFORD.................................... Executive Assistant

to the Managing Director SUZANNE MAYBERRY.................... Interim Casting Coordinator PRODUCTION DAWN HOLISKI...... Production Department Operations Director JOE HAMLIN................................................ Technical Director/

Ahmanson Production Manager SHAWN ANDERSON...... Master Carpenter (Ahmanson Theatre) STAN STEELMON.... Master Propertyman (Ahmanson Theatre) JIM BERGER................. Master Electrician (Ahmanson Theatre) ROBERT SMITH............Master Soundman (Ahmanson Theatre) MICHAEL GARDNER................................ Wardrobe Supervisor

(Ahmanson Theatre) PATRICE K. MADRIGAL.............. Hair and Make-up Supervisor

(Ahmanson Theatre) CHRISTINE L. COX........... House Manager (Ahmanson Theatre) JONATHAN BARLOW LEE.......................... Production Manager

(Mark Taper Forum) KATE COLTUN........................... Associate Production Manager

(Mark Taper Forum)

FINANCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND HUMAN RESOURCES CHERYL SHEPHERD................................Chief Financial Officer SUZANNE BROWN..................................................... Controller JANIS BOWBEER........................................ Assistant Controller XOCHITL RAMIREZ..................... Accounts Payable Coordinator ALEGRIA SENA............................................... Staff Accountant SHYNASTY WILKES......................................... Staff Accountant AMEETA SHARMA........................................... Payroll Manager JEFF LOUIE .................................................... Payroll Specialist STAN GRUSHESKY.................. Director of Information Systems MANDY RATLIFF.................. Sr. Database & Web Administrator ASH LEWIS.......................................... Help Desk Administrator JODY HORWITZ........................... Director of Human Resources PJ. PHILLIPS......................Senior Human Resources Generalist SINGER LEWAK, LLP..................................................... Auditor MICHAEL C. DONALDSON, LISA A. CALLIF........ Legal Counsel GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER............................ Legal Counsel INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT YVONNE CARLSON BELL.......................................... Director of

Institutional Advancement PATRICK OWEN............................................ Deputy Director of

Institutional Advancement NATALIE BERGESON................. Director of Donor Engagement LIZ LIN................................................. Director of Development

Artist and Entertainment Relations CHARITY WU...................... Director of Major Gifts Stewardship BECKY BIRDSONG........ Major Gifts and Planned Giving Officer KATY HILTON............................................ Associate Director of

Foundation and Government Support LAURA HITE...........................................Manager of Major Gifts DANIELLE LESNER..... Associate Director of Donor Engagement MANDI OR......................... Associate Director of Special Events ROBBIE MARTIN....... Associate Director of Corporate Relations JENNIFER CHAN............................. Special Events Coordinator DONALD JOLLY........................... Donor Experience Coordinator JAZMINE JONES ........................... Donor Relations Coordinator KIM OKAMURA ................................................ Grants Manager EMILY GIBSON...................................Institutional Advancement

Research Associate

Center Theatre Group would like to thank its exceptional staff for their ongoing commitment, dedication and extraordinary efforts.

ERIN SCHLABACH..............Manager of Major Gifts Stewardship ERIC SEPPALA............ Board Liaison and Executive Assistant to

the Director of Institutional Advancement MATTHEW SUTPHIN.........Institutional Advancement Associate KRISTIN YAMAKA.....................Corporate Relations Coordinator EDUARDO MOLLINEDO-PIÑÓN...................Donor Membership Coordinator MIKE RATTERMAN.............................Donor Advisor Supervisor AL BERMAN, JOHN COPELAND, ELIZABETH DELLORUSSO, DAVID GARVER, BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ, NICOLE SCIPIONE, PAUL VITAGLIANO ............. Donor Advisors KARLA GALVEZ, JUSTINE PEREZ..... Donor Services Associates WAUKENA CUYJET, MURRAY E. HELTZER, JULIE NADAL....................................... Development Volunteers MARKETING DEBORAH WARREN..................................Director of Marketing KYLE HALL............................Advertising & Promotions Director ARIE LEVINE.......................... Marketing & Advertising Manager KIYOMI EMI............................. Audience Development Manager GARRETT COLLINS.......................... Audience Loyalty Manager JOHN POTTER ............................................ Executive Assistant DEANNA McCLURE................................................. Art Director IRENE T. KANESHIRO........................... Senior Design Manager JAVIER VASQUEZ............................................ Graphic Designer TARA NITZ...................................................... Graphic Designer COMMUNICATIONS JAMES SIMS...................................Director of Communications JASON MARTIN.............................................. Head of Publicity PHYLLIS MOBERLY........................................... Senior Publicist KRISTI AVILA......................................................Junior Publicist SAVANNAH L. BARKER......................................Junior Publicist SARAH ROTHBARD...............Senior Manager, Communications ............................................................................... and Editorial JOHN JOHNSON..........................Communications Coordinator ARIELLE LAUB..............................Communications Coordinator SARAH GOLDBAUM.............................. Digital Media Specialist HAL BANFIELD..........................................Multimedia Producer TICKET SALES AND SERVICES SHAWN ROBERTSON............................... Ticket Sales Director SKYPP CABANAS........................... Ticket Operations Manager RACHYL UNDERWOOD...............Ticket Operations Coordinator MICHAEL ZOLDESSY............................ Account Sales Manager SANDY CZUBIAK............................... Audience and Subscriber

Services Director JENNIFER BAKER, CHERYL HAWKER, RICHARD RAGSDALE............... Audience Services Supervisors ALICE CHEN...................... Audience Services Asst. Supervisor GARY HOLLAND, DEBORAH REED............. Audience Services

Sales Associates SAM AARON, JEREMIE ARENCIBIA, KIMBERLY ARENCIBIA, VICKI BERNDT, CARLOS D. CHAVEZ, JR., MICHAEL ESPINOZA, ANASTASHIA GARCIA, EILEEN PEREZ, LEX SAVKO, TEVIN WILLIAMS..................... Audience Services ......................................................................... Representatives DANUTA SIEMAK...................... Subscriber Services Supervisor CHRISTINA GUTIERREZ . Subscriber Services Asst. Supervisor IRENE CHUANG, LIGIA PISTE, PETER STALOCH........................................ Subscriber Services

Senior Representatives SARAH K. GONTA .................................... Box Office Treasurer ANGELICA CARBAJAL, KISHISA ROSS...... Assistant Treasurers MICHAEL KEMPISTY, KEVIN LAUVER, LEROY PAWLOWSKI, MICHAEL SALTZMAN, CRIS SPACCA.................................................... Box Office Staff KERRY KORF...................................... Priority Services Director SUSAN F. TULLER.......... Priority Services Operations Manager CANDICE WALTERS.................. Priority Services Sales Manager PAUL CUEN...................................... Priority Services Manager KRISTEN SCHRASS......... Priority Services Assistant Supervisor BEALENE AHERN, ADRIENNE BROWN, ESTEBAN CRUZ, MAGGIE DODD, NIC DRESSEL, SOFIJA DUTCHER, MARC “BYRON” DROTMAN, FRANK ENSENBERGER, LOU GEORGE, SHEP KOSTER, SARAH MARCUM, MICHAEL SMITH, JEFFREY STUBBLEFIELD, DIANE WARD......................... Representatives

P 24 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_MTF_PROG-0217-ZootSuitREV.indd 24

1/24/17 4:03 PM

The Art of Performance Jonah Bokaer Rules of the game

ad design . design@bluemetropolis.com • photography . edrudolphphotography.com

G

In collaboration with

Daniel Arsham and Pharrell Williams Fri, Feb 10 - 8PM Royce Hall

UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars featuring Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and SITI Company

Sat, Jan 28 & Sun, Jan 29

Helen Macdonald: H is for Hawk Thu, Feb 2 Dianne Reeves Sat, Feb 25

Photo: Jonah Bokaer by ClaireDorn

José González & The Göteborg String Theory Sat, Mar 4 Cameron Carpenter International Touring Organ Thu, Mar 16

Tickets at cap.ucla.edu PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 37

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 37

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

celebrates our year of art education

Walt Disney Motif Award 2016 Recipient Selected as One of the Top Five Art Programs in the Nation.

Special Thanks to Artistic Director’s Circle Members for Supporting Center Theatre Group The Artistic Director’s Circle, founded by Brindell and Milton Gottlieb, is comprised of individuals supporting specific areas of Michael Ritchie’s artistic vision for Center Theatre Group. Since its founding in 2005, members have aligned their support with over 50 productions on our stages. The following individuals have made commitments of $100,000 and above. (DONORS LISTED AS OF NOVEMBER 1, 2016) Anonymous (2)

Dale S. & Shideh Miller

Judith & Thomas Beckmen

Deena & Edward Nahmias

Margaret M. Bloomfield

Olivia & Anthony Neece

Diana Buckhantz & Vladimir & Araxia Buckhantz Foundation

Bill Resnick & Michael Stubbs

Jackie & Arthur Burdorf Joseph & Mara Carieri Cástulo de la Rocha & Zoila Escobar Erica & Vin Di Bona Kirk & Anne Douglas Louise & Brad Edgerton Amy Forbes & Andrew Murr Cindy & Gary Frischling Eric & Nancy Garen Kiki & David Gindler Patricia Glaser & Sam Mudie

Lloyd E. Rigler - Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation Laura & James Rosenwald & Orinoco Foundation Deidra Norman Schumann Donna Schweers & Tom Geiser Maggy & Jack Simon Judie Stein & Stein Family Foundation Eva & Marc Stern Sue Tsao Sheila & Wally Weisman Misty Widelitz

Brindell Roberts Gottlieb Aliza Karney Guren & Marc Guren Ann & Stephen F. Hinchliffe, Jr. June & Gareth Hughes Taylor, Age 8, Pastels

Marvin Jubas & Janet Wald Jubas Eileen & Ken Kaplan Terri & Jerry Kohl The Labowe Family Foundation The Eugene La Pietra Foundation Jody & David Lippman Renee & Meyer Luskin Ruth Flinkman-Marandy & Ben Marandy

Chloe, Age 17, Colored Pencil

Why learn to draw and paint?

Artists & Educators Forum ($20,000+) The Artists & Educators Forum, founded by Joni and Miles Benickes, is comprised of individuals dedicated to providing significant funding for Center Theatre Group’s New Play Production and Education and Community Partnerships programs.

(DONORS LISTED AS OF NOVEMBER 1, 2016)

Builds pride & independence in learning

Melissa & Bob Alvarado

Harry & Arlette Lumer

Joni & Miles Benickes

Carol & Douglas Mancino

Joan & Rob Blackman

Linda S. Peterson

Enhances focus and attention span

Annette Blum

Bruce & Randy Ross

Linda Brown

Elliott R. Sernel

Marla S. Campagna

Better fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination

Dorskind Family

Jane Rissman & Richard Sondheimer

Art enhances academic performance

FREE ART CLASS

*

INTRODUCTORY

Heather & Paul Haaga

Sunshine Stone

In Memory of Morris A. Hazan

Anne C. Taubman Peter & Iona Tompkins

In Support of New Theatre Artists

Karen & William Timberlake

Mr. & Mrs. Gerald W. Kehle

Hope Landis Warner

Kelton Fund/Lenny & David Kelton

Robin & Gary Ungar Suzanne V. Wilson

Vicki King

*New students only

Find a studio near you.

www.kidsartclasses.com

For more information about leadership gifts, please call Erin Schlabach at 213.972.3069.

Donors who have made additional gifts to Center Theatre Group’s Endowment or Planned Gifts programs.

38 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 38

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

Entertainment Circle

SPRING 2017

Center Theatre Group wishes to acknowledge our generous supporters in the Entertainment Circle, who are leaders in the entertainment industry. Thank you to our multi-year donors, whose gifts ensure a secure base for our future. For information, call Donor Engagement at 213.972.7564.

(DONORS LISTED AS OF DECEMBER 20, 2016.)

Florence C. Agcawili Paula Brand Stu Brower Norman Buckley & Davyd Whaley Bill & Ellie D’Elia Nick Dudzak Greg H. Dunn Michael Hanel & Steven Linder

Karen Caffee & Manuel Grace Marcy & Edgar Gross Ms. Karen B. Hermelin Winifred C. Hervey Karen & Stephen Hillenburg Alicia Hirsch & Jesse Russo Sean Johnson & Alex Ocampo

Karen & Stephen Hillenburg

Idea Asylum Productions & Dr. Allegra & Mr. Sheppard Kaufman

Dozar Office Furnishings

Sarah E. Kiefer

Mark Kaplan

Julianne LaMarche

Barbara & Garry Marshall

Cody Lassen & Nitzan Mekel

Donna L. Herman

Mr. Theodore K. Martinez Shelley Powsner & Stephen Skrovan James & Melanie Renfroe Mr. Charles W. Weeks Dean E. Weichel Annual Donors Anonymous (2) Mr. Irving H. Anderson Amy Aquino & Drew McCoy G.W. Bailey Corinne Baldassano Greg Basser & Kiera O’Neill Robert Berens Ms. Rachel Bloom John Bowab Diane & Dorothy Brooks Foundation

Marla E. Levine Peter & Marsue MacNicol Brett J. Markel & Tanya Tull Tina J. Miller Lawrence A. Mirisch Jonathan Murray Suzie & Daniel O’Connell Justin Okin Patty & Mike Post Mr. Steven H. Purvis James Radin Michael Reisz Jay & Linda Sandrich Jill Sattinger Glen & Eva Schusterman Nina Shaw & Wallace Little Jessica Stone

Rick Buche & Vin Reilly

Mr. Stephen J. Strauss

Veronica Cartwright

Jack & Marlene Susser

Edwina Travis Chin & Robert Miller

Brad & George Takei

Bill & Ellie D’Elia Bob Doucette & Tom Slotten Bob & Gabrielle Ducsay Nadine Espana Chris Cookson & Lauren Firestone

Laetitia Vineyard and Winery and LA Opera share a dedication to producing the finest the world has to offer.

For more information about Laetitia Vineyard’s award-winning Pinot Noir and Sparkling Wines, visit www.laetitiawine.com.

Junior Usaraga Ms. Kirsten Vangsness Bonnie Weis Ms. Lynn E. Weisman

Mr. Ryan Flynn & Mr. David Hernandez

Jennifer Crittenden & William Wrubel

David Goren

FINE WINE AND GRAND OPERA A CLASSIC COMBINATION

Russell Todd Agency

Victoria Weisbart

Barry Gordon

ANNA NETREBKO & YUSIF EYVAZOV IN CONCERT • THUMBPRINT

Eileen T’Kaye & David Bischoff

Robert & Jacque Florsheim

Laura Gibson

HOFFMANN • DOMINGO’S YOUNG ARTISTS CONCERT • TOSCA

Allison Thomas & Gary Ross

Darcy Fleck

Seth Freeman & Julie Waxman

THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO • SALOME • THE TALES OF

Mr. Theodore K. Martinez

Stu Brower

Becky & Mike Clements

Robert Millard

Multi-Year Donors

Rachmaninoff ’s Faithful Accompaniment

“There are only two important things which I took with me on my way to America. It’s been my wife Natalja and my precious Blüthner.”

Helga Kasimoff, importers since 1963

KASIMOFF-BLUTHNER PIANO CO. ¨

337 N. Larchmont Blvd. • Hollywood, CA 90004

(323) 466-7707

www.bluthnerlosangeles.com

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 39 Rachmaninoff Performance Ad—3/2010

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 39

1/11/17 3:59 PM

The center of your financial life is all in the family Let us help you connect your financial goals to what matters most Getting to know you and what you care most about — planning for college, taking care of an elder family member, passing a legacy to future generations, buying a second home — is so important. Once we understand your priorities, together, we can help you pursue the goals you’ve set for yourself and your family. Call to learn more today.

The Adishian Group David G. Adishian, CRPC® Senior Vice President – Wealth Management Wealth Management Advisor Senior Portfolio Manager NMLS#: 767105 213.236.2037 • david_g_adishian@ml.com Merrill Lynch 350 South Grand Avenue, 27th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90071 fa.ml.com/adishian_group

Life’s better when we’re connected® Merrill Lynch Wealth Management makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, a registered broker-dealer and Member SIPC, and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation.

Investment products:

Are Not FDIC Insured Are Not Bank Guaranteed

May Lose Value

The Bull Symbol, Life’s better when we’re connected and Merrill Lynch are trademarks of Bank of America Corporation.

CRPC® is a registered service mark of The College for Financial Planning. © 2016 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | ARQQ4QGV | AD-12-16-0346.E | 471089PM-1016 | 12/2016

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 40

1/11/17 4:02 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

Center Theatre Group Inner Circle

Frances Flanagan, Inner Circle Chair

The Inner Circle is an organization of community leaders who provide outstanding support to Center Theatre Group. In appreciation, members enjoy a host of special benefits, including meet-the-artist receptions, backstage tours, premium theatre seating, and much more. Thank you to our multi-year donors, whose gifts ensure a secure base for our future. For information, call Donor Engagement at 213.972.7564.

(DONORS LISTED AS OF DECEMBER 20, 2016.)

THE

A L PH A B E T

GUARDIAN CIRCLE ($18,000+) Multi-Year Donors

Annual Donors

Helen & Morgan Chu

Louise Moriarty

Phyllis Kupferstein & Donald O. Farkas

Anonymous

Corbell Family

Carrie & Ben Mui

Michael & Sandy Leahy

Shelley & Rick Bayer

Michael A. Enomoto

Joyce & Deane Ross

Pamela & Dennis Beck

Rhonda C. Evans

Kim & Bill Wardlaw

Lynn Booth

Donald W. Grant

Mary J. Witt

Maynard & Linda Brittan

Susan A. Grode

Kelly Sutherlin McLeod & Steven B. McLeod Family Foundation

D.

S TA R T S AT

Susan & Stephen Chandler Dreux & Lynn McNairy

BENEFACTOR CIRCLE ($12,000+) Multi-Year Donors Jonna Bollenbacher Bill Cohn & Dan Miller Connie Elliot Joanna Exacoustos Lorrie & Richard Gurewitz Sam Ho, M.D. Gail & Stanley Hollander Ellen & Jerry Jacobson Debra & Robert Kasirer Thea & Neal Koss Joan Kroll & In Memory of Irving Kroll In Memory of Salem Ludwig Mildred M. & Earl Moon Arline M. Nakanishi Nina & Steven Sheldon The Sugimoto Family Foundation Peter & Susan Van Haften Roberta & James Vigneau

Jerrie D. Whitfield & Richard W. Motika Annual Donors Anonymous

James Jennings

Robert C. Anderson

Sandra Krause & William Fitzgerald

Betsy & Harold Applebaum

Alice & Nahum Lainer

Jackie & Howard Banchik

Dr. & Mrs. Martin S. Lasky

Carole Black

Lee Levin

Diana Rogovin Davidow

Steven Llanusa & Glenn Miya, M.D.

Nancy & Donald de Brier Hon. Mary Lou Byrne & Gary W. Kearney Roslyn & Abner Goldstine

Marlene & Sandy Louchheim Janice & Bruce Miller

Manuela Goren

Andy & Laura Mintzer

Annie Gross In Loving Memory of Georges Gross

Joanne & Joel Mogy Sheila Muller

Sharon & Joe Hernandez

Robert & Sally Neely

Shirley J. Hess

Chris & Dick Newman/ C & R Newman Family Foundation

The Jim Hicks Family Foundation Lorraine & Jesse Hizami Mr. & Mrs. James L. Hunter

David Quigg

Dr. & Mrs. Jack Kavanaugh Natalie Roberts & David Roberts z”l Sheila Krasnoff

Janet Salter in Memory of Maxwell Hillary Salter Wes Schaefer & Cathy King-Schaefer Rosemary Simmons Marcia & David M. Spaid Phyllis J. & Steven F. Spierer Stanley Iezman & Nancy Stark Eugene & Marilyn Stein Stone Family Tracy A. Stone Donna & John Sussman Terence Tchen & Emily Breckenridge Elinor & Rubin Turner Julia Voce

Christine Marie Ofiesh

Marilyn Ziering

Jack & Jane Pollock

Arthur L. Zussman

PATRON CIRCLE ($8,000+) Multi-Year Donors Russi Taylor Allwine Mark & Jody Barnhill Yvonne & Derek Bell I. Mark Bledstein Family

PA S A D E N A In Memory of Honey Sanders

Alan & Sharon Kane

Greg Scott

Robert Brook & Jackie Kosecoff

Gary W. Kearney

Deborah E. Small, M.D.

Regina & Todd Brown

In Memory of Lynn Kinikin

Clumeck Stern Schenkelberg & Getzoff

Rose Marie Browning & Michael Fletcher

Louis & Harold Price Foundation

John J. Byers

Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin & Stan Tatkin

Harvey & Ellen Knell Foundation

Pamela Herman Broussard & J. Garfield Broussard

J. Koenig Vicki & Seth Kogan

Dr. & Mrs. Ronald Busuttil

David & Tam Lachoff

Lynne Campbell

Edward Lewis

Arthur & Katheryn Chinski Ruth Choi

Sandra & Kenneth Malamed

Dr. & Mrs. Lawrence J. Cohen

Jeff Mandel Emily & Phillips Marshall

Donald & Zoe Cosgrove

Melanie McDaniel

Ms. Anita H. Dymant & Mr. Richard Drooyan

Janis B. McEldowney

Mr. & Mrs. Homer Garten Rocky & Deborah Gentner Dr. Stuart & Adrienne Green Lisa Guerin Chet & Sheila Hasday Dr. & Mrs. Randy W. Hawkins Elizabeth A. Hoage

Ms. Virgina Blywise

Jennifer L. Jackman & John P. Hott

Ron & Lee Miller Joan I. Moe Kari L. Nakama Michael R. Oppenheim Dennis J. Perrone Melissa Louise Rhone Leonard J. & JoAnn Roth Dana Saladen & Linda Walters

Dr. & Mrs. Daniel Wallace

In Memory of John W. Carner

Barbara & Edmund Wilkinson

Reverend Daniel J. Coyle

David Williamson

Kenneth Donaldson

Virginia Yeager

Louise & Jeffrey Davis

Martin & Rosalind Zane

Anne M. Dougherty & David B. Dobrikin

Annual Donors

Lynda & Al Fadel

Anonymous (4)

Dennis L. Field & H. Douglas Galt

Robert & Sara Adler Geraldine & Harold Alden Laura & Harvey Alpert Liz & Lou Altman Mr. Domenic Andreone Deanna & Richard Ashby

Judith R. Forman & Richard N. Weiner

EASTSIDE

4308 Melrose Ave. ( 323) 665 – 7490 WESTSIDE

11300 Santa Monica Blvd. ( 310 ) 966 – 4050

7 a turda y 11– S to y a d n o M 5 Su n da y 12–

Lora Fremont Jay & Donna Gallagher Marylyn Ginsburg & Chuck Klaus

Melanie & Gregory Barbee Eleanor Gorman Linda Barnett Ms. Dana Guerin Elliot, Roberta, Dayna, & Alison Berkowitz

18 E. Holly St. ( 626 ) 744 – 9484

Mr. & Mrs. Michael Haines

W W W. J E N E T T E B R A S . C O M

Charles Berney & Family

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 41

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 41

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

INTERNATIONAL CURTAIN CALL 2017 Deluxe Opera & Music Tours VIENNA WAGNER RING PLUS (April 28 – May 11, 2017)

DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN: Bechtolf- Peter Schneider Production Lang (Brünnhilde); Fujimura (Fricka); Nylund (Sieglinde); Meier (Waltraute); Terfel (Wotan); Dean-Smith (Siegmund); Vinke (Siegfried); Schmeckenbecher (Alberich); Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Mime).

PLUS Tosca (Kaufmann; Gheorghiu); Eugene Onegin (Bezsmertna; Maltman, Breslik); Lady Macbeth of Mzensk (Westbroek; Bankl, Jovanovich); and La Wally.

5-Star Deluxe Hotel Grand–Vienna

PRAGUE & VIENNA (June 10 – 23, 2017)

PRAGUE: Carmen; Romeo & Juliet; Lohengrin; and La Cenerentola.

VIENNA: Rigoletto (Garifullina; Kang, Frontali); Elektra (Stemme, Meier); Don Carlo (Stoyanova;Vargas,Domingo, Furlanetto); L'Elisir D'Amore (Nafornita; Villazon, Terfel); and Pelléas et Mélisande.

5-Star Deluxe Hotels Palace - Prague and Hotel Grand– Vienna

PARIS - AVIGNON/ORANGE & AIX-EN-PROVENCE (July 3 – 16, 2017)

PARIS: Carmen (Rachvelishvili, Car; Hymel, Abdrazakov); La Cenerentola (Lervolino; De Léon, Arduini, Muraro, Tagliavini); and La Sylphide Ballet.

ORANGE: Rigoletto (Sierra; Albelo Nucci); and Special Bryn Terfel Concert.

AIX-EN-PROVENCE: Don Giovanni (Buratto, Leonard; Sly, Pierro, Breslik); The Rake's Progress (Bullock; Appleby); and Cavalli's Erismena (Aspromonte).

5-Star Deluxe Hotel Scribe– Paris 4-Star Hotel La Magnaneraie– Avignon 4-Star Marriott Rennaissance–Aix

ITALY SUMMER FESTIVALS MILAN & VERONA + *VENICE EXTENSION (July 5-15; * July 15-19, 2017))

MILAN: La Scala: La Boheme (Perez, Lombardi; Sartori; Piazzola); and The Swan Lake ballet.

VERONA: Arena di Verona: Aida; Nabucco; Madama Butterfly; and Rigoletto. *VENICE EXTENSION– La Fenice: La Traviata (Nuccio; Pretti, Grassi).

5-Star Deluxe Hotel Westin Palace– Milan 5-Star Deluxe Hotel Due Torre– Verona 5-Star Deluxe Hotel Danieli– Venice

SAN FRANCISCO WAGNER RING

(June 11 - 18, 2018) Zambello – Runnicles Production/withMattila, Herlitzius; Grimsley, Barton.

All Tours Include: -Orchestra Tickets to Performances– –Selected Gourmet Meals & Wine– –Special Sightseeing and Excursions– LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE Contact International Curtain Call 3313 Patricia Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90064 Ph: (310) 204-4934; (800) 669-9070 E-Mail: Icctours1@aol.com www.IccOperaTours.com

PATRON CIRCLE (CONTINUED) Cynthia & Dr. Solomon Hamburg

Craig Lawson & Terry Peters

Toni Hollander-Morse & Lon Morse

Drs. Joan & Harry Saperstein

Sam Harris

Barbara & Andrew Leigh

Diane Morton

Peter & Susan Schwab

Steve & Toya Harrison

Mrs. Gayle Leventhal

Ron Myrick

Joan & Arnold Seidel

Hays & Clark Family

Charlotte P. Levine

Optimum Seismic, Inc.

Christine Shaner

Zvia Hempling

Janell & Randall Lewis

Janie & Allan Orenstein

The Sheldon Family

Walmilly Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Sheldon Lodmer

Gregory Pickert & Beth Price

Loretta Hirsch Shine

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

The Polinger-Cohen Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Randy Snyder

Michael S. Lurey & Laurie Hasencamp

Michael Powell & Dr. Sheila Philips

Doris Luster

Paula F. Reach

Jean Trutanich

Diane Kessler

Debra Gastler & Andrew Malloy

Kay & Bob Rehme

Sandra Tufts

Janice A. Kido

Carol & Douglas Mancino

Dr. Peggy Renner & Dr. Robert Nelson

Seymour Waterman & Family

Sharon L. Kline

Janice E. Mangerino

William & Sue Roen

Karen & Bob Knapp

Dorrie & Paul Markovits

Craig E. Rogers

Susan & William Weintraub

Joanne C. Kozberg

Jerry & Tami McHarg

Fred & Suzie Rose

Anne & Michael Landsburg

Margot & Mitch Milias

Lois Rosen

Barbara & Fred Miller

June & Samuel Sale

Joan & Philip Miller

Nancy & Ted Sanborn

Ellen & Tom Hoberman Roslyn & Warren Jacobson Marcia S. Jones Linda R. Kaplan Cari & Marty Kavinoky

Dr. & Mrs. David Lask

Allen Blue & Kira Snyder Merrilee B. St. John Ellen & Steve Sugerman

Doug & Ellen Weitman Jenene J. Wilson & Kristiana A. Wilson Ralph M. & Molly Wolveck

FELLOW CIRCLE ($4,000+) Multi-Year Donors: Anonymous (2), Brenda & Alan Abramson, Ignacio Alfaro, Helen Allan, Carol L. Archie & Edward L. Keenan, Dr. Martine Bauwens, Beth Bennett & Larry McAdams, Drs. Jack & Barbara Berman, Bill Bohnert, Karlyn & Chuck Boppell, Neil H. & Karen Hochman Brown, Anne Bruner & James Bremner, Todd Michael Buchner, David Burch, Allen B. Cagle, M.D., The Castaldo Family, Rita Chenoweth, The Honorable Judith C. Chirlin, Nancy Cypert, Robin C. Dumas, David & Joyce Evans, Laura E. Fox, M.D. & John D. Hofbauer, M.D., Sylvia Fredricks, Ellen Fujikawa, Howard & Suzanne Furst, Freddi & Marvin Gelfand, Maggi Phillips & Mario Gerla, Jeri & Keith Gertzman, Mr. & Mrs. Efrain Gonzalez, Edith Gould, Mr. Jeffrey L. Hall & Mr. Kevin A. Yoder, Johnny Ruth Harrison, M.D., Al & Sandy Haveson, Elyse & Stanley Katz, Judith G. Kelly, Michael & Deborah Klein, Joan & Chris Larkin, Karen & Tim Lavrouhin, Allen J. Law, Ron & Pat Lebel, Drs. Anu & Ali Leemann, James & Karen Lefever, In Loving Memory of Anna Strahlman, Amy & Harold Masor, Gordon & Dale McWilliams, Gretchen & Marshall Milligan, Steven Modglin, Mary Lou Mooney, Loula Moschonas & James Edgerton, Wendy A. Moss, Richard Newcome, Marianne & Michael Newman, Marc I. Nishino, D.D.S., Mary Rose & Edward Ortega, Tye Ouzounian & Karyn Wong, Norman Dixon & Patrick Owen, Mr. Peter T. Paterno, Mr. Stephen Pescetti, Dr. & Mrs. Irv Posalski, The Reynolds Family, Jennifer & Matthew Rowland, John Salter, Francine E. Sanders, Gail Sandford & Beatrice Castillo, Stephen J. Sass & Dr. Steven Hochstadt, Scott Shagrin, James & Alexis Sheehy, Howard & Stephanie Sherwood, Steven E. Shulem, Jan & Carl Siechert, Charlene & Mike Sievers, Louis & Mary Silver Foundation, Kurt & Keli Skarin, Stephen & Judith Slagle, Drs. Debra & Philip Sobol, Judith & Stan Solomon, Alfred & Bett Spivak, Jacque & Herb Spivak, Diane & James Staes, Sullivan & Hargreaves Court Reporters, Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell Sussman, Dr. Allan & Roslyn Holt Swartz, Norman & Barbara Weiler, Leilani Whitney, Lori Williams & Stephen Schulte, Valerie & Nathaniel E. Williams | Annual Donors: Anonymous (5), Gay & Harry Abrams/Abrams Artists Agency, Richard Alonso, Dr. O. Allen Alpay, Merryl & David A. Alpert, James Asperger & Christine Adams, Suzanne & Bill Attig, Cheryl & Elliott Balbert, Jill Banks Barad, Eric & Jasna Baron, Norma Barretta, Lois Barth & Michael Schubach, Barbara Bauer & Lawrence Cox, Susan Baumgarten, Chris & Rose Bauss, James P. Bennett & Company, Fran R. Berger, Leah M. Bishop & Gary M. Yale, Nathalie Blossom & Howard Levy, Yvonne Bogdanovich & Family, Alice Desobry Bowens, Ms. Susan M. Brewer, Dr. Leon & Rochelle Brooks, Willie & Charlene Brownlee, Kathleen & Milton Campbell, Catherine & Anthony Chanin, Mr. Peter Chapa, Mr. & Mrs. Larry Chernoff, Mrs. James L. Chew, Nicholas Chrisos, Mary Coates, Nadege & Jay Conger, Dr. Frederic H. Corbin MD, Leah M. Coulter, Christine & Kevin Crombie, Dr. Allison Diamant, Julia Donoghue, Dr. & Mrs. William Duxler, Regina L. Echols, Earl & Karen Enzer, Alan & Barbara Faiola, Larry Field, Frances & Terry Flanagan, Pat Fleming, The Franke Family Trust, John Gallardo, Dr. & Mrs. Jerry Garrett, Dr. Robert Gasway & Mrs. Kristen Wong, Lesley & Kenneth Geiger, Kate Geller, Lori Glickman, Linda & Gary Goldfein, Lenore S. & Bernard A. Greenberg Fund, Pam Grissom, Beverly & Felix Grossman, Claudia & Tom Grzywacz, Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Guerin, Shirley Guy, Roberta L. Haft, Carolyn & Bernard Hamilton, Sara & John Harms, Harris Family Foundation, Mark & Julie Harrison, Tanna Handley Havlick, Gail & Murray Heltzer, Dr. Stephen D. Henry & Rudy Oclaray, Don Herman, Ofer B. Ho, Rand Hoffman & Charlotte Robinson, Mr. & Mrs. William H. Hurt, Harold Igdaloff, Susan & Larry Ivanjack, Lawrence J. Jaffe, M.D., Lee Ann & Riley Janek, Judy K. Jeanson, Audrey & Edgar Jessup, Bruce Johnston, Mary Quon Jung & Michael Galindo, Gary & Denise Kading, Mark A. Kadzielski, Joyce & Don Kaiserman, Judith & Russell Kantor, Dr. Karen Kartun & Dr. Ronald Shiell, The Katz Family Foundation, Michael Keir, Jackie A. Kern, In Memory of Mille Kern, Annette & Dr. Charles Kleeman, Genni Klein, William Kobin & Frances Goodman, Norman & Leslie Koplof, Mr. & Mrs. Stan Krasnoff, Sharon & Joel Krischer, Jale Kutay, The Kwon Family Foundation, Laura N. La Shelle, Nita Whitaker LaFontaine, Patricia W. Lambson, Mr. & Mrs. Jack D. Lantz, Sharon Lapid/LFCF, Christine Lee, Gloria D. Lee, Bob Leibowitz, M.D., Curtis Lelash, Ronald Levenson & Marcia Gold Levenson, Michael Levin & Michael Wiener, Lisa Hinchliffe & Dave Link, Jananne LoCasale, Philip LoGiudice, M.D., Mary Anne Lucero, M. Michele Martin, Margaret L. Mathews, James A. Zapp & Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Lary & Mary Anne Mielke, Neal S. Millard, Sue & Monty Mohrman, Toni & Tom Morgan, In Loving Memory of Harvey S. Morse, Gail Neiman, Patty & John Nickoll, Cindy & Ken Norian, Bob & Renee Nunn, Judy Nussenblatt, Norman & Margrit Oberstein, Jennifer N. Owens & Jay T. Ornellas, John Paley, Helen Pekny, Carol Phillips & Bob Shapiro, Paulene Popek, Mrs. Eleanor Pott, Cheryl & Joel Prell, Gail & Gary Rachelefsky, F. Ronald & Deborah Rader, Lee Ramer, Rollin A. Ransom & Chris Lacroix, Michele & Dudley Rauch, Rona Cele Resnick, Dr. Harry E. Rice MD, Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Ring, Jaye Rogovin, Ellen & Mike Rosenberg, Barbara & Peter Rosenthal, In Honor of Robert Edward Sabol, Lora A. Sandroni, June Sanders Sattler, Linda & Clifford Schaffer, Marlene & Roger Schaffner, Malcolm Schneer, Mr. & Mrs. John Schulte, Carol (Jackie) & Charles H. Schwartz, Robert & Cathy Sevell, Linda M. Sherman, Nancy Signer, Debra J. Silvera-Sheehan, Bruce & Nancy Silverman, Dr. & Mrs. Robert J. Simon, Shani Smolens & In Memory of Dr. Bernard Smolens, Christine Helppie-Soldate, Sue & Steve Soldoff, Carol Stein Sterling & James Sterling, Bobbie Stern, Susan R. Stockel, Judy Stone, Jayashree & Jeff Sung, Robin & David Swartz, Michael & Arlene Taylor, Laney & Thomas Techentin, Michelle Tesoro, Linda & Harris Toibb, The Toppino Family,

42 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 42

1/11/17 3:59 PM

FOR THE CURIOUS MUSIC | CULTURE | NEWS | NPR

44 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 44

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

ADVOCATE CIRCLE (CONTINUED) Belinda Robins, Lynne Rosenberg, Rosa M. Salazar, Jean L. Scroggy, John R. Sealy, M.D., Ruth A. Seigle, Ruth & Mitchell Shapiro, Gloria Sherwood, Mary Louise Shnier, Karen & Gordon Silverstein, Kathleen A. Siu, Nancy Horii, Mr. Ricardo Sosapavon, Tom & Kerstin Stempel, David & Lenora Stewart, Deborah K. Streiber, Dr. Wenjay Sung, Mr. David Tarlow, Mary & Peter Tennyson, Sheila & Lawrence Teplin, Greg Tirabasso & Joseph Krause, Rob & Dinah Titcher, Phillip & Eileen Tremonti, Joyce Huyett Turner & Craig Turner, Carol Vernon & Robert Turbin, Claire Hawthorn Vincent, M. June Walden, Denise & Peter Walsh, Alan Wilson & Ina Coleman, Mr. & Mrs. Richard A. Wilson, Bonnie L. Wong, Janis K. Yerkey, Wally T. Zajac, Marcie & Howard Zelikow, Myrna & Stanley Zimmerman, The Zolkover Family

ASSOCIATE CIRCLE ($1,200+) Multi-Year Donors: Anonymous, Barry M. Baker, Robert & Angie Butler, Kathleen & Sarah Doramus, Charles Letzgus & Michael McDonald, Bev Moore, Maxine Savitz, Juanita Shaw | Annual Donors: Anonymous (16), Michael & Susan Abeles, Andrew Aichlmayr, P. K. Allen, The Allison Family, Lynn K. Altman, Anthony Alvarado & Desiree Carvajal, Barbara Amato, Michelle Ames, Paula & Douglas Anderson, Milt & Anne Andres, Mrs. Jacqueline Applebaum, Joseph R. Ashby & Jennifer Ailshire, Ramsey Avery & Scott Ault, Shelly Baker, Stewart & Eileen Balikov, David Baltimore & Alice Huang, Jericho Poppler & Dr. Greg Bartlow, Ms. Patricia Bartscherer, Ginger G. Bauer, Marjorie Beale, Judy & Chuck Beck, Elissa & Sheldon Becker, David Bender, Mr. & Mrs. Robert Guza, Mr. & Mrs. John Bettfreund, June & Paul Bilgore, Peter & Helen Bing, Marjorie Blatt, Richard & Patricia Bongeorno, Robert Bradley, Dr. Grace Emery Brandt, Lynn & Robert Brandt, Marti Breier, Leah Broidy, Dr. Stanley Brosman, William H. Brown II, L.D. Brucker, D.D.S. & Shirley White, Dr. Lisa Bukaty & Mr. Raymond M. Bukaty, Mari & Ward Bukofsky, Lore & Thomas Burger, Linda Stafford Burrows, Mike & Sandy Buttitta, Dr. & Mrs. George Byrne, The Cadena Family, Christine Cahill, David Cano, Melinda Carmichael, Thomas J. Carmichael, Don & Ellen Castleman, Kathryn Cencirulo, Eric Chien, Bertrand E. Christian, Ms. Jean F. Cohen, Linda L. Cohen, Carol Comparsi, James M. Cooke, Kim & Anthony Cookson, Rosalie Corona, Earl & Christina Cory, Susan Cowan, Winter & Cora Critchley, Diana Cusumano, Steve & Linda Darling, Eunice David, Cam Davis, Jonathan de Armas, Heidy & Saul De La Rosa, Ron de Salvo, Linda Vanwinkle Deacon, Don & Claudine DeFazio, Kurt Delsack & Linda J. Levenson Delsack, Dr. Alex Denes, The DesCombes Family, Dr. Udaya & Sherin Devaskar, Sally G. Dewitt, Dr. & Mrs. Donald E. Dickerson, Gabrielle & Trey Doheny, Jessie J. Duffy, Mr. & Mrs. Gene B. Duncan, Mr. Richard Nupoll, Richard & Gay Ede, Jack & Cynthia Edelstein, Leslie J. Edmonds, Mr. Fred M. Edwards Jr., Mrs. Marilee Eils, Jill & Bob Eisfelder, Mr. & Mrs. James Eldridge, David G. Elliott, Dr. Naomi & Mr. Jim Ellison, Ron & Heide Eng, Mauricio & Lidia Epelbaum, Suzanne & Dr. Kenneth Epstein, Kenneth Erlich & Louise Halevy, Exodus Recovery, Rena & Peter Falk, Mrs. Barbara J. Feiga, Ronald & Sandra Fein, Justice & Mrs. Robert Feinerman, Stanley Feinstein, Mr. & Mrs. William Fimpler, Larry S. Fish, In Memory of Robert A. Fisher, Joan & Marty Flax, Mr. & Mrs. Manny Flekman, Victoria Fouce Otter, Matthew Frank, Patricia L. Frazier, Ms. Joanie Freckmann, Fran Fredella & Scott Rubin, Sharon & Elliott T. Friedman, Susan R. Friedman, George & Marcia Fuller, Elizabeth Gans, Carrie Garrett, Mr. & Mrs. Robert A. Gershon, In Honor of Rev. Elijah R. Gibbs, Patrick & Frank Gibson-McMinn, Liz & Mike Giordano, Traute & Gene Gleeson, Howard Gleicher, Daniel & Cynthia Glick, Bruce & Madelyn Glickfeld, Nancy J. Goff, Mr. & Mrs. Joseph M. Gold, Grant Golding, Frances & Sy Strasberg, Ms. Dorothy Gonzalez, Nan & Allan Goodman, Tanya Goodman, Mr. & Mrs. Francisco Govea, Dr. Ellen Smith Graff, James & Margaret Gray, Mrs. Arlyn Gundersen, Mr. John A. Gyben, Kate A. Halkett, Ms. Rose Ann Hall, Kamala Hamilton,

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 45

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 45

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

ASSOCIATE CIRCLE (CONTINUED) Mr. & Mrs. James Harris, Diane & J.P. Harris, Eric & Carol Helm, Robert D. & Claire Heron, Elaine Hoffman, Jerry & Sonny Hollander, Deborah & Robert Holmes, Elizabeth Hradsky, Joan R. Isaacs, Ralph & Ruth Isaacs, Marie Mazzone & David Israeli, Dr. Adel F. Jabour, Karen & Jake Jacobs, Carrie Johnson, Starr C. Johnson, R. A. Jolson, The Kakkis Family, Regina & Richard G. Kaplan, Sally Karbelnig, Alicia Katz, Saul & Rima Kay, Joel Kelly & Hedda Jayson, Louanne Kennedy, Morris & Debra Kessler, Linda & Rudy Kessman, Dr. K. Alex Kim, Carol Kindler, Irene & Marvin H. Kleinberg, Terry Koepke, Bob Kovalesky, Castro Krinel, Fred & Sheri Kuppers, Mancha G. Kurilich, Lara L. Ladd, Mr. & Mrs. Herbert A. Lampert, John & Stefanie Lau, Marlee Lauffer & Katharine Lauffer, Susan Lava, Barbara Leach, Barbara & Tom Leanse, Jack Ledwith, Cindy Leslie, Ms. Diane Levine & Mr. Robert Wass, Patricia Levinson, Ms. Paula Block-Levor, Lydia & Chuck Levy, In Memory of Malcolm Lewis, Mrs. Jan Loomis, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Lorentz, Jennifer Lorenzen, Kathleen & Raymond Lovell, Maoyeh Lu, Marge & Bill MacLaughlin, Ginny Mancini, Sarah F. Manson, Darlene Manus, Jean Marcon, Suzanne J. Marks, Mr. Matthew Marquez, Mrs. Clifford Marshall, Laura & Jim Maslon, Vivian Matsushige, Rosie Mayfield, Mrs. Liliane Quon McCain, Meg McComb, David & Kathleen McDonald, Mr. Eric Winston & Jacqueline McIntyre, Neil McLean, Mrs. Lucille H. Melcher, Tony Melia, Ms. Hwei-Chu Meng, Helen Michaels, Mr. & Mrs. Irwin M. Miller, Lynn & Mani Miller, Wendy & Saul Miller, Katherine Molloy, Francoise Schmutz & Antonio Morawski, Matthew & Teresa Moren, Dr. Paula C. Moseley, Ray & Natalie Muldaur, Charlotte C. Myers, Julie & Jean-Baptiste Nadal, Lisa Nelius, Marsha Niles, Becky Novy, Linda Nussbaum & Lawrence Ross, Casey O’Connell & William Magee, Dale & Ayako Okuno, Marc & Shaina Ostroff, Ms. Patricia M. O’Toole, Christina Owen & Marvin Isaacson, The Palazzo Family, Joan P. Parker, Bob & Brana Paster, John Peetz, Carole Pelton, Jo An Peters, Mary Phillips, Sheila Poncher, Mr. Hilary B. Poochigian, Ruth Shamir Popkin, Jill Poppe, Suzanne & Harvey Prince, Charlie & Kristi Proctor, Professor Robert A. Pugsley, Mrs. Puspa Ramachandran, Alan & Jane Richman, Anya Rivera, Suzanne & David Robinson, Elaine Binder Robinson, Joan G. Robinson, Robert Roosth, Ms. Becky Rosales, Arlene & Jerry Rosin, Rabbi & Mrs. Moshe Rothblum, Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Rubin, Ron & Sharon Ryan, Alexandra & Edward Saborio, David A. & Karen Richards Sachs, Harvey & Peggy Saferstein, Ms.JoAnne Saltman, Olga S. Alderson, Karen & Larry Samuels, Victoria & Orman Sartwell, Alexander & Mariette Sawchuk, Patricia Scarborough, Mia Schiavone, Eloise Schlesinger & Peggy J. Schlesinger, From Darlene in Memory of Harry Schultz, Scott & Julie Schumacher, Karin & Christof Schwab, Harry Selvin, Robert & Sue Shadur, Lynn Sharp, Robyn Schreiber, Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Shulman, Gene Siciliano & Karen J. Dellosso, Ruth Silveira, Harlean & Joseph Silverman, Ken & Marinette Simon, Bill Slusser & Bob Schroeder, Dr. & Mrs. Paul L. Smith, David Snow, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Sobelle, Colonel & Mrs. S. M. Soukup, Deirdre McNamara Spalding, Bruce Spector, Dr. & Mrs. Russell C. Spoto, Marilyn & Errol Stambler, Allen & Arleen Steiner, Barbara Ann Sterling, Gail Goldberg Stoter, Maria Straith, Dr. Arthur H. Streeter, Antoinette Strelich, William R. Stringer, Dr. William Sutton, Ellen & Wing Tam, Joyce Tanida, Kathy Terry, Ms. Linda Thomas, Hon. Sandra Thompson, Patricia & Michael Thorne, Charles S. Tilghman, William & Susan Tinkley, Vernon T. Tolo, Elizabeth Topkis, Sissie Torrance, Gwendolyn Hamilton Tucker, Mr. Bob Uyetani, John & Kristine Vara, In Memory of Celia Velasco, Elliott & Felise Wachtel, Margaret A. Wagner CPA, Laurie & Ira Waldman, Maryann Walker/ Walker Advertising, Kathryn & Thomas Weber, Janice & Larry Weiner, Winifred P. & William Weisinger, Kathy Weisshaar, Nora & Peter Wendel, John & Martha Wengert, Suzanne & Clyde Wesp, Seniel Ostrow, Doroth Ostrow Foundation, Susan & Joshua Wieder, Dr. Libby F. Wilson, Dr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Wolf, Michele A. Kerr Wolfe, Stephen E. Wright, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Yoder-Edney, Dr. & Mrs. Gary Yontef, George Ziegler, Anne & Alan Zuckerman

46 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 46

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

Center Theatre Group Affiliates Kim White Peterson, President

The Affiliates have supported Center Theatre Group since 1971. Through volunteering and fundraising, members introduce young people to the magic of live theatre.

the

EXECUTIVE BOARD Anne Bruner*

Jerri Nagelberg

Cariline Davis Dyer

Diane Neubauer*

Ilene Eisenberg

Sheila Poncher*

Joan Greiff

Carmen Schaye

Roberta Haft*

Maggy Simon

Christine Harte

Carole Solomon

Tobé Karns

Marilyn Stambler*

Diane Kessler*

Donna Sussman*

Thea F. Koss

Janice Brock Wallace*

Rita Lee

Janice Weiner

Diane Lesser

Rosalind Zane*

MEMBERS Gail Ann Andrews

Beau Lavine

Arthe P. Anthony

Annie Maria Lehrer

Sandy Avchen♦

Marilyn Levin♦

Janet Barnet*

Helen Gordon Lowy

Sue Bass

Dr. Elizabeth Lu

Judith Beckmen*♦

Marianne Mandel

Marjorie Bender

Phyllis Massing, Ph.D

Marjorie Ann Beradino

Jacqueline Nach

Lanie Bernhard

Deena Nahmias

Deena Blum

Gina Russ Posalski*♦

Lestrita Boardman♦

Anne Reismann

Audrey L. Bornstein

Sharon Reisz

Alice Desobry Bowens ♦

Irene Ribner

Roanna Araneta Brown

Harriett Chatters Rose♦

Elnora Guerrero Campos

Lois Rosen♦

Wilma Glenn Chappelle

Marla Rubin

Marlene Theresa Charbonnet

Gaile Gray Ryan

Barbara Mansfield Cheyne*♦

Marsha Tauber Sallai

♦

PlatoSocietyAd-2015-Dec.indd 1

12/8/15 9:54 AM

Kelly Schiffer* Zrelda Sealey

Mary Levin Cutler♦

Joyce Siegel

Babe Eagle

Robbie J. Solomon

Gloria H. Ellwood*

Marilyn Lee Stark

Lynda Wolfson Fadel

Carol Stein

Stephanie Fisher-White

Carolyn H. Fried

If you have an inquisitive mind, check us out at www.platola.org

June Sanders Sattler*♦

Victoria Cushey

Joey Freed♦

The best known and most prestigious peer learning program in metro Los Angeles. Curious minds learning from each other in a collegial setting.

Bonnie Sachs ♦

Jan Cobert

Ruth Flinkman-Marandy

PLATO Society of Los Angeles

♦

Judy Stone Betsy Straszheim Gloria Stroock-Stern Rosalyn Holt Swartz

Ava O. Fries*♦

Louise Taper

Carole A. Gillie

Katherine L. Todd*

Linda Goldfein

Phyllis Teller

Linda Goldman♦

Roberta Turkat

Dina Goldstein

Sue Tsao ♦

Debra C. Gordon

Elinor Turner

Brindell Gottlieb

Carol Le-Veque-Uri

Carol Halperin

Barbara Van Orden

Stephanie Hibler

Donna Marie Venick*

Audrey V. Jessup

Fern Wallace

Distinctive Residential Settings | Chef-Prepared Dining and Bistro Premier Health and Wellness Programs | Award-Winning Memory Care Professionally Supervised Therapy and Rehabilitation Services

The Community Built for Life.®

Barbara Krasnoff

belmontvillage.com • Six Los Angeles area locations *Past Presidents ♦Executive Board Members at Large

RCFE Lic 197608468, 197608466, 197608467, 198601646, 565801746, 197608291 © 2017 Belmont Village, L.P.

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 47 Performances_2017_fit.indd 1

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 47

12/31/16 3:31 PM

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

Center Theatre Group Corporate Circle Sheri Biller, Founding Chair

The Corporate Circle is comprised of companies that support Center Theatre Group’s education and community partnership programs. Members receive VIP concierge service at theatres in Los Angeles, New York, and London, complimentary and discounted tickets to our shows, business development opportunities, and more. For more information, call 213.972.3192.

(DONORS LISTED AS OF JANUARY 1, 2017)

CORPORATE CIRCLE CABINET Jonathan Axel, Chair Anthony Amendola Christopher Bissonnette Erin Burke

Dannielle Campos Ramirez

Jody Kelley

Antonio Manning

Nick Donovan

Jeff Levy

Ed Nahmias

Douglas Mancino

Stephen Sherline

Michael Jung

CORPORATE CIRCLE MEMBERS STERLING CIRCLE

The only upscale boutique in greater Los Angeles for women size 12 and up.

From comfortable to casual or dressy— classic to funky or fun: Abundance has it all!

13604 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks TAIX_1-6v.pdf 1 7/22/11 818.990.6128

11:51 AM

PLATINUM CIRCLE

AbundancePlusSizes.com

Abundance_1216_outline.indd 3

10/25/16 5:40 PM

GOLD CIRCLE

SILVER CIRCLE

Country French Restaurant Family Owned & Operated Since 1927

Lunch • Dinner • Lounge • Banquets 7 Days

Open Late Wed-Sat ‘til 1:00am Five Minutes from the Music Center 1911 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, Ca 90026 (213) 484-1265

HBO

Muse Communications

Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP

Northrop Grumman Corporation

The Walt Disney Company

BRONZE CIRCLE American Business Bank

Macy's

SoCalGas

Broadway Federal Bank

Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills

Sally J. Thomas & James A. Thomas

Northern Trust

Union Bank

Patina Group

Walt Disney Imagineering

Chubb City National Bank The Friedman Group Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation Jones Day KLH & Associates LAGRANT COMMUNICATIONS

Payden & Rygel Perry, Neidorf & Grassl, LLP

Wells Fargo Insurance Services

Sidley Austin LLP Sony Pictures Entertainment

www.taixfrench.com

8 w

48 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 48

1/11/17 3:59 PM

THE GRAMMY MUSEUM® PRESENTS

FEBRUARY 8, 2017 THROUGH APRIL 2, 2017

MELE MEI IN L.A. CONCERT FEBRUARY 8, 2017 AT 8:00PM

Join us for an intimate concert in the Clive Davis Theater featuring live performances by some of Hawaiʻi’s legendary artists: “Songs of C&K” by Henry Kapono and Friends, Kalapana and GRAMMY® Award Nominee Kalani Peʻa.

Tickets for the concert are $35 and can be purchased at the Museum Box Office, AXS.com or by calling 1-800-9-AXS-TIX. SPONSORED BY Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts Outrigger Hotels and Resorts TS Restaurants Waikiki Beach Walk® Yasuda International AEG Facilities

800 W. Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015 www.grammymuseum.org

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 49

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 49

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

USC Voice Center

Ovation Circle Planned Gifts

Your Destination for Expert Voice and Singing Care

Center Theatre Group is grateful to these donors, whose irrevocable deferred estate gifts to our endowment ensure the organization’s financial well-being for generations to come.

$1,000,000+

$100,000+

Shirley & Irving Ashkenas

W. Lee Bailey, M.D.

As part of the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, you’ll have access to the latest vocal cord treatments and voice therapies.

Our expert physicians and speech language pathologists collaborate to deliver personalized care so that you can regain optimal vocal health and performance.

Judith & Thomas Beckmen

Angela Bardowell

Kirk & Anne Douglas

Allan & Joan Burns

Richard & Julie Kagan

Deborah M. Hyde

Martin Massman

Sarah & Andy Kane

Betty McMicken in honor of Jeanette Shammas

Dr. & Mrs. Jack Kavanaugh

Diane & Leon Morton

The Paul Kowal Charitable Foundation

To make an appointment, call (800)USC-CARE or visit KeckMedicine.org/USCVoiceCenter

$500,000+

Sandra Krause & William Fitzgerald

Richard & Norma Camp

Joyce & Kent Kresa

Mary Levin Cutler Susan Grode

Steven Llanusa & Glenn Miya, M.D.

Virginia Hayes

Carol & Douglas Mancino

Ann & Stephen F. Hinchliffe, Jr.

Nan Rae

Carol Vernon & Robert Turbin

Merle & Peter Mullin

Bruce & Randy Ellen Ross

Linda S. Peterson

$50,000+

Sue Tsao Magda & Frederick R. Waingrow

Los Angeles • Downtown Los Angeles • Glendale

OPERA

Sally & Frank Raab Wes Schaefer & Cathy King-Schaefer

Patricia Glaser & Sam Mudie Edward L. Rada

Mr. & Mrs. Walter E. Grauman

Endowment Gifts $500,000+

The Hearst Foundation, Inc.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Vicki King

John S. Surabian, Jr. and in memory of Faith and Sharon Ann Surabian

$250,000+

A fictionalized account of Walt Disney’s final days

Maynard & Linda Brittan Ellen & Michael S. Korney

$25,000+

Betsy & Harold Applebaum

Abbott Brown Linda Brown

Judith & Thomas Beckmen

Greve Foundation

The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation

Diane & Leon Morton

2:30P

8:00P

Regina Fadiman

Terrace Theater, Long Beach

$50,000+

$100,000+

Center Theatre Group Affiliates

18

Louise Taper

Dorothy & Richard Sherwood

MAR

12

Richard G. & Virginia L. Martin

The Norman and Sadie Lee Foundation

MAR

LONGBEACHOPERA.ORG • 562.470.SING (7464)

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 50

Charles Dillingham & Susan D. Clines

These gifts ensure a stable source of support for new work and Center Theatre Group’s many initiatives to make theatre accessible to underserved audiences.

PHILIP GLASS

50 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

$25,000+

Susan & William Weintraub

Renee & Meyer Luskin

AMERICAN

Mr. Kim L. Hunter

Pamela & Dennis Beck Amy Forbes & Andrew Murr

LONG BEACH

THE PERFECT

The Moira Byrne Foster Foundation

$250,000+ Bill Cohn & Dan Miller

©2017 Keck Medicine of USC

Darell L. Krasnoff

Kenneth Corday Barbara & Peter Fodor Ava & Charles Fries Brindell & Milton Gottlieb

Dr. Tom Hickey

$10,000+ A and J Davidson Skipper Award Fund Levine Foundation Carolyn & Kit Lokey Betty & Sanford Sigoloff

For more information on making a planned or endowment gift, call Becky Birdsong at 213.972.7532.

1/11/17 3:59 PM

DONOR RECOGNITION

Foundation Support

Theatre Forward

Sponsors

These institutions support Center Theatre Group’s operations, arts education programs, artistic development program, or specific projects.

For more information, call our grants information line at 213.972.3022.

Theatre Forward advances the American theatre and its communities by providing funding and other resources to the country’s leading nonprofit theatres.

Theatre Forward and our theatres are most grateful to the following funders. (DONORS LISTED AS OF AUGUST 2016.)

Center Theatre Group is grateful to these companies for their generous support.

THE AHMANSON FOUNDATION

THEATRE EXECUTIVES ($50,000+)

ANNENBERG FOUNDATION CENTER THEATRE GROUP AFFILIATES DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION EDGERTON FOUNDATION ELISABETH KATTE HARRIS TRUST THE WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST FOUNDATION THE JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION LLOYD E. RIGLER-LAWRENCE E. DEUTSCH FOUNDATION LAURA & JAMES ROSENWALD & ORINOCO FOUNDATION THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION, INC. THE HAROLD AND MIMI STEINBERG CHARITABLE TRUST THE WELLS FARGO FOUNDATION The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation Employees Community Fund of Boeing California Sascha Brastoff Foundation Brookside Fund Brotman Foundation of California Diana Buckhantz & Vladimir & Araxia Buckhantz Foundation The Carol and James Collins Foundation The Culver City Education Foundation James A. Doolittle Foundation Joseph Drown Foundation Fineshriber Family Foundation Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation Lawrence P. Frank Foundation The Friars Charitable Foundation The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Laurents/Hatcher Foundation The Norman and Sadie Lee Foundation New England Foundation for the Arts The Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation The Perkins Charitable Foundation Rosenthal Family Foundation Sony Pictures Entertainment The Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Theatre Communications Group The Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, a field of interest fund of the Santa Barbara Foundation

SUPPORTERS ($2,500‑$9,999)

Mitchell J. Auslander*• Disney/ABC Television Group* Paula A. Dominick*• Dorfman and Kaish Family Foundation, Inc.• BENEFACTORS Dramatists Play Service, ($25,000-$49,999) Inc.* Buford Alexander and Kevin & Anne Driscoll • Pamela Farr* John R. Dutt*• BNY Mellon Bruce R. and Tracey Ewing*• Steven & Joy Bunson*• Jessica Farr* Citi Mason & Kim Granger*• DeWitt Stern* Brian J. Harkins*• Goldman, Sachs & Co. Gregory S. Hurst*• MetLife Howard and Janet Kagan• Morgan Stanley Joseph F. Kirk*• James S. & Lynne Turley*♦ John R. Mathena*• Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP* Ogilvy & Mather Jonathan Maurer and PACESETTERS Gretchen Shugart*• Dina Merrill & Ted Hartley* ($15,000‑$24,999) Newmark Holdings* American Express* Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.* Bloomberg John Thomopoulos*• Cisco Systems, Inc.* Evelyn Mack Truitt* The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Leslie C. & Regina Quick Charitable Trust EY* Bank of America* The Schloss Family Foundation• Wells Fargo*•

Alan & Jennifer Freedman*• Frank & Bonnie Orlowski*• Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. National Endowment for the Arts• Pfizer, Inc. Southwest Airlines•♦ Theatermania/ Gretchen Shugart*• George S. Smith, Jr.*• UBS

DONORS ($10,000–$14,999) Dorsey & Whitney Foundation Epiq Systems* Karen A. & Kevin W. Kennedy Foundation Lisa Orberg• Presidio* Thomas C. Quick* RBC Wealth Management• Daniel A. Simkowitz*• S&P Global TD Charitable Foundation• Isabelle Winkles*•

*Theatre Forward Fund for New American Theatre ♦

Includes In-kind support

•Educating through

Theatre Support

Theatre Forward supporters are former supporters of National Corporate Theatre Fund and Impact Creativity.

Government Support Center Theatre Group appreciates the support of the following agencies: The City of Culver City City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

AD

Los Angeles County Arts Commission National Endowment for the Arts U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Center Theatre Group wishes to acknowledge the California Arts Council’s many years of generous support.

For a complete list of funders visit theatreforward.org

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 51

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 51

1/11/17 3:59 PM

Feel The Heat SCOTTISH BALLET

Experience the lust, desire and betrayal of the definitive Pulitzer Prize-winning drama transformed into a powerful and emotional ballet.

MAY 19–21, 2017 | THE MUSIC CENTER’S DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! M U S I CC EN T ER .O R G | (2 1 3) 9 7 2- 07 11 | @M U S I CC EN T ER L A

GROUPS OF 10+: (213) 972-8555 | MCGROUPSALE S@MUSICCENTER .ORG Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Photography by Nisbet Wylie. Direction: Nancy Meckler. Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

Music and Sound: Peter Salem. Presented through special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

MCDEV_0217.indd 2

1/12/17 12:06 PM

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES Through the support of the Board of Supervisors, the County of Los Angeles plays an invaluable role in the successful operation of The Music Center.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

HILDA L. SOLIS

MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS

First District

SHEILA J. KUEHL Third District

MCDEV_0217.indd 3

Second District, Chairman

JANICE HAHN Fourth District

KATHRYN BARGER Fifth District

1/12/17 12:06 PM

A LOS ANGELES FAVORITE RETURNS

Robert Battle, Artistic Director

Masazumi Chaya, Associate Artistic Director

“Unbelievable. Go see Ailey. It’s change-your-life good.” — NBC’S TODAY SHOW

MARCH 8–12, 2017 | THE MUSIC CENTER’S DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

ALL PERFORMANCES INCLUDE THE TIMELESS MASTERPIECE REVELATIONS M U S I C C E N T E R . O R G | ( 2 1 3) 9 7 2 - 0 7 1 1 | @ M U S I C C E N T E R L A

G ROUP S OF 10+: (213) 97 2-8 555 | MCG ROUP S A LE S@MUSICCEN T ER .O R G Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Yannick Lebrun. Photo by Andrew Eccles.

MCDEV_0217.indd 4

1/12/17 12:06 PM

FEBRUARY WED 01 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Lang Lang LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall

SUN 05 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

Organ Recitals: James McVinnie LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall

WED 01 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Zoot Suit CENTER THEATRE GROUP Mark Taper Forum Thru 3/19

MON 06 FEB / 8:30 p.m.

Mark Menzies: from the islands… to fragments REDCAT

WED 01 FEB / 8:30 p.m.

Lauren Berlant: Humorlessness/Politics REDCAT WED 01 FEB / 12:15 p.m.

WED + FRI LUNCHTIME! Yoga reTREAT GRAND PARK Thru 5/31 THU 02 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Romeo and Juliet with Dudamel LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall Thru 2/5 THU 02 FEB / 11:00 a.m.

EVERY TUE/WED/THU LUNCHTIME! Food Trucks GRAND PARK SAT 04 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

The Abduction from the Seraglio LA OPERA Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thru 2/19 SAT 04 FEB / 8:30 p.m.

Georgia Anne Muldrow and Steve Lehman REDCAT

TUE 07 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Kodo: Dadan 2017 LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall THU 09 FEB / 8:30 p.m.

Dahlak Brathwaite: Spiritrials REDCAT Thru 2/11 FRI 10 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Dances of Death LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall Thru 2/11

SUN 19 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Terence Blanchard Snarky Puppy LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall MON 20 FEB / 8:30 p.m.

True Places Never Are: New Videos by Peggy Ahwesh REDCAT TUE 21 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Chamber Music: All-French LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall TUE 21 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Fun Home CENTER THEATRE GROUP Ahmanson Theatre Thru 4/1 FRI 24 FEB / 8:00 p.m.

Hélène Grimaud Plays Brahms LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall Thru 2/26

FRI 17 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

Jessica Lang Dance THE MUSIC CENTER Ahmanson Theatre Thru 2/19 SAT 18 FEB / 11:00 a.m.

Toyota Symphonies for Youth: The Art of the Piano LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall Also 2/25

SUN 26 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

Venice Baroque Orchestra The Four Seasons LA PHIL Walt Disney Concert Hall

SAT 18 FEB / 7:30 p.m.

Salome LA OPERA Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thru 3/19

2017 Visit musiccenter.org for additional information on all upcoming events. facebook.com/MusicCenterLA

MCDEV_0217.indd 5

@MusicCenterLA

@MusicCenterLA

@MusicCenterLA

1/12/17 12:06 PM

OUR NEW ADDRESS IS SERENDIPITY.

AT VILLA GARDENS, pursue your passions and life to the fullest. Lounge in cheerful courtyards with green lawns and flowering trees, and share stories with like-minded people.

Or get out and about in Old Pasadena. Surround yourself with beauty, culture and smiling faces in a continuing care retirement community. At Villa Gardens, you’ll love where you live.

LIVE

C A L L O R V I S I T U S 626.4 63.5300 villagardens.org

WHERE

842 EAST VILLA STREET

YO U LOV E

We’re an equal opportunity housing provider.

PA S A D E N A , C A 9 1 1 0 1 CA License #197602345 COA #195 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 3

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 3

1/11/17 4:02 PM

CTG_WRAP_0217.indd 4

1/11/17 4:01 PM