OUR TOWN
L.A.'s flagship theater looks elsewhere
By Don Shirley
Center Theatre Group bills itself as “L.A.’s Theatre Company,” not L.A.’s “largest” or “most prominent” or “flagship” theater company – designations no one could reasonably dispute. Instead, the words suggest either that CTG is L.A.’s only theater company – which obviously isn’t true – or that it’s somehow L.A.-oriented in a way that other L.A. troupes are not.
Is there a speck of evidence to support this latter claim – that CTG is especially tuned in to Angelenos and their distinctive concerns? A look at the company’s 2009 programming in its three venues – the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson and the Kirk Douglas – suggests the answer is no: None of 14 current and upcoming CTG plays and musicals is set in L.A. Only one of the playwrights, Richard Montoya, is easily identified as an L.A. writer, but his new play (scheduled for the Taper in December) takes place in New Mexico.
Of CTG’s 14 regular productions last year, only one scene of one play, The Little Dog Laughed, was set in L.A., and that play reflected common misconceptions of L.A. – that L.A. has no theater, for example.
The last CTG production seemingly set in L.A. was Lisa Loomer’s Distracted nearly two years ago, but even that play could easily have been set elsewhere. It examined ADD, not the LAPD or LAUSD. The last truly (almost obsessively) L.A.-themed CTG production was Water and Power in 2006.
The company’s previous artistic director, Gordon Davidson, was more attentive to L.A. subjects than his successor, Michael Ritchie. After the 1992 riots, it was almost inevitable that Davidson would produce a piece about them - and he did, Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Maybe it wasn’t art for the ages, but it was art for L.A., 1993. What kind of cataclysm would have to strike L.A. to focus Ritchie’s attention on CTG’s home turf?
Not that Ritchie disapproves of theater about community topics. Last fall he imported This Beautiful City, a theatrical documentary about Colorado Springs. Last weekend, also at the Douglas, CTG opened Danny Hoch’s astute solo analysis of gentrification, Taking Over. But it’s not about L.A. gentrification; it’s about Hoch’s own neighborhood in Brooklyn. Recently, Ritchie appears to be willing to tackle sensitive community issues – but only if the depicted subjects aren’t likely to be in his audience.
Hoch works up a lather playing characters from his ’hood – fulminating in super-titled French and Spanish as well as several dialects of English. Speaking as himself, he also analyzes his own motives and hypocrisies. Despite his concern about wealthier newcomers ousting poorer old-timers, he acknowledges that he rents his own apartment to tourists when he takes his show to theaters elsewhere.
The editors of the CTG program ran an article by Evan Henerson that points to the fact that CTG’s Douglas Theatre itself is a product of gentrification in Culver City. Has CTG investigated whether any potentially stageworthy drama lurks within Culver City’s history?
Ritchie has occasionally collaborated with smaller L.A. theaters. A CTG/Deaf West Theatre revival of Pippin opened last weekend at the Taper. That’s a smart gesture, but local theater should extend to L.A. subjects as well as L.A. personnel.
CTG’s own website agrees: “The organization is committed to producing theater that reflects and informs our own community. We hope to attract new audiences to our theaters through stories inspired on our own streets as well as through plays that transport our audiences lifetimes away.”
OK, CTG, it’s time to find those stories from “our own streets.”
Taking Over, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City, (213) 628-2772. ctg.org. Closes Feb. 22.
Published: 01/28/2009
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Shirley makes a good point. One enjoys that "shock of recognition" when you see your own hometown on stage. It's validating. Watching a local play is akin to looking through your own family album rather than glancing through generic photos that belong to someone else.