"It is not a mellow season," said Michael Ritchie, CTG’s artistic director. "It is a bold season full of theatricality, lyricism, laughter and deep truths that depict social and historical upheavals, cultural and familial confrontations and the fascinating complexities of the human condition."
Kicking off the season on Feb. 10, 2016, will be the West Coast premiere of Bathsheba Doran's The Mystery of Love & Sex, directed by Robert Egan. The four-person drama premiered Off-Broadway this past spring, starring Oscar nominee Diane Lane, and follows a couple whose relationship is threatened when a series of secrets about their past is revealed.
Next will be Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From the Wars (Part 1, 2 & 3), the heart-wrenching journey from slavery to emancipation. The engagement will play April 5 - May 15. Helmed by Jo Bonney, the story follows the plight of Hero, who is offered his freedom at the price of leaving the woman and people he loves.
Beginning June 8, the Taper will present Disgraced, running through July 17. The drama follows the struggles of a married couple living in Manhattan, one an American artist, the other, a Pakistani-born and Muslim lawyer. Over the course of a small dinner party, talk turns to religion, politics and sex, putting into motion a turbulent set of events that will forever change the course of their lives. Kimberly Senior, who directed the Off-Broadway, Broadway and Chicago stagings, returns to direct.
The season will conclude with August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the first of his 10-play cycle exploring the contemporary African-American experience, directed by Phylicia Rashad; and Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, about the dangerously funny relationship between a mother and her daughter set in the mountains of Ireland. Garry Hynes, who directed the play on Broadway, will also helm this West Coast production. Tickets for all shows are available by season membership only. For more information and to purchase, call (213) 972-4444 or visit CenterTheatreGroup/Taper.
