Mark Taper Forum Announces 50th Season Lineup

Center Theatre Group has announced the lineup of productions set for its 2017-18 season at the Mark Taper Forum, celebrating its 50th anniversary. The season will feature four plays (including a world premiere) that represent the past, present, and future of the theater, plus a special immersive event on the streets of Los Angeles.

The season will open with Zoot Suit (January 31-March 12, 2017), written and directed by Luis Valdez and presented in association with El Teatro Campesino. Originally commissioned and developed by Center Theatre Group, Zoot Suit played for nearly a year in Los Angeles, first at the Taper from August 6-October 1, 1978, then from October 10, 1978-July 1, 1979, at the Aquarius in Hollywood. It went on to become Broadway’s first Chicano play and was made into a major motion picture in 1981.

Next will be the world premiere of Archduke (April 18-May 28, 2017), written by Pulitzer finalist Rajiv Joseph (Guards at the Taj). Directed by Giovanna Sardelli, the play follows the unlikely path to terrorism as three strangers, already struggling to get by, receive a death sentence in the form of a tuberculosis diagnosis. But being young men with nothing to lose in 1914 Belgrade makes them the perfect recruits for a secret organization looking to strike a blow in the name of Serbian nationalism.

Tarell Alvin McCraney's Head of Passes (September 13-October 22, 2017) will follow, with Tina Landau reprising her direction of the production. The play ran earlier this year at the Public Theater and starred Phylicia Rashad. Quiara Alegría Hudes' 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Water by the Spoonful, (January 31-March 11, 2018) will be next, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.

From March 12-April 2, 2017, the Taper will offer the bonus production Remote L.A. Written and directed by award-winning international documentary theater team Rimini Protokoll, Remote L.A. invites audience members to join a group of 50 people venturing out into Los Angeles on a guided audio tour that seems to follow its audience members as much as the audience is following it. Audience members meet up, put on headphones, and have their perspectives changed as they are provided with a soundtrack to the streets, parking garages, and rooftops of Los Angeles. The concept, script, and direction are by Stefan Kaegi, with codirection by Jörg Karrenbauer.

For more information about the Mark Taper Forum's 2017-18 season, click here.