CTG’s series has new works
Plays about love and Big Pharma, magicians, a son’s death in Iraq, and life at the post office are part of this fall’s DouglasPlus series of new works, the Center Theatre Group announced Thursday.
Artistic Director Michael Ritchie introduced the series at the Kirk Douglas Theatre last season in an attempt to break away from traditional programming and production constraints.
The emphasis is on material in development at Center Theatre Group, with a nod to local artists. Shows are presented for limited runs at reduced prices.
The lineup for the Culver City theater includes four commissions.
The first, which opens Oct. 30, is Kate Fodor’s “Rx,” in which a magazine editor enters a clinical drug trial to seek a cure for workplace depression -- and finds romance.
Avant-garde clowns Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford, who brought the fanciful “all wear bowlers” to the Douglas four years ago, are back with a staged workshop of “Next Stop Amazingland.”
They will join magician Steve Cuiffo in portraying illusionists who search for personal truth in the world of smoke and mirrors.
Jessica Goldberg’s “Just War” relates the true story of a Van Nuys father, Darrell Griffin Sr., who decides to write a book based on the journal kept by his soldier son, who died in Iraq in 2007.
High emotions and hidden drama lurk on both sides of the counter in “Post Office,” which has music by Michael Friedman (his “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” and “This Beautiful City” appeared at the Douglas in 2008) and book and lyrics by Melissa James Gibson.
Returning to the Douglas will be last season’s family-friendly parable, “Darwin: An Adventure for All Ages.”
Tickets go on sale Oct. 16.
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