Commentary: What it feels like to have your history-making play canceled during the Taper’s closure
I am a Los Angeles-based playwright. My new play, “Fake It Until You Make It,” commissioned by Center Theatre Group, was about to go into production at its Mark Taper Forum. Two weeks before my director, Michael John Garcés, began rehearsal, the organization “paused” the theatrical season at the Taper. However, at this time there is no date or guarantee of “unpausing,” so it is effectively canceled.
This play was going to be the first by a Native American playwright on that stage and the last play of a historic all-female/gender nonbinary season. Also canceled was Chay Yew’s production of Lauren Yee’s “Cambodian Rock Band.” I am writing because canceling these productions has done real damage to communities here in Los Angeles and nationally, and that damage has to be acknowledged.
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“‘Cambodian Rock Band’ was birthed in Southern California, home to our country’s largest Cambodian American population. It’s a community we’ve forged a deep and meaningful relationship with — the community is part of this show,” Lauren tells me. Chay shared what actor Joseph Ngo posted online: “This is heartbreaking news for my Khmer community. For at least a year now, they have been planning to see this production…We wanted to be seen, known, and have our story heard.”
In my case, I heard from Native American people across the country about the anger and hurt they feel at the news. This is more than a play to us. We have been erased on our own lands for centuries. It is not just my voice as a Lakota woman that was silenced, but the voices of two Southern California Native actors (among other Native artists) who were going to reclaim the Taper stage for their own people. This cancellation is part of a legacy that constantly reasserts that we have no power here. That we are never safe. Once again, our stories are disposable or just not relevant.
The titan of L.A. theater, Center Theatre Group, is shutting down the Mark Taper Forum for at least a year to save money. Will other theaters follow?
My family and my team lost a considerable amount of money due to this decision. In addition, I forfeited a Broadway co-commission (more money) to do this play on CTG’s expedited timeline because I wanted this production to premiere at my hometown theater. CTG also turned down a co-production with another theater that may have given us enough support to continue next week. At least it would have guaranteed us a production elsewhere. It is sobering to discover that, regardless of having a play produced on Broadway this season and a national tour in the works, my play was canceled with only three hours’ notice before the public announcement.
This is hard to write because I was on the Theater Communications Group board with both Meghan Pressman and Snehal Desai and consider them friends. I spoke with them before writing this, so I know how deeply both of them care about art, artists and audiences. I know that it was their board of trustees that made the extreme, unexpected decision to cancel. I also know the financial situation at CTG is truly dire. Ticket sales are low. Giving is down. Jobs were lost. But this does not relieve them, or their board, of their responsibility to the artists and communities that are affected. The board needs to support Snehal, an incoming artistic director of color who is being handed the keys to a mess. A mess on fire. He’s going to need help from all of us to put the fire out.
A real moment of dread came early in the rehearsals for “Cambodian Rock Band.”
I went online and reread CTG’s 2020 “Commitments to Change,” and their follow-up posts of failed promises from the institution. That led me to the words of Rachel Davidson, daughter of Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson: “My father knew that for the Taper to have meaning, the plays had to have purpose. His dream was a theater that both builds community and made Angelenos aware that they are all part of a community. It was a place to give voice to those not yet heard.” That hit me hard because that is what both Lauren and I seek to achieve with our work.
I believe that this moment, as painful as it is, is an opportunity for a true reset at CTG. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who instigated this season of women/nonbinary playwrights, commented: “I hope that CTG is putting all of their resources into returning next season with a diverse audience foaming at the mouth to see your show. With other femme and Indigenous artists around the work to support it.”
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As CTG rebuilds financially, it must invest in programs that actually listen to communities and include their voices. Invest in the community, not to make them patrons but to make them partners. Change the culture of the spaces to be welcoming to all peoples. This theater is built on Native land. For years, commitments to the community have been made, promise after promise has been broken. The land is gone, the trust is gone, our Khmer and Native plays have now been taken away. It is time for better.
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Begin the process of reparations with an actual reset, back to Gordon Davidson’s mission of this theater. Show us with specific, targeted action. Make the new budget reflect their core values to win back our trust. I have other productions, but I intended this project to be a production entirely made up of Los Angeles artists for the Mark Taper Forum. This is the stage it belongs on. Invite all of us in so that Lauren and I can successfully bring our plays home.
Center Theatre Group is closing the Mark Taper Forum and announced layoffs. Here’s what you should know about what’s happening there and elsewhere on L.A.’s arts scene.
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