West Coast Premiere Of SLAVE PLAY Breaks Box Office Record at Center Theatre Group

The West Coast premiere of playwright Jeremy O. Harris' unflinching new work "Slave Play" reopened the Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum with the highest grossing five-week engagement in the storied theatre's more than 50-year history. The production that ran February 9 through March 13, 2022, grossed $1,433,830 while offering almost 5,000 free or discounted tickets.

"Jeremy O. Harris, Robert O'Hara and the entire cast and creative team of 'Slave Play' put together a fearless and unflinching production and that challenged us to be bold in our presentation of their work," said Center Theatre Group Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman. "It was important not only to fill the houses but to make tickets accessible.

"We were able to do both through existing programs like our FreePlay (free tickets for patrons 25 and under) and student discounts for young theatregoers as well as our newly launched In the House program partnering with local non-profit organizations to provide free tickets to their staff and membership. We borrowed one of Jeremy's own innovations, Black Out, which creates a freeing environment for Black-identifying audience to experience the production during a designated performance. And throughout the run we had tickets that started at $30 for all performances. In doing so, we demonstrated that you can provide accessible entry points and still break box office records."

For more information on these ongoing programs please visit CTGLA.org/TicketPrograms.

Two-time NAACP and Obie Award winner and the recipient of Center Theatre Group's inaugural Sherwood Award, Robert O'Hara returned to direct "Slave Play," which earned a record 12 Tony nominations, the most for any play in the history of those awards. The original creative team from the Broadway engagement brought the acclaimed new work to Los Angeles direct from Broadway for its first production outside of New York.

The creative team of "Slave Play," the most Tony Award-nominated play in history, included Clint Ramos (scenic design), Dede Ayite (costume design), Jiyoun Chang (lighting design), Lindsay Jones (sound design and original music), Cookie Jordan (hair and wig design), Byron Easley (movement) and Teniece Divya Johnson (intimacy and fight direction - based on the original intimacy and fight direction by Claire Warden and Teniece Divya Johnson). Casting was by Taylor Williams and Victor Vazquez. Kelly A. Martindale was the production stage manager.

Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times said, "No theatrical work in recent memory has had the seismic impact of Jeremy O. Harris' 'Slave Play.'" Hailed as "the single most daring thing I've seen in a theater in a long time" by Wesley Morris of The New York Times and "a fascinating explosive-device of a play" by Peter Marks of The Washington Post, "Slave Play" takes place at the MacGregor Plantation, where nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. It's an antebellum fever-dream as three interracial couples converge to rip open history at the intersection of race, love, sex and sexuality in 21st century America. Soraya Nadia McDonald of The Undefeated said, "wisdom and timeliness ripple through 'Slave Play,'" adding, "this play is lit."

"Slave Play" received the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, and the 2018 Paula Vogel Award. The play was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Playwriting Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.