Center Theater Group to Host Black Out Night and Community Events To Celebrate TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992

Center Theatre Group will host a series of community events to celebrate "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," which is returning to the Mark Taper Forum 30 years after its world premiere. Anna Deavere Smith's groundbreaking production has been revised for a cast of five performers and is directed by Gregg T. Daniel.

The events include a Black Out Night, Student Ambassador projects, a series of Stage Talks, Student Matinees, and More To Talk About digital discussions. In addition, to ensure Angelenos can experience the story, which is about and for the citizens of Los Angeles, Center Theatre Group will be giving out over 1,000 free tickets to various educational institutions, social justice organizations, and community groups. "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" runs March 8 through April 9, 2023 and opens on March 15.

After the success of Black Out Night performances for "Slave Play," "Blues for an Alabama Sky," and "King James," Center Theatre Group is continuing the legacy set by Jeremy O. Harris by inviting Black-identifying audience members to be centered and welcomed into a historically white-dominated space. This performance will include a pre-show welcome by Rodney King's daughter Lora King and a post-show reception featuring food and music.

More information about the variety of community events to commemorate the return of "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" can be found below.

The community events include (in date order):

More To Talk About Series - 12 p.m., Friday, March 10; 12 p.m., Wednesday, March 22; and 12 p.m., Tuesday, April 4, 2023

To maximize this moment, and create the opportunity for reflection, dialogue, and progress, Center Theatre Group will be holding a series of virtual conversations on Level Forward's Anthem Award-winning social impact platform - More To Talk About (MTTA) - a multi-media, multi-format, community-centered space devoted to the deeper questions and curiosities provoked by iconic cultural works on stage and on screen, hosted by Andrea Ambam. The conversations will be livestreamed at twilight.moretotalkabout.com.

More To Talk About Series: "Remembering Rodney King: 'Can we all get along?'" - 12 p.m., Friday, March 10, 2023

Guests: Lora King, Patrisse Cullors, Robert Lee Johnson

Nearly thirty years after the Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" returns home to the Mark Taper Forum to be reimagined with an ensemble cast for a new generation of audiences. In this conversation, we unpack how "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" shines a new light in the year 2023, following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent racial reckoning that rang around the world. We'll also uplift the names of Tyre Nichols, Keenan Anderson, and the countless other unjust acts of state-sanctioned violence that have taken place since then. Through storytelling and open dialogue, we seek to find answers to the prompt from Rodney King himself - can we all get along?

More To Talk About Series: "Finding Unity in Division: The Art of Making Truce and Telling Truths" - 12 p.m., Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Featuring special guests to be announced.

The dominant narrative reported about the 1992 L.A. riots is one of division and violence born out of a great injustice. Yet what lives just under the surface of that narrative is a surprising and seldom-explored story of truce. In this conversation, we uncover the Watts Truce, consider the circumstances that bring communities together, and explore how unity, solidarity, and comradery can be built across race and ethnicity through organizing and through pop culture during the most unexpected times.

More To Talk About Series: "Radical Hospitality: Moving Towards Hope & Outwrestling Despair" - 12 p.m., Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Featuring special guests to be announced.

Dr. Cornel West tells us, "Those who have never despaired have neither lived nor loved. Hope is inseparable from despair. Those of us who truly hope to make despair a constant companion whom we out-wrestle every day owing to our commitment to justice, love, and hope." In this culminating conversation, we return to the spirit and the body to assess how each of us can cultivate a fortitude that allows us to fight the good fight. Among artistic and civil rights giants, we ask how each and every one of us can discover our role in the movement toward liberation.

Black Out Night - 8 p.m., Friday, March 10, 2023

Black Out Night is the purposeful creation of an environment in which a Black-identifying audience can experience a performance. Black Out Night provides an opportunity for Black people to be centered and welcomed into a historically white-dominated space. The event will include a pre-show welcome by Rodney King's daughter Lora King, and a post-show reception featuring KCRW's DJ Francesca Harding with cold beers provided by People's Republic of South Central, desserts by Gwen's Bakery, and coffee by Sip & Sonder. Black Out Night for "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" is generously supported by Noah & Dionne Francis. In-kind support provided by People's Republic of South Central (PRSC). To purchase specially priced tickets for Black Out Night, use code TWIBLACKOUTNIGHT at check out.

Student Matinees - 10:45 a.m., Wednesday, March 22 and Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Center Theatre Group partners with local educators to host students from the greater Los Angeles area for select performances at the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Kirk Douglas Theatre. Our goal is to collaborate with classroom teachers to provide young people access to high-quality, live professional theatre as a core part of their basic education and to help them make meaningful connections between art and their lives. For more information about Student Matinees, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/StudentMatinees.

American Express Card Member Performance - 8 p.m., Thursday, March 23, 2023

As American Express is the official card of Center Theatre Group, card members have access to exclusive offers including Card Member Performance opportunities. For "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," drink tickets will be given for the 8 p.m. performance on Thursday, March 23. For more information about American Express offerings, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/Amex.

Student Ambassador Event - 11 a.m. event, 2:30 p.m. curtain, Saturday, March 25, 2023

Center Theatre Group's Student Ambassadors are inviting local students to a free arts-filled day at The Music Center, where teen facilitators will guide students through a two-hour creative workshop that celebrates all the things that make Los Angeles our home, followed by a matinee performance of "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" at the Mark Taper Forum. The Student Ambassador program transforms passionate young creative people into arts leaders, team players, advocates, and engagement experts by giving them an opportunity to design and produce an annual event for their peers. Attendees will meet this year's team, write poetry, take photos, and make art. No experience necessary, and all local high school students are welcome to attend. Supplies and pizza will be provided. To learn more about the Student Ambassador program, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/StudentAmbassadors.

Stage Talks - 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 28; 8 p.m., Tuesday, April 4; 6:30 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2023

Stage Talks are post-performance discussions that offer an opportunity for the community gathered in the theatre to come together after the performance and get to the heart of the experience they just shared. Moderated by dramaturg Marcos Nájera, the cast will have a Q&A after these select performances.

ACCESS Performance - 2:30 p.m., Saturday, April 8, 2023

Center Theatre Group's ACCESS program is committed to accessibility for all audiences. CTG offers a number of services to accommodate persons requiring mobility, vision, and hearing access. One Saturday matinee for every mainstage Center Theatre Group production is designated as an ACCESS performance. These performances are designed for patrons who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and/or have low vision. ACCESS performances at the Mark Taper Forum offer American Sign Language interpretation and Audio Description. For more information on the ACCESS program visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/Access.

About "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992"

"Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" draws on more than 300 interviews with politicians, activists, police, jurors, shopkeepers, and countless other Los Angelenos to explore the uprising sparked by the acquittal of the men charged in the Rodney King police brutality case. Through the words of these real people, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" delves into the long-simmering tensions that set the stage for the L.A. Riots and explores the immediate impact on individual Angelenos and the community as a whole. The cast of the new take of "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" features an ensemble of actors including Hugo Armstrong, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Lisa Reneé Pitts, Jeanne Sakata, and Sabina Zúñiga Varela.

The creative team for "Twilight: Los Angeles 1992" at the Mark Taper Forum, who are all Southern California-based creatives, includes Efren Delgadillo Jr. (scenic design), Samantha C. Jones (costume design), Brandon Baruch (lighting design), Jeff Gardner (sound design), Tru (original music), Yee Eun Nam (projection design), and Stephen Buescher (movement). Casting is by Nicole Arbusto, CSA, and dramaturgy is by Dorinne Kondo, Marcos Nájera, and Lindsay Jenkins. Shawna Voragen is the production stage manager. Erin Nicole Washington is the dialect coach and Sharifa Johka is an EDI Consultant. It has been previously announced that Los Angeles-based director and NAACP Best Director winner Gregg T. Daniel will direct the new production of "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" at the Taper.

Originally commissioned by Center Theatre Group where the solo show made its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in May 1993, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992"'s sold-out run in Los Angeles was followed by many successful revisions of the play, with each inviting a new group of collaborators. Those include a production at The Public Theater followed by a Broadway run and two Tony nominations; a national tour mounted at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre; a film produced by Ms. Smith and others in partnership with PBS; and the most recent reconceptualized production for five actors at the Signature Theatre in New York. New York Magazine hailed the reworked production as an "excellent revival. There's a moral thrill in the work that will never fade," while The New York Times named it a Critic's Pick and called the production, "as necessary now as when Los Angeles was actively smoldering."

Tickets for "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" are currently on sale and start at $35. They are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 628-2772 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices (at the Ahmanson Theatre) at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012. Performances run Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

About Center Theatre Group:

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation's preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles' leading nonprofit theatre company, which, under the leadership of Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, and in collaboration with the four Associate Artistic Directors, Lindsay Allbaugh, Tyrone Davis, Neel Keller, and Kelley Kirkpatrick, programs seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1,600 to 2,100-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation's leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics, and circumstance to serve Los Angeles. CenterTheatreGroup.org

About Level Forward

Level Forward is a story-driven / impact-minded, Tony Award-winning, ACLU/NYCLU-honored, Anthem Award-winning film, theater, and television mini-studio comprised of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers. The company works with like-minded partners to make the case that social impact is as much about good business as it is about public good. On project and systems levels, Level Forward strives to balance artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return to create dual value. Produced films include "Body Parts," "The Year Between," "The Big Payback," "The Assistant," "Holler," "Rebel Hearts," "Topside," "You Resemble Me," "On The Record," and "American Woman." Produced stage work includes "POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumb Ass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive," "Slave Play," "What The Constitution Means To Me," "Jagged Little Pill," and "Oklahoma!" Engage with Level Forward's social impact work at More To Talk About or check out some key metrics on the Company dashboard

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