Center Theatre Group Selects CTG Leadership Circle Cohort 2023

Center Theatre Group is continuing its mission to uplift, celebrate, and support early- and mid-career staff members at Los Angeles’ largest theatre company by selecting its newest cohort of employees who identify as BIPOC, as well as individuals from intersectional and marginalized identities. The latest cohort, which started in December 2022 and will run through July 2023, includes eight participants from across four different departments at Center Theatre Group.  

“The CTG Leadership Circle explores what it means to be an arts leader today and celebrates the leaders of the future,” explained Center Theatre Group’s Education and Community Partnerships Program Manager Aurora Ilog, who is the program lead for the CTG Leadership Circle. “These hour-long sessions allow members of our staff to have the space to cultivate and navigate their individual career journeys. From learning what it means to develop strong teams, identifying components to a shared leadership model and cultivating their own unique leadership style, the CTG Leadership Circle creates a space for staff to grow as leaders in their own regard and within our organization.” 

This latest cohort of the CTG Leadership Circle includes Keana Jackson Alfred (Ticket Sales and Services), Eduardo Fernandez-Baumann (Production), Beonica Bullard (Production), Jessica Doherty (Communications), Raul Vega Martinez (Production), Joey Solano (Information Technology), Angelene Storey (Production), and Zane Wayneright (Production).

The CTG Leadership Circle was created to connect participating staff members to facilitated group sessions focused on building skills in arts management leadership. Participants also engage in additional one-on-one and small-group networking opportunities, from informational interviews to topic-based sessions on everything from personal financial management to connecting with CTG Board members to learn about their commitments and responsibilities. In addition, each member is given additional access to professional development.

“Being able to expose participants in the CTG Leadership Circle to not only the importance of developing one's own authentic leadership style no matter what position they lead from, but also giving them an introduction to the value of executive coaching earlier on in their creative careers has been a full circle professional highlight for me,” shared Elena Muslar, Chief Empowerment Office and Founder of Confide Creative who facilitates the weekly group sessions and conducts individual mid-point check-ins with the cohort. “The significance of this program is unveiled with each participant's deeper discovery and exploration into who they are, can be, or want to allow themselves to step fully into at work. I always tend to say professional development is personal development. You can't grow one from a place of intentionality without the other. It's the confidence one builds in understanding the conversation between the two that truly prepares them for their next phase.”

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading not-for-profit 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 country’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 circumstances to serve Los Angeles. Founded in 1967, Center Theatre Group was led by Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson until 2005 when Michael Ritchie was the artistic director until his retirement in 2021; Snehal Desai has been appointed the organization’s next artistic director and will begin in August of 2023. Center Theatre Group has produced more than 700 productions across its three stages, including such iconic shows as “Zoot Suit;” “Angels in America;” “The Kentucky Cycle;” “Biloxi Blues;” “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992;” “Children of a Lesser God;” “Curtains;” “The Drowsy Chaperone;” “9 to 5: The Musical;” and “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.” CenterTheatreGroup.org

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