LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Center Theatre Group, one of the largest theatre companies in the U.S., announced the suspension of all programming at their flagship, the Mark Taper Forum, beginning in July.
According to the theatre group, the cancellation comes amid a post-pandemic drop in ticket sales and donations that remain below 2019 levels, which CTG described as “a crisis unlike any other in our fifty-six-year history.”
The postponements include the world premiere of the production Fake It Until You Make It by Larissa FastHorse and directed by Michael John Garcés, which the theatre company hopes to revive in the future.
A tour of Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee and directed by Chay Yew has also been canceled outright, CTG said.
In place of their usual slate of content at the Mark Taper Forum, CTG will announce a a 2023/24 Season in the Ahmanson Theatre and select programming at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the organization said.
“Center Theatre Group (CTG)—along with arts organizations across the country—continues to feel the aftereffects of the pandemic and has been struggling to balance ever-increasing production costs with significantly reduced ticket revenue and donations that remain behind 2019 levels. We are still facing a crisis unlike any other in our fifty-six-year history. It is in this environment that we have to take the extraordinary step of pausing a significant portion of CTG programming beginning this summer and continuing through the 2023/24 Season, as well as taking significant restructuring measures to build a vibrant and sustainable organization that can navigate this new paradigm.,” Amy Forbes, President of the Board, Snehal Desai, Incoming Artistic Director, and Meghan Pressman, Managing Director & CEO said in a joint statement.
