Center Theatre Group Announces 2016 Mark Taper Forum Season

Center Theatre Group has announced the lineup of productions set for its 2016 season at the Mark Taper Forum.

The season opens with the West Coast premiere of Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex. The play tells the story of Charlotte and Jonny, a pair of longtime friends and college students whose relationship turns romantic, despite the objections of Charlotte's parents. Directed by Robert Egan, performances will run from February 10-March 20, 2016, with an official February 21 opening.

Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) will follow, running from April 5-May 15, 2016, with an official April 17 opening. Set during the Civil War, the three plays follow a slave named Hero who is offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy. Jo Bonney will reprise her direction from the 2014 world premiere production at the Public Theater.

Ayad Akhtar's 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced will then make its West Coast premiere, running from June 8-July 17, 2016, with an official June 19 opening. The story follows a successful Pakistani-American lawyer who is rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his cultural roots. The play's Broadway director Kimberly Senior will helm the production.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the first of August Wilson’s epic 10-play cycle to be presented on Broadway, will then run from August 31-October 16, 2016, with an official September 11 opening. Phylicia Rashad will direct.

Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane will close out the season at the Taper, running from November 9-December 18, 2016, with an official November 16 opening. Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, the play follows Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early 40s, and Mag, her manipulative, aging mother, whose interference in Maureen's first and potentially last romantic relationship sets in motion a chain of horrific and tragically funny events.

For tickets and more information about the 2016 season, click here.