CTG to Host Free Community Barbecue on 6/28

Center Theatre Group is opening the doors of its costume and prop shop in the east Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights for a free community barbecue June 28 from 4 to 7 p.m. Activities will include art-making activities, live music by local bands El-Haru Kuroi and

Cuicani and D.J. Boomboxx, a community corner with representatives from local arts organizations, warehouse tours and free food.

The shop is located at 2856 E. 11th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90023. The event is free and open to community members of all ages, and reservations are not necessary to attend. Free parking will be available on 11th Street and in the alley between 11th Street and 12th Street, and the shop is also accessible by bus with nearby stops located on Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street.

Since 2005, CTG's work with costumes and props has taken place in Boyle Heights. In January 2014, the company initiated a pilot series - called The Shop - of workshops and events in the surrounding area and at the shop that seek to provide opportunities for Boyle Heights residents to express their creativity, build community and connect the craft of theatre with their daily lives.

From January through March, as a part of The Shop initiative, CTG hosted 32 professional play readings, four costume and prop displays, and four costume design workshops in partnership with the four local Los Angeles Public Library branches - Benjamin Franklin Library, Estrada Courts Satellite Library, Malabar Library, Robert Louis Stevenson Library - and three local arts organizations - Casa 0101, Off The Tracks Theater Company and East LA Rep. Then, at the end of March, CTG had its first free festival with art-making activities and tours of the shop.

In its new role as a post for community activities, the shop also served as a gathering place for community members to participate in six theatre-related workshops - on topics such as furniture upholstering, fabric marbling and creative writing.

At the upcoming community barbeque, guests will have the opportunity to hear more about CTG's new The Shop initiative, including news about upcoming hands-on workshops that will take place beginning in August.

Through The Shop, Center Theatre Group is one of seven participants in the 2013 A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It, funded by the MetLife Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the professional not-for-profit American Theatre.

CTG's The Shop initiative is a program of CTG's Education and Community Partnerships department, led by Leslie K. Johnson. Currently one of the most active theatre education programs in the country, CTG's Education and Community Partnerships Department reached 19,920 students, teachers and community members throughout Southern California in the 2012-2013 season. The department is dedicated to the development of artists, educators, community members and young people's skills and creativity through the exploration of theatre, its literature, art and imagination.

More information on CTG's The Shop initiative can be found at www.centertheatregroup.org/TheShop.