Brown's 13 and Mamet Musical Among CTG Shows in '06-'07

Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group has announced its 2006-2007 line-up for the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Shows at the Mark Taper Forum will include Jason Robert Brown's new musical 13 and a new play by David Henry Hwang.  A musical by none other than David Mamet, as well as a Sleeping Beauty musical created by DeafWest and GrooveLily, will have their premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

The Mark Taper Forum's 2006/2007 season follows.

Lynn Redgrave will bring her one-woman show Nightingale to the theatre from October 4th through November 19th. Written by and starring the actress, Nightingale is inspired by memories of her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kempson. Joseph Hardy directs.

13, with music and lyrics by Tony-winner Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years) and a book by Dan Elish, will be directed by Todd Graff. It concerns 13 thirteen year-olds finding their way from childhood into their teens at a middle school in Appleton, Indiana. It runs from December 22nd, 2006 through February 18th, 2007.

Lisa Loomer's world premiere play Distracted will run from March 15th through April 29th. It concerns a mother's attempts to deal with her son's Attention Deficit Disorder.

David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, presented by CTG and the Public Theater Group, will have its world premiere from May 10th through July 1st. Based on a real life experience, the show features Hwang "writing himself into this biting new comedy that exposes previously 'untold events' behind his most disastrous Broadway flop." According to press notes, Hwang had "inadvertently cast a white actor in the lead Asian role," and controversy followed.

The Kirk Douglas Theatre's 2006-2007 follows.

First up will be the world premiere of Douglas Steinberg's Nighthawks will run from August 27th through September 24th, 2006. "The two-dimensional canvas of Edward Hopper's famous painting of a late-night New York City diner in the 1940's comes to life in Nighthawks, a brand-new comic-tinged drama."

Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's Off-Broadway hit In the Continuum will have its LA premiere from November 12th through December 10th. Starring the two women in dozens of roles, the show is directed by Robert O'Hara. "Living worlds apart in South Central, Los Angeles and Harare, Zimbabwe, two young women experience a kaleidoscopic weekend of darkly comic life changing revelations."

Directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters is based on her novel and will run from January 14th through February 11th, 2007. The show is "A tragi-comic look at the Philippines during the reign of Marcos, and the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures"

Directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun (Brooklyn, Big River), Sleeping Beauty Wakes is a new musical by Brendan Milburn, Tony-winner Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee) and Valerie Vigoda. In its world premiere, it will run from March 31st through May 13th. "Featuring the indie pop/rock sensation GrooveLily on stage with both deaf and hearing actors, Sleeping Beauty Wakes is a fun and free adaptation of the Grimm's fairy tale. After her 100-year snooze, Beauty awakes in a new time and place where everything is strange -- the palace is gone, all the princes have given up, and now she has insomnia! Or is she still asleep and dreaming?"

World-famous playwright David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) has written the book, lyrics and even the music of A Waitress in Yellowstone, which will have its world premiere from June 17th through July 15th. "A magical musical fable, filled with sage advice on everything from telling the truth to feeding bears! Winnie and her son Doug are planning a long-anticipated trip to Yellowstone National Park. But when an unlikely suspect does her an injustice, their trip is diverted and Winnie ends up on a fantastical journey to Yellowstone where she meets a woodsman who grants wishes."

Single tickets will go on sale in early August. Visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org for more information.