Center Theatre Group Creates New Works Development Pipeline

Center Theatre Group has in place a new developmental pipeline for plays and musicals, created by Snehal Desai, CTG’s Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director. The initial phase of CTG’s new works development has focused on supporting Latinx plays and playwrights, as well as new musicals.

These include a series of four readings, workshops and presentations, the most recent of which was Mama of the Row or Who Raised the Rent? [A Los Angeles Vaudeville of Tragic Proportions] A Displacement of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage by Luis Alfaro, with a 10-day workshop from November 10-19 at The Music Center Annex in Downtown Los Angeles, home to Center Theatre Group’s rehearsal rooms and administrative offices. 

Alfaro, an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and director of the MFA in Dramatic Writing program, is a former Associate Artistic Director of CTG, and is also currently the 2025-2026 Atelier Samuel Beckett Fellow.

Workshops, readings, and presentations are crucial to CTG’s mission and to the development process of a play. Over the course of the development cycle, playwrights, actors, and directors gather in a room to read, analyze, and rework the text. The process is rigorous and reflective, focused on both structure and substance. In the case of Mama of the Row, the focus on music was an instrumental part of the workshop. Originally, Mary Alfaro Velasco and Vaneza Mari Calderon, bolero and mariachi musicians, were brought in to just play music for the show – but during the development process, they became key collaborators. “Mariachi is a very strong tradition, but no one’s really creating new mariachi work,” Vaneza said. “That’s the cool thing about Mama of the Row—we get to bring out instruments and our flavors and our sounds to create something completely new.”  

The Mama of the Row workshop follows a slate of three other developmental projects that took place over the past several months in Los Angeles and New York City. Other works in development include WEST: The Final Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a new musical featuring a book by Tara Mose and Andy Mientus, music and lyrics by Jackson Teeley and Wade Fernandez, and directed by Michael Arden; Aya by Fernanda Coppel and directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos; and The Turning, a new musical with book, music, and lyrics by Zack Zadek, and directed by and developed with Sammi Cannold. 

Since becoming CTG’s third artistic director, Desai used his inaugural programming year to introduce One CTG, which combined season programming and subscriptions across CTG’s three venues – the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He also created CTG: FWD which featured special events, legacy projects, and shorter runs of acclaimed theatre works including Alex Edelman’s Just For Us, GUAC written and performed by Manuel Oliver, MUSE/IQUE, and special one-night-only events. Now, in year two, Desai has made new work development a central part of his vision for the organization.

Center Theatre Group has a long history of developing new works, uplifting Los Angeles artists, and producing world premiere plays—like Angels in America by Tony Kushner; Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith; and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph—that have gone on to become hallmarks of the American Theatre. 

Desai said, “As CTG’s third Artistic Director, I am renewing our commitment to fostering, developing, and, in time, producing the next generation of trailblazing plays and musicals – as well as providing support to the writers, directors, and creative teams who bring them to life. We want to continue to be the home for bold new works that is CTG’s legacy while also continuing to champion the voices of Los Angeles for our stages and beyond.”

Desai continued, “I’m incredibly energized by the artistic development happening at CTG right now,” Desai said. “It has been a joy to collaborate with artists like Michael Arden, whose production of Parade just lit up the Ahmanson, and with Luis Alfaro, a longtime member of the CTG family. We first commissioned Mama of the Row in 2018, so welcoming Luis and this amazing group of artists back into residence with us was especially meaningful.”

Desai emphasized that, “We’re not developing work in isolation—we’re developing it with the true hope of producing it. While nothing is guaranteed, our investment in new work is a reflection of CTG’s commitment to nurturing deep artistic relationships, a vibrant new works pipeline and building the theatre of tomorrow.”

In addition to these workshops, CTG has on-going artistic programs to develop new plays and support playwrights, as well as local artists and companies through both the LA Writers’ Workshop and the LA Artist Residencies, both of which had new cohorts recently announced for the 2025/26 Season.

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