The Fringe at CTG Hosts Special Event For BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO 5/21

The Fringe at CTG, Center Theatre Group's young professionals group, is hosting a special event at the Friday, May 21, 8 p.m. performance of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" at the CTG / Mark Taper Forum. Tickets to the event include a post-play cocktail party with company members from "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo."

The Fringe at CTG offers its members the opportunity to join with other young people and explore theatre in an engaging atmosphere while raising awareness and funds for Center Theatre Group's New Play Production Program.

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" had its world premiere at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009 and was named a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist earlier this month. Moisés Kaufman directed the world premiere at the Douglas and returned to the Taper with the original cast and creative team. The cast features (in alphabetical order) Glenn Davis, Brad Fleischer, Arian Moayed, Kevin Tighe, Hrach Titizian, Sheila Vand and Necar Zadegan.

In Rajiv Joseph's darkly comic "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," the lives and, in some cases, the afterlives, of two American soldiers, an Iraqi translator, the ghosts of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, and a Bengal tiger all intersect in a surreal, darkly humorous and gently balanced view of war and its aftermath.

Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times said that "Bengal Tiger" is ". . . no ordinary play. I'm tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell this work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limited category. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times said, "... this boldly imagined, harrowing and surprisingly funny drama considers the long afterlife of violent acts, as well as the impenetrable mysteries of the afterlife itself."

Tickets for The Fringe at CTG event are $60 and available by calling (213) 972-8056 or visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/Fringe for more information on The Fringe.

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming seasons at the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to providing Theatre Of the highest caliber to the rich, diverse communities of Southern California, CTG supports a significant number of arts education and play development initiatives.

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" continues at the Taper though May 30, for more information visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org. The Mark Taper Forum is located on the Music Center at 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles.

Photo credit: Craig Schwartz