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Best Upcoming Exhibits At The Mark Taper Forum

610-mark-taper-forum-2015-season-20140908
(Credit: Center Theatre Group)

Just a stones throw from some of Downtown LA's great landmarks like Grand Park, The Walt Disney Concert Hall and others, The Mark Taper Forum plays host to some of the city's best theatre performances. Designed by Welton Becket, the Forum sits on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown LA and was named for one of LA's top real estate developers, Mark Taper. The following is a roundup of the best upcoming performances at The Mark Taper Forum.
 
The Mark Taper Forum
135 N Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 972-7353
www.centertheatregroup.org

kathy griffin
(Credit: Mulligan Family Fun Center)

"Like A Boss"
Dates: November 4, 2015 - November 7, 2015 at 8pm

Comedian Kathy Griffin will bring her "Like A Boss" Tour to the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum for four performances, November 4 through November 7 at 8pm. After an overwhelming demand, the two-time Emmy and Grammy Award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin actually extended her two night engagement of her "Like A Boss" Tour at the Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum in Downtown Los Angeles. Griffin says, "Two more nights! I'm so thrilled to announce my additional two nights at the iconic Mark Taper Forum. It's kind of like when you think you're going to have a one-night stand with a guy but he's so great, you let him stay. My hope is that the audience at the Taper will be good and sore after four nights. Sore from laughing, of course."
 
Inspired by the wave of recent pop culture news, Kathy Griffin has set off on an 80-city "Like A Boss" Tour. Griffin says she has "a self-diagnosed, standup comedy disorder" and "must share my thoughts on Caitlyn (Jenner), Barbra Streisand and those adorable Duggars." She will take aim at these and many more known personalities in an ever-changing show that is inspired by this year's political landscape and her personal run-ins with celebrities and other "questionable figures."
 
Kathy Griffin made history in 2013 with her sixth consecutive Grammy nomination and first win for Best Comedy Album. In 2013, Kathy was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for writing and starring in an unprecedented 20 televised stand-up specials - more than any comedian in history. Kathy has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve special with Anderson Cooper since 2007 and, after co-hosting The Billboard Music Awards three years in a row, Kathy hosted the "41st Kathy Griffin "Like A Boss" Tour at the Mark Taper Forum is Extended 2 Annual Daytime Emmy Awards" and AARP's Movies for Grownups Gala. Her memoir, "Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin," debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List. Griffin won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her hit reality series, "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," which aired for six years on Bravo, was Emmy-nominated every year of its run and won the GLAAD Media Award for Best Reality Program.

the christians
(Credit: Michael Brosilow)

"The Christians"
Dates: December 2, 2015 - January 10, 2016

Written by Lucas Hnath and directed by Les Waters, "The Christians" features Emily Donahue, Andrew Garman and Linda Powell in the Actors Theatre of Louisville production. On the anniversary of the megachurch he himself founded, Pastor Paul feels called to deliver a new message, though he knows it will shake the foundation of everything he has built. No matter your faith, or lack thereof, "The Christians" — a play with a full, live choir — compels a conversation that attempts to bridge the seemingly insurmountable distance between us.

mystery of love & sex
(Credit: Center Theatre Group)

"The Mystery of Love & Sex"
Dates: February 10, 2016 - March 20, 2016

The West Coast premiere of "The Mystery of Love & Sex" by Bathsheba Doran, directed by Robert Egan, with its "tender and funny exploration of two couples from two generations" (Charles Isherwood, The New York Times), opens the 2016 season at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, February 10 through March 20, 2016. Insightful and compassionate, "The Mystery of Love & Sex" is the story of four people whose lives are inextricably intertwined. Charlotte and Jonny are two college students who have been friends since they were nine years old. Attending college together, they contemplate taking their relationship to a romantic level, but Charlotte's parents don't take the news very well, and an onslaught of uncomfortable truths about all four of them is unleashed.
 
Bathsheba Doran's first play "Feminine Wash," was produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe while she was a student at Cambridge University, from which she holds a B.A. and an M.A. She then went on to Oxford University, where she received an M.A. before working as a television comedy writer with the BBC. Bash moved to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2000, received her MFA from Columbia University and became a playwriting fellow of The Juilliard School. Her critically acclaimed play "Kin" received its world premiere in 2011 at Playwrights Horizons. Her television work includes the series "Codes of Conduct" (HBO), "Jerusalem" (Channel 4), "Masters of Sex," "Smash" and "Boardwalk
Empire" (for which her episode received a WGA nomination). She is a 2009 recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, three Lecomte du Nouy Lincoln Center playwriting awards and she is a Susan Smith Blackburn Award finalist.

mark taper forum
(credit: Terry M./Yelp)

"Father Comes Home"
Dates: April 5, 2016 - May 15, 2016

"Father Comes Home From the Wars (Part 1, 2 & 3)" by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks portrays a stunning, personal journey from slavery to emancipation. In this devastatingly beautiful new play, directed by Jo Bonney, a slave named Hero is offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy. The choice is to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be an empty promise. His decision brings him face to face not only with a nation at war with itself, but with what freedom truly means. "Father Comes Home From the Wars (Part 1, 2 & 3)" will be presented in its West Coast premiere at the Taper, April 5 through May 15, 2016.

mark taper forum
(credit: Cheri. A G./Yelp)

"Appropriate"
Dates: September 23, 2015 - November 1, 2015

Directed by one of the youngest and most gifted directors, Eric Ting, "Appropriate" follows a dysfunctional family as they come back to an Arkansas plantation that has fallen into disrepair. By playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the play, which is presented with two intermissions and has a running time of close to three hours, reveals several family members battling over their recently deceased father over an inheritance.

Katie Bodell is the Blog Editor for Trekaroo, the largest family travel website in the U.S. She is also a freelance writer, a happy wife to her best friend, and a mom to three sweet California girls. See more on: Trekaroo | CheapOair | Google+ | Twitter.
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