The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall
Designed by architect Frank Gehry, The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (Concert Hall) opened in 2003 as the newest of The Music Center’s four venues. The Concert Hall was conceived when Lillian B. Disney made an initial gift of $50 million to build an additional performance space on Los Angeles County land in honor of her late husband Walt Disney and his dedication to the arts. Home to LA Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world and provides both visual and aural intimacy through its exterior and interior design.
More than 6,000 panels create the curving stainless steel skin of the Concert Hall’s exterior. Resembling silver sails, the Concert Hall’s design plays off the bowed cornice of The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, forging a link between the old and the new.
The use of natural materials and skylights creates a bright and airy interior in the Concert Hall. Gehry’s team visualized the lobby as a transparent and light-filled “living room for the city.” Massive columns within the lobby structure evoke an image of tree trunks. They are clad in vertical grain Douglas fir and serve the functional purpose of housing the lighting, heating and air conditioning systems.
The 2,265-seat auditorium is a concrete box that is structurally independent of the rest of the building. Gehry collaborated with renowned acoustician Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota to design the acoustics. The walls of the auditorium are vertical grain Douglas fir and the floor is red oak. The stage is Alaskan yellow cedar, the same wood often used on the backs of cellos and violas and can be configured to hold larger performing organizations by removing the first rows in Orchestra View. Natural light enhances daytime concerts with a large 36-foot-high rear window and skylights.
The terraced vineyard style seating is designed to bring the audience close to the orchestra and provide an intimate view of the musicians and conductor from any seat. A focal point for the auditorium is the 50-foot organ that houses 6,134 pipes ranging in size from a pencil to a telephone pole. Only two percent of the pipes are visible. The organ weighs more than 40 metric tons and was designed by Los Angeles organ designer Manuel Rosales along with Frank Gehry.
Gehry’s design includes details as specific as the carpet pattern used in the auditorium. Named “Lillian” in Mrs. Disney’s honor, the pattern was designed to bring Mrs. Disney’s garden into the Concert Hall and is featured in the seating upholstery as well. Foam padding, the material and the hollow underside of the seats mimic the human body in reflecting sound; in fact, the sound is the same no matter how full or how empty the auditorium. The only piece of art in the Concert Hall, “Blue”, was created by Los Angeles artist Peter Alexander. It is located above the Grand Avenue staircase between the Garden and Terrace levels.
The Concert Hall includes BP Hall, which is an additional space for performances and can accommodate up to 350 people. Clad in vertical grain Douglas fir as well, the curved room posed an acoustical challenge. To avoid focusing sound in one area of the space, perforations were added to the wood paneling with special material placed behind the panels to give the room proper acoustics.
Located on the second floor of the Concert Hall is the Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery. Designed by Hodgetts + Fung Design Associates, the gallery was made possible by a gift from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the Library of Congress and rotates its collection bi-annually.
The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), named in honor of Walt Disney’s brother and partner Roy and Roy’s wife, Edna, is also housed within the Concert Hall. An interdisciplinary contemporary arts center, the theatre is programmed by CalArts, based in Valencia, California. REDCAT features a flexible 200- to 270-seat multi-use theatre and a 3,000 square-foot exhibition space. Its entrance includes a marquee of curvilinear stainless steel and leads directly into an expansive multi-use space that includes a lobby and lounge for meetings, receptions and post-performance events. The REDCAT stage can be transformed into several configurations, from thrust and end stage to completely in the round. The performance space is lined with hinged panels, each with finished wood on one side and sound-absorbent material on the other. To quiet outside noise and prevent transmission of vibrations from the Concert Hall, REDCAT is built as a steel box-within-a box, with the interior box floating on 72 special rubber pads.
Featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall
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Thu Feb 20 8:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 2:00 PM
LA Phil Gustavo Conducts Mahler’s Journey
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excer...Show More
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excerpts from Mahler’s First and Tenth symphonies that frame the composer’s life. Blumine was the second movement from Symphony No. 1, which was removed after a few performances but rediscovered in the 1960s and appreciated for its rapturous trumpet and melancholy oboe. The Adagio from Symphony No. 10 similarly found a new life and was published after Mahler’s death. The unfinished sketches were written during personal crisis and brim with anguish and pain that is expressed through harmonic language that straddles the Romantic era and the 20th century.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) is based on a collection of German poetry of the same name that was influential to Mahler and other Romantics. Two dozen of the poems are set to music that with the help of baritone Simon Keenlyside explores stories of love, loss, and the supernatural.
Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.
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Wed Feb 26 8:00 PM
LA Phil Víkingur Ólafsson & Yuja Wang
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Two of today’s finest pianists team up on technically and emotionally complex piano works for four hands, ranging from Dave Brubeck, John Adams, and Arvo Pärt to Rachmaninoff’s nostalgic Symphonic Dances and Schubert’s ...Show More
Two of today’s finest pianists team up on technically and emotionally complex piano works for four hands, ranging from Dave Brubeck, John Adams, and Arvo Pärt to Rachmaninoff’s nostalgic Symphonic Dances and Schubert’s Fantasie.
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Thu Feb 27 8:00 PM
Sat Mar 01 2:00 PM
LA Phil Dudamel Leads Song of the Night
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Gustavo Dudamel describes Mahler’s Seventh as “a symphony of everything: from chaos to glory, sarcasm to tenderness, from a funeral march to a seductive tango. It is a cosmic symphony of perfect construction and galactic emotional scope.” At the c...Show More
Gustavo Dudamel describes Mahler’s Seventh as “a symphony of everything: from chaos to glory, sarcasm to tenderness, from a funeral march to a seductive tango. It is a cosmic symphony of perfect construction and galactic emotional scope.” At the core of this monumental and expansive opus are two movements built on the tradition of Nachtmusik or “Night Music” whose moodiness and introspection have earned the symphony the nickname “Song of the Night.” For the first time ever, Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the colossal journey of Mahler’s Seventh.
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Sun Mar 02 12:00 PM
LA Phil Mahlerthon: Part One
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Youth ensembles from across Los Angeles celebrate Gustav Mahler’s legacy with a marathon of his music.
Youth ensembles from across Los Angeles celebrate Gustav Mahler’s legacy with a marathon of his music.
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Sun Mar 02 5:00 PM
LA Phil Mahlerthon: Part Two
Walt Disney Concert Hall
University ensembles from across Los Angeles celebrate Gustav Mahler’s legacy with a marathon of his music.
University ensembles from across Los Angeles celebrate Gustav Mahler’s legacy with a marathon of his music.
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Tue Mar 04 8:00 PM
To the Fullest: The Music of Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Artists and choreographers Gerard & Kelly and chamber orchestra Wild Up continue their exploration of the music and legacy of Julius Eastman with a world premiere staging of the composer’s ecstatic minimalist masterpiece Femenine (197...Show More
Artists and choreographers Gerard & Kelly and chamber orchestra Wild Up continue their exploration of the music and legacy of Julius Eastman with a world premiere staging of the composer’s ecstatic minimalist masterpiece Femenine (1974).
Femenine brings together 15 musicians, 9 dancers/singers, and a cosmic clamoring of bells in an immersive performance installation. Wild Up’s musical interpretation blends strict adherence to Eastman’s specific instructions with an embrace of individual and collective decision-making by the ensemble—a continuous conversation among Eastman, individual performers, and the group as a whole. Gerard & Kelly illuminate the score as a revival, a spiritual awakening that draws all into reverie.
Produced in collaboration with Wild Up
Executive Producer for Wild Up, Elizabeth ClineA co-production of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonie de Paris, La Villette, and Festival d’Automne à Paris
Femenine is part of The lessing is miracle, a triptych of works by Gerard & Kelly exploring the music and legacy of Julius Eastman, produced by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) and Gerard & Kelly Foundation with the support of the Doris Duke Foundation and in co-production with Philharmonie de Paris.
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Thu Mar 06 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 2:00 PM
LA Phil Mahler’s Fifth with Dudamel
Walt Disney Concert Hall
In the final weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Gustavo Dudamel explores the tumultuous relationship of Gustav and Alma Mahler through their music. Their marriage was, at best, “complex,” marked by affairs, an age gap, diminishment, and the d...Show More
In the final weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Gustavo Dudamel explores the tumultuous relationship of Gustav and Alma Mahler through their music. Their marriage was, at best, “complex,” marked by affairs, an age gap, diminishment, and the death of a child. Alma was a composer in her own right whose career took a back seat at Gustav’s request. At a particularly rocky moment in their relationship, Gustav finally encouraged her to publish Five Songs that are brought to life here by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Next Dudamel leads Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which progresses from mourning to triumph, inspired in no small part by Gustav meeting and becoming enchanted by Alma. Within the grand gesture is the Adagietto that was intended as a love letter.
Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.
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Wed Jan 29 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 6:30 PM
Center Theatre Group Fake It Until You Make It
Mark Taper Forum
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Nativ...Show More
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Native American perspectives on contemporary life and will be the first Native American writer to have a mainstage production on the Mark Taper Forum stage. A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and author of the Broadway comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, FastHorse’s new work shines a hilarious light on ‘shifters’ who exist in a world of self-determined identity. This thought-provoking comic play asks what happens when you don’t believe you are the race you want to be? Change it! Fake It Until You Make It takes an absurd look at what defines who we are, and the lengths some people will go through to change it.
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Sat Nov 23 1:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 1:00 PM
A TMC Arts Program: Digital Innovation Initiative The Music Center Presents: IndieCade in Residence
Jerry Moss Plaza
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Show LessFree
Learn MoreFree
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Thu Feb 20 8:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 2:00 PM
LA Phil Gustavo Conducts Mahler’s Journey
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excer...Show More
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excerpts from Mahler’s First and Tenth symphonies that frame the composer’s life. Blumine was the second movement from Symphony No. 1, which was removed after a few performances but rediscovered in the 1960s and appreciated for its rapturous trumpet and melancholy oboe. The Adagio from Symphony No. 10 similarly found a new life and was published after Mahler’s death. The unfinished sketches were written during personal crisis and brim with anguish and pain that is expressed through harmonic language that straddles the Romantic era and the 20th century.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) is based on a collection of German poetry of the same name that was influential to Mahler and other Romantics. Two dozen of the poems are set to music that with the help of baritone Simon Keenlyside explores stories of love, loss, and the supernatural.
Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.
Show Less -
Sat Feb 08 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 1:00 PM
Center Theatre Group Steven Sondheim's Old Friends
Ahmanson Theatre
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners B...Show More
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it sold out in a matter of hours, earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as "unmissable musical theatre."
Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of the Broadway premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club on March 25, 2025.
Show Less
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Sat Nov 23 1:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 1:00 PM
A TMC Arts Program: Digital Innovation Initiative The Music Center Presents: IndieCade in Residence
Jerry Moss Plaza
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Show LessFree
Learn MoreFree
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Wed Jan 29 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 6:30 PM
Center Theatre Group Fake It Until You Make It
Mark Taper Forum
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Nativ...Show More
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Native American perspectives on contemporary life and will be the first Native American writer to have a mainstage production on the Mark Taper Forum stage. A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and author of the Broadway comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, FastHorse’s new work shines a hilarious light on ‘shifters’ who exist in a world of self-determined identity. This thought-provoking comic play asks what happens when you don’t believe you are the race you want to be? Change it! Fake It Until You Make It takes an absurd look at what defines who we are, and the lengths some people will go through to change it.
Show Less -
Sat Feb 08 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 1:00 PM
Center Theatre Group Steven Sondheim's Old Friends
Ahmanson Theatre
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners B...Show More
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it sold out in a matter of hours, earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as "unmissable musical theatre."
Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of the Broadway premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club on March 25, 2025.
Show Less -
Sat Nov 23 1:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 1:00 PM
A TMC Arts Program: Digital Innovation Initiative The Music Center Presents: IndieCade in Residence
Jerry Moss Plaza
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Show LessFree
Learn MoreFree
-
Thu Feb 20 8:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 2:00 PM
LA Phil Gustavo Conducts Mahler’s Journey
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excer...Show More
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excerpts from Mahler’s First and Tenth symphonies that frame the composer’s life. Blumine was the second movement from Symphony No. 1, which was removed after a few performances but rediscovered in the 1960s and appreciated for its rapturous trumpet and melancholy oboe. The Adagio from Symphony No. 10 similarly found a new life and was published after Mahler’s death. The unfinished sketches were written during personal crisis and brim with anguish and pain that is expressed through harmonic language that straddles the Romantic era and the 20th century.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) is based on a collection of German poetry of the same name that was influential to Mahler and other Romantics. Two dozen of the poems are set to music that with the help of baritone Simon Keenlyside explores stories of love, loss, and the supernatural.
Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.
Show Less -
Sat Feb 08 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 1:00 PM
Center Theatre Group Steven Sondheim's Old Friends
Ahmanson Theatre
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners B...Show More
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it sold out in a matter of hours, earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as "unmissable musical theatre."
Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of the Broadway premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club on March 25, 2025.
Show Less -
Sat Feb 08 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 1:00 PM
Center Theatre Group Steven Sondheim's Old Friends
Ahmanson Theatre
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners B...Show More
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it sold out in a matter of hours, earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as "unmissable musical theatre."
Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of the Broadway premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club on March 25, 2025.
Show Less -
Sat Feb 08 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 1:00 PM
Center Theatre Group Steven Sondheim's Old Friends
Ahmanson Theatre
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners B...Show More
Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration to the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it sold out in a matter of hours, earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as "unmissable musical theatre."
Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of the Broadway premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club on March 25, 2025.
Show Less -
Thu Feb 20 8:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 2:00 PM
LA Phil Gustavo Conducts Mahler’s Journey
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excer...Show More
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in Mahler’s Journey. He opens with two excerpts from Mahler’s First and Tenth symphonies that frame the composer’s life. Blumine was the second movement from Symphony No. 1, which was removed after a few performances but rediscovered in the 1960s and appreciated for its rapturous trumpet and melancholy oboe. The Adagio from Symphony No. 10 similarly found a new life and was published after Mahler’s death. The unfinished sketches were written during personal crisis and brim with anguish and pain that is expressed through harmonic language that straddles the Romantic era and the 20th century.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) is based on a collection of German poetry of the same name that was influential to Mahler and other Romantics. Two dozen of the poems are set to music that with the help of baritone Simon Keenlyside explores stories of love, loss, and the supernatural.
Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.
Show Less -
Wed Jan 29 8:00 PM
Sun Mar 09 6:30 PM
Center Theatre Group Fake It Until You Make It
Mark Taper Forum
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Nativ...Show More
A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Native American perspectives on contemporary life and will be the first Native American writer to have a mainstage production on the Mark Taper Forum stage. A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and author of the Broadway comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, FastHorse’s new work shines a hilarious light on ‘shifters’ who exist in a world of self-determined identity. This thought-provoking comic play asks what happens when you don’t believe you are the race you want to be? Change it! Fake It Until You Make It takes an absurd look at what defines who we are, and the lengths some people will go through to change it.
Show Less
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Tour The Music Center Campus
Free tours are available of all The Music Center's theaters.