REHEARSALS BEGIN FOR WORLD PREMIERE OF DAEL ORLANDERSMITH’S “FOREVER” AT CTG/KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE

The world premiere of Dael Orlandersmith’s “Forever,” a DouglasPlus presentation, begins rehearsals September 23 at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre where it will open on October 12, 2014. Commissioned by CTG and directed by CTG Associate Artistic Director Neel Keller, previews begin October 9 and performances continue through October 26.

Orlandersmith has been seen at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in a staged reading of “Forever” (2013), preceded by her plays “Stoop Stories” and the world premiere of “Bones” (2010). Her award-winning plays have been commissioned and presented by theatres across the U.S., including “Black n’ Blue Boys/Broken Men,” “Horsedreams,” “The Blue Album,” “Yellowman,” “The Gimmick,” “Monster” and “Beauty’s Daughter.” She is the recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim and the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career and a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship.

“Forever” is the second DouglasPlus presentation for the 2014-2015 KDT season. For five years, DouglasPlus has provided the flexibility to explore new work and push boundaries through fully and minimally staged events, workshops and readings and traditional and non- traditional performance configurations.

The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City, 90232. For tickets and information, please visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, by calling 213-628- 2772, in person at the Center Theatre Group box office or at the Kirk Douglas Theatre box office two hours prior to curtain.

In “Forever,” writer/performer Orlandersmith investigates the complex legacy she received from her mother and their difficult life in New York. A riveting and powerful memoir about family – the ones we are born into, and the strange way powerful bonds are formed with people who are “kin” through shared experience and perspective, is inspired in part by Orlandermith’s experiences in Paris at the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery where strangers from around the world make pilgrimages to the graves of such legendary artists as Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust and Richard Wright.