Photo Flash: Opening Night at Center Theatre Group's WAITING FOR GODOT

Samuel Beckett's modern classic "Waiting for Godot" opened March 21, 2012 and continues through April 22 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. The cast includes prominent Beckett actors Alan Mandell (Estragon) and Barry McGovern (Vladimir), Academy Award-nominee James Cromwell (Pozzo), Hugo Armstrong (Lucky) and LJ Benet (Boy); the director is Michael Arabian.

Check out the opening night photos below!

"Waiting for Godot" follows two days in the lives of a pair of characters, Estragon and Vladimir, whose apparent purpose in life is to wait by the side of the road for someone named Godot to arrive. This simple act, at once seemingly futile and hopeful, asks basic questions of human existence, why we are here and what is our ultimate destiny.

"Waiting for Godot" features set design by John Iacovelli, costume design by Christopher Acebo and lighting and projection design by Brian Gale. Casting is by Erika Sellin and the production stage manager is David S. Franklin.

"Waiting for Godot" premiered in 1953, to be followed by "Endgame," "Krapp's Last Tape" and "Happy Days," among others. In 1969 Beckett won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his plays, books and other writings. The famed critic Harold Hobson of The London Sunday Times wrote in 1955 after seeing the first London production of "Waiting for Godot" that the play is ". . . one of the most noble and moving plays of our generation . . . a play fused with tenderness for the whole human perplexity, with phrases that come like a sharp stab of beauty and pain." He also stated, "It is bewildering. It is exasperating. It is insidiously exciting . . . will securely lodge in a corner of your mind for as long as you live."

Tickets and information are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org, the Center Theatre Group box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre, or by calling (213) 628-2772.

Photo Credit: ©Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging