TAPER PLANS A WEEKLONG CELEBRATION

The Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum’s 20th-anniversary celebration week April 6-12 will have more than gala evening events to herald it, including (in the interest of personal awareness and conscience?) an exchange between an American astronaut and a Soviet cosmonaut.

Here’s a breakdown:

April 6: The whole enterprise gets launched with the publication of a commemorative book: “Reflections: The Taper at Twenty” ($25; $20 for Taper subscribers). That night the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is also honoring Davidson with an award in recognition of his 20-year achievement.

April 7: “A Tribute to John Houseman” lights up the theater at 8 p.m., with film clips, readings, testimonials and, of course, Houseman himself. Proceeds from the $35 ticket will go to establish a John Houseman directing fellowship.

April 8: The technical arts are profiled in the daytime hours. At 11 a.m., Chuck London moderates a seminar on sound design with Daniel Birnbaum and Jon Gottlieb, and at 2:30 p.m. Paulie Jenkins, Allen Lee Hughes and Jennifer Tipton discuss lighting.

Both events are free.

At 8 p.m., supermonologuist Spalding Gray (“Swimming to Cambodia,” “The Killing Fields”) takes the stage with “A Personal History of the Mark Taper Forum.” These instant memoirs will include on-the-spot interviews with actors, directors, designers, audience, board and staff members ($5).

April 9: On this actual birth date of the Taper, Mayor Tom Bradley and founding board member Gregory Peck will be on hand for a rededication (11:30 a.m., free).

At 2:30 p.m., director Jose Quintero (celebrated for his stagings of Eugene O’Neill and responsible for last year’s superb “The Iceman Cometh”) will duplicate one of his master classes on directing and put an audience through the investigation of an O’Neill text (also free).

At 8 that night is the exchange between space travelers Vladimir Alexandrovich Dzhanibekov and Taylor G. Wang. Under discussion will be the frontiers of the future and whether space, in fact, provides a one-world perspective. Caltech President Marvin L. Goldberger moderates ($10).

April 10: The Taper’s Improvisational Theatre Project (theater for young people that tours the schools) will offer a public performance (8 p.m.) of Colin Thomas’ “One Thousand Cranes,” based on a theme of world peace ($6 for adults, $3 for children).

April 11: Climaxing the week will be a “Taper 20 Gala Celebration,” more social than intellectual. This black-tie birthday benefit begins at 8 p.m. with a cabaret of songs, dance and other memories featuring a multitude of former Taper performers--from A (Gwen Arner, who was in “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine”) to Z (Stephanie Zimbalist, from “The Tempest”). A champagne reception on the Plaza will cap the evening.

Proceeds from this $250-per-person event will go to support future Taper activities.

April 12: A repeat performance of the ITP’s “One Thousand Cranes” will be offered at 11:30 a.m. In addition, an adaptation of Studs Terkel’s “The Good War” will play the Itchey Foot Ristorante at 5:30 p.m. as part of the Taper’s Sundays at the Itchey Foot.

A reminder, too, that ongoing that week at Taper, Too (under the Pilgrimage Bowl) will be Wally Shawn’s polemical “Aunt Dan and Lemon.” (It opens April 3.)

And there it is. The folks at the Taper, by the way, say they’d love to hear from anyone who’s worked there in the past. If you have, call Vivian Elliff at (213) 972-7353. Other information: (213) 972-7373.

CAST CHANGE: David Marshall Grant, who is producing and directing “Bent” (opening April 5), is now also playing the lead.

Steven Bauer, who had been cast in the role, opted for another in Columbia’s “The Beast” (the film version of William Mastrosimone’s play, “Nanawatai,” in which Bauer had appeared on stage at the Los Angeles Theatre Center). Grant’s takeover, said Catalina’s Frank Levy, is not a matter of ego:

“He came to the rescue because he knows the blocking and to avoid another postponement of a show that was postponed once already.”

“Bruce Lee Is Dead and I’m Not Feeling Too Good Either” should not be construed as a prophetic title. True, the Matt Williams play has moved from the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Theatre 4 (the downtown complex’s only 99-seat space) to the Zephyr on Melrose. But the reasons are simple.

There was a brief uncertainty as to whether Actors’ Equity, which, under a renegotiated contract, no longer allows LATC to use that theater as a Waiver space, would approve such use of it by others.

“There was a good indication it would,” said “Bruce Lee” general manager Harry Cymer, “but we couldn’t risk the waiting. We would have risked losing our director (Susann Brinkley), who had a prior commitment in Florida.”

So “Bruce Lee” now opens at the Zephyr (“It suited our needs”) April 7 instead of April 3--a delay small enough to threaten nothing.

COME-AGAIN DEPARTMENT: Is it true that, despite the mixed reviews garnered by their previous foray into Equity Waiver (“Three Plays of Love and Hate,” 1981) Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes are returning to the wicked stage?

True, all true. A new Cassavetes play called “A Woman of Mystery” is apparently in rehearsal, directed by the author, starring Rowlands and featuring Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Rosa Parfrey and Woody Harrelson. Composer Bo Harwood and designer James Eric complete the team. The place is the Court Theatre. Opening date?

Undetermined. Stay tuned.