Taper’s ‘88-89 Season ‘Internationalizes’; Variety Arts’ ‘Vaude-a-Thon’ Begins Today

The legacy of the Olympic Arts Festival and the dawn of glasnost are growing more and more evident on stage. Cultural exchange is the order of the day and the new byword is internationalize.

Not only is the Mark Taper Forum exporting three of its productions to Czechoslovakia (they’re there now), but also the six plays it plans for its 1988-89 season are set in Russia, Spain, South Africa, New York and California.

The playwrights come from Spain, Canada, South America and the United States. Their themes--not too surprisingly--cover cultural identity and class division as well as gender bending, race relations and moral responsibility .

Here’s the line-up:

“Nothing Sacred,” an adaptation of Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” by Canadian playwright George F. Walker launches the season Sept. 8-Oct. 23. Terrence McNally’s enchanted “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” an Off-Broadway hit about middle-aged love and commitment will be staged by Paul Benedict and may feature one of its original stars, Kathy Bates (Nov. 17-Dec. 18). “Dutch Landscape,” written by Jon Robin Baitz, examines the moral odyssey of an American family living in South Africa, (Jan. 19-March 5).

The fourth show, “Sansei,” is a piece of personal and cross-cultural reminiscence created and performed by the Grammy-nominated jazz-rock band, Hiroshima (March 23-May 7). Manuel Puig’s “Mystery of the Rose Bouquet,” staged by Robert Allan Ackerman, will explore the connection of two women who are patient and nurse (June 1-25, 1989). And the season closes with Adrian Mitchell’s adaptation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca luminous classic, “The Mayor of Zalamea” (July 13-Aug. 27).

It’s a potpourri that offers something old, something new and several gradations in between. In certain ways, “Sansei” and “Dutch Landscape” best define the season by being at once the most removed and most connected to us.

The former, to be staged by Taper resident director Robert Egan, is a synthesis through music, poetry and dance of the histories of the four Los Angeles-born-and-reared members of the band, who will be played by actors and will also play themselves.

“It’s a band,” said Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson, “that uses electronic equipment on one side of the stage and Japanese drums and a koto (Japanese zither) on the other. Some of (this work) reminds me of the early development days of ‘Zoot Suit.’ ”

“Landscape,” which Davidson intends to direct himself, is written by another Los Angeleno who spent some growing up years in South Africa. “It has a lot to do with the idealism of the ‘60s in the ‘80s,” Davidson said. “This (American) family brings a liberal and progressive fervor to that country (South Africa) and it’s about the price you pay, what you give up. I find it very touching--and I hope funny.”

“Mystery of the Rose Bouquet,” which was staged by Ackerman in London, Davidson described as “extremely theatrical and very haunting. It lends itself to a lot of imaginative staging. This play has a sense of universality at the same time that it explores a South American sensitivity.” And in the Turgenev/Walker “Nothing Sacred,” he sees more than a generational clash. “It’s at once period and contemporary. It’s (about) holding on to values while you know something new is coming.”

In addition to the regular season, Davidson plans two internationally flavored special events and will make room in the spring for the ITP (Improvisational Theatre Project), its resident theater for children which tours the schools, to offer public performances at the Taper.

The first special event will be eight performances (Oct. 25-30) of the Haifa Municipal Theatre of Israel’s controversial “The Soul of a Jew--the Last Night of Otto Weininger,” written by “Ghetto’s” playwright, Joshua Sobol.

It probes the mind of the turn-of-the-century Viennese Jewish philosopher (and notorious anti-Semite), dissecting his struggle between faith and ideals. The piece will be performed in Hebrew with simultaneous translation.

Finally, as a holiday treat (Dec. 20-31), the Taper will import France’s “Le Cirque Imaginaire” (“The Imaginary Circus”), with pantomimist-juggler-magician Jean-Baptiste Thierree and his wife, dancer-aerialist Victoria Chaplin (daughter of Charlie). They’re expected to keep us in thrall with the help of “one small child, an overweight rabbit and assorted ducks and parrots.” One has the distinct feeling language won’t be a problem here.

“(Thierree) doesn’t really speak English,” Davidson acknowledged. “He’s one of the few French people I’ve met who made me feel it was OK to speak bad French.”

Still no Taper repertory? “Not this year,” he sighed. “We don’t have the money. But we’ll get back to it. I can be very persistent.”

LAST HURRAH: Beginning today at 6 p.m., the valiant Variety Arts Center, back in bankruptcy court (after owner Milt Larsen’s failure to sell the center’s five-story building on South Figueroa Street), is staging a three-day survival vaude-a-thon. For $10, a person may wander its halls, meet some of the celebrities whose pictures grace its walls and even walk away with some prize autographs scrawled on “blocks” that emulate the stone signature blocks that once adorned the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard (now the Aquarius).

Friday, 24 hours of nonstop entertainment begins, kicked off by Milton Berle, with such top names as Mickey Rooney and Anthony Newley expected to perform.

It may be the Variety Arts Center’s last gasp. The debt-ridden archival organization could have its fate decided Tuesday by a judge who will choose among four potential buyers of this historical landmark. Two of these may be interested in keeping the center where it is, but don’t hold your breath. . . .

Information: (213) 623-9100.

PIECES AND BITS: A revival of the Anthony Shaefer whodunit, “Sleuth,” with Stacy Keach and Maxwell Caulfield, will revisit old haunts, slipping into the Ahmanson for two weeks starting July 6. The last time “Sleuth” played the Ahmanson was 1972 with Anthony Quayle and Donal Donnelly. . . .

The Company of Angels, whose Hollywood theater was gutted by fire April 27, will reopen its music-industry “Twelfth Night” at the Valley’s West End Playhouse June 3. “But that’s it for now,” said spokesman Paul Brennan about the 28-year-old company’s future. “We intend to have some sort of fund-raiser, but don’t know what or when. . . .”

Amanda Plummer, Brent Jennings, Jo Henderson and Jon DeVries have been cast in Lee Blessing’s “Two Rooms” (formerly called “A Quality of Tears”) opening June 26 at the La Jolla Playhouse. Not unlike Blessing’s “A Walk in the Woods,” which played La Jolla last year, it’s another humanly scaled political play, this one set in Beirut and Washington.