Confusion Over Taper Ticket Policy : Discount programs yield a charge of ‘bait and switch.’ Theater officials deny the accusation.

It had been a half-hour wait in line at the Mark Taper Forum, but Irving A. Pinsky of Culver City was determined to use an advertised “pay what you can” opportunity to buy a $5 ticket.

Suddenly, at 10 minutes before curtain time, he was informed “that all the advertised tickets were gone--but we could buy seats for $10 each.”

“Needless to say, we were surprised,” wrote Pinsky in a letter to The Times, but he bought the tickets anyway and entered the theater. “Our shock came when we discovered there were plenty of empty seats even after we and the others forked over the $10.”

Pinsky accused the Taper of “a bait-switching scam.”

Here’s the explanation from Center Theatre Group audience development director Robert Schlosser:

There were empty seats because some subscribers invariably fail to show up. If they call in to “donate” the tickets they can’t use, they can be re-sold. If subscribers don’t call in and don’t show up, the already-purchased seats stay empty.

Also, on his way into the theater, Pinsky ran into the “public rush” program: At 10 minutes before each performance (except Saturday nights), an allotment of remaining tickets goes on sale for $10--even at the one or two performances of each production for which tickets are earlier sold on a “pay what you can” basis.

Schlosser said that “an informal quota” of about 100 tickets is set aside for “pay what you can” at the selected performances, “and it’s at the discretion of the box office to exceed the quota--or to cut it off, particularly when we get to the time when ‘public rush’ starts.” At the performance Pinsky attended, 172 “pay what you can” tickets were sold (median price: $5) prior to the onset of “public rush.”

But couldn’t “public rush” be dropped on pay-what-you-can days? Who would complain?

The people who show up for “public rush” without realizing it’s a “pay what you can” day, replied Schlosser. “We always keep (at least) a half-dozen rush tickets” for the 10-minutes-to-curtain-time crowd, “even when we’re selling out.” Those tickets might be snapped up long before “rush” time on a pay-what-you-can day.

Pinsky said that he and others in his party that day won’t return to the Taper: “I can be taken once, but I don’t want to be taken again.”

For those who want to take the plunge, however, both wings of the Center Theatre Group have scheduled “pay what you can” performances of current productions: today’s 2 p.m. matinee of “The Vortex” at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood, and the evening performances of “Jelly’s Last Jam” at the Taper on March 29 and 31. The offers are good only at the box offices. Tickets must be purchased with cash and are, yes, Subject To Availability.

The Lawees: The L.A. Weekly spreads the wealth in its annual awards to small theater productions.

This year, 19 shows shared 24 awards. Although Theatre/Theater’s “Michi’s Blood” was named “Production of the Year” and Golden Theatre’s “Noises Off” won “Revival of the Year” honors, neither won any of the other awards.

Five shows garnered two awards each: “Call of the Wild” at the Powerhouse, “Club Soda” at St. Genesius Theater, “I Hate!” at the Cast Theatre, the one-act “Moon City” at Theatre of NOTE and “Performance Anxiety” at East West Players.

Sheri Glaser of “Family Secrets” and Gordana Rashovich of “A Shayna Maidel” added Lawees to their Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards, announced last week.

Ben Donenberg of Shakespeare Festival L.A. picked up a humanitarian award for his troupe’s food collections for the needy.

The awards were presented Monday in the kitschy splendor of the Mayan, a downtown Los Angeles movie palace turned nightclub. “I’m amazed to find it’s not run by Gordon Davidson or Bill Bushnell--yet,” observed award presenter Alan Mandell.

The comedy trio Culture Clash kept the show moving with a series of funny bits and a wardrobe of funny outfits.

The dramatic highlight of the evening was a dynamic, virtually wordless excerpt from “Call of the Wild” that transcended the big hall’s problematic acoustics better than the evening’s other excerpts from nominated shows.

Bye Bye, ‘Birdie’ Plans to bring “Bye Bye Birdie” to the Music Center this summer are off. After the tour plays Long Beach (May 11-26), Seattle and San Francisco, the producers are committed to a July 1-14 engagement in Dallas, immediately preceding the dates that were penciled in for Los Angeles. After that, “it would be too much wear and tear” on the sets and cast to return to the West Coast before venturing East, said co-producer Fran Weissler. She added that Denver, Chicago and Toronto are now in the running for that end-of-July slot.

Skirball-Kenis Moves Up: The Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre, known for its series of single-night play readings, moves up the production ladder a notch this week with a three-performance workshop production of “Dynamic Products,” a comedy by Ron House of “El Grande de Coca Cola” fame, at UCLA’s Little Theatre beginning Friday. Admission is free. Information: (213) 284-9027.

‘Willkommen’: Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Degenerate Art” exhibit has spawned “Cabaret Verboten,” a Mark Taper Forum revue of irreverent songs and sketches from the Weimar period, at the Itchey Foot restaurant, opening April 7. Information: (213) 972-7392.