Taper Offers ‘Cycle’ Deals, Mulls London Production

“The plays strive for mythic power--and attain it,” wrote William A. Henry III in Time magazine.

“A unique opportunity to look west instead of east to see the theatrical sun come up,” chimed in Lawrence DeVine of the Detroit Free Press.

They were commenting on “The Kentucky Cycle” at the Mark Taper Forum (plus, in DeVine’s case, the concurrent “Two Trains Running” at the Doolittle Theatre).

No doubt about it, with out-of-town quotes like those and tickets selling for $75 for the two-part, six-hour epic, “The Kentucky Cycle” is a Big Deal. Here are a few ways it also can become Such a Deal:

* Stand in the Public Rush lines before a weeknight performance of Part 1 of the “Cycle.” At 7:50 p.m.--or even sooner, if seating availability warrants it--remaining tickets go on sale for $30 (for both parts). Because weeknight attendance has averaged only around 60% of capacity, good seats have been plentiful. The same discount is offered 10 minutes before the weekend matinees--which launch all-day “Cycle” marathons--but attendance at those has averaged more than 90% of capacity, so chances of obtaining a good seat then are much worse.

* Bring a non-perishable food item (to be donated to AIDS Project Los Angeles) and get two sets of tickets for the price of one for the March 10-11 performances. These special tickets go on sale at the box office Tuesday.

* Choose your own ticket price for the March 17-18 performances. But prepare to get to the box office early on March 17, when the pay-what-you-can tickets go on sale at 10 a.m.

All of the above offers are on a cash-only basis, with no more than two tickets sold per person. For more information or for an estimate of availability on any given day, call (213) 972-7373.

Contrary to earlier decrees, “Cycle” buyers need no longer restrict themselves to the matched pairs of performances that were laid out in the early ads. Subject to availability, you may now mate any Part 1 with any Part 2, depending on your schedule. However, tickets still are not sold individually to each part; you must buy the whole “Cycle.”

What’s the next destination for the “Cycle?” That was among the subjects the Center Theatre Group’s Gordon Davidson was discussing in London last week. One of the possibilities being talked about is that the “Cycle” could be the show with which the Taper could reciprocate for the Renaissance Theatre Company’s two productions at the Taper (“King Lear” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) two years ago.

But CTG Managing Director Charles Dillingham noted that the Renaissance “does ad hoc producing. They can help us rent a theater, but we’d be taking all the risk in that case.” So additional London producers would have to be found. New York producers are also said to be examining the “Cycle,” though Dillingham declined to name names.

SHAKESPEARE/LA PLANS: This summer’s production for Shakespeare Festival/LA will be “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” to be presented at the John Anson Ford Theatre and Citicorp Plaza for at least five weeks in July and August. Wednesday-night performances will be added this year, with a special emphasis on getting kids to attend that night. As usual, the only admission price requested will be canned food items, to be tripled in value by Vons and then donated to the Salvation Army and the L.A. Family Housing Corp.

CORNERSTONE PLANS: This summer also will mark the Los Angeles debut of the celebrated Cornerstone Theater Company, an itinerant troupe that has won national fame for staging its own adaptations of the classics in a host of tiny towns throughout America.

The company has been housed at the 18th Street Arts Complex in Santa Monica (near Highways, the performance art salon) for six weeks. But for its first active venture into the urban wilds, Cornerstone hopes to do a show with the residents of Angelus Plaza, a huge seniors housing complex (population: 1,200) on Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles.

The name of the show and the exact location of performances within the complex have not been selected. But the show has been tentatively scheduled for July 9-20, open to the public on a pay-what-you-can basis.

After that, Cornerstone plans to move to Pacoima for an August-December residency, culminating in public performances of a play about Pacoima that the company has commissioned from playwright Migdalia Cruz.

Commissioning a new play is a departure for Cornerstone, but then so is its presence in an urban environment. Except for a residency in Miami Beach in 1987, the seven-member troupe has worked primarily in small towns like Norcatur, Kan. (population: 180)--which Artistic Director Bill Rauch still refers to as the company’s “rural headquarters.”

Last week the Irvine Foundation awarded Cornerstone a $25,000 planning grant to facilitate its transition into the big city.

PLAYING AROUND: Playwrights can chat up at least two dozen literary managers and artistic directors of local theaters at Theatre West’s Playwrights Exchange March 17 at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Reservations: (213) 461-8882.