Does Taper’s Davidson Have an Heir Apparent? Let’s Ask

Might Robert Egan succeed Gordon Davidson, whenever Davidson decides to retire as artistic director of the theater he launched 26 years ago, the Mark Taper Forum?

The question has been brought to the fore, now that Egan, 43, has been named the Taper’s first “producing director,” moved up from “associate artistic director,” his job since 1989.

“I hope so,” Egan said. “I like to think we wouldn’t go through this process if it didn’t mean that down the line, when Gordon is ready, the artistic directorship would pass to me.” But no commitment has been made, he said, “and it would be premature to set a date on it.”

“One would hope he would be in a position to do that,” Davidson said. “I’m concerned that the same thing doesn’t happen at the Taper that happened at the New York Shakespeare Festival” (where founder Joseph Papp was succeeded by JoAnne Akalaitis, an appointment that didn’t last long).

The subject of succession hasn’t been discussed by the Center Theatre Group board, said chairman Lawrence Ramer. But Egan is “very talented and very well-regarded by the board.”

Egan had been offered other opportunities to be a top dog in recent years--at a theater in the Midwest and at a theater school in Southern California, he said. He took a sabbatical last year to consider his options, but he decided to stay at the Taper after Davidson pledged, in Egan’s words, to “try to create a position that would allow us to carry the torch together.”

Since Davidson took on the extra job of running Center Theatre Group’s other wing, the Ahmanson subscription series, in 1989, “he hasn’t been able to spend as much time on the (Taper) floor, running day-to-day operations,” said Egan.

Egan was brought to L.A. to revitalize the Taper’s new-play development program, he said, and he believes he did so. Now “we’ve begun to revitalize the mainstage,” he said, acknowledging “there was a time when we weren’t doing as much new and exciting work. But now we’re back on track.”

Egan’s isn’t the only promotion. Resident director Oskar Eustis has taken Egan’s former title as associate artistic director, and staff producer Corey Beth Madden is now the associate producing director.