Taper Still Strives for 2nd Stage

As Oskar Eustis leaves his job as associate artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum to become artistic director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., he says he’s “thrilled with what I did in L.A.” But he cited one major unfinished task:

“If I had stayed, I would have devoted enormous energy to try to get a functional second stage going” for the Taper.

Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson has sought a mid-sized theater in the 250- to 400-seat range for years. Money is not the main problem, Davidson said last week: “If we can find or create the right space, we’ll find the money.”

Unlike South Coast Repertory, Old Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse--where mid-sized second stages were built within a few steps of the mainstage--the Taper can’t create one within its own plant, Davidson said. The Taper used the Aquarius in Hollywood as a second stage in 1978-1982 at seating capacities ranging from 450 to 1,200 but lacked the money for necessary renovations. And the 99-seat Taper, Too is “better suited as a lab,” Davidson said.

Davidson had recently assigned Eustis the task of overseeing the mid-sized stage search. Eustis was particularly interested in it because many of the plays he helped develop at the Taper had to go elsewhere for full productions.

“Why Things Burn,” for example. A Marlane Meyer play set largely in Los Angeles as the first Rodney G. King beating verdicts are announced, it was commissioned by the Taper and championed by Eustis. But its recent premiere was at the 160-seat Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Plays like “Why Things Burn” might have done well at a Taper second stage but probably shouldn’t be asked to attract the 48,000 playgoers who would see a sold-out mainstage run, Eustis said.

Eustis is best known to the L.A. public for his controversial staging of “Julius Caesar” (which he had earlier directed at Trinity Rep) in 1991 and for “Angels in America,” which he co-directed with Tony Taccone in 1992. He brought “Angels” with him from the now-defunct Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, where he was artistic director in the ‘80s. But “Angels” playwright Tony Kushner chose George C. Wolfe over Eustis to direct “Angels” on Broadway.

The recent promotion of Robert Egan to Taper producing director set up Egan as Davidson’s heir apparent. Closer ties between Davidson and Egan are “completely appropriate,” Eustis said. So when Trinity came knocking, he found himself asking, “What else am I expecting to happen here?”

Davidson isn’t sure if a new associate artistic director will be named. “I don’t go with job slots, I go with people,” Davidson said. “If you try to fit someone into the same shoes, you might get a tight fit.” But he said he would certainly reassign the task of searching for that second stage, though he’s not yet sure to whom.

MONEY MAN: The Taper and its sister theater, the Ahmanson, have a new chief fund-raiser. Patrick Veitch, the new director of development at Center Theatre Group, spent much of the ‘70s as director of marketing at the Metropolitan Opera, much of the ‘80s as head of the Australian Opera and 1989-91 as president of the Pennsylvania Ballet. In 1991 he relocated to Southern California, where he has worked as a consultant.

GUNN TRIBUTE: The Negro Ensemble Company will sponsor a tribute to actor Moses Gunn, who died Dec. 16, at Los Angeles Theatre Center Monday at 7:30 p.m. Gunn had performed at LATC in “Fool for Love,” “Boesman and Lena” and “Viva Detroit.” Information: (310) 281-8811.*