THEATER NOTES : Not Coming Soon to the Taper . . .

Sometimes it’s almost as interesting to notice what didn’t make the Mark Taper Forum season as what did.

One obvious omission from the list of shows that might make up the 1995-96 season, mailed to subscribers recently, was Derek Walcott’s adaptation of “The Odyssey.” It had been slated for the last slot in the current season until it was delayed to make room for the upcoming production of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class.” It supposedly was moved to next season--until this last mailing arrived with no trace of it.

“The Odyssey” would have been the most expensive show of the season, according to Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson. Now he’s trying to devise a cheaper way of staging it by sharing costs with the New York Shakespeare Festival or another theater in a co-production. “Since it’s a timeless story, it can hold a bit,” Davidson said.

Tony Kushner fans may have noticed that while the Taper will co-produce his “Slavs!” with La Jolla Playhouse this year, Kushner’s “The Heavenly Theatre,” initially scheduled for the 1993-94 season, then postponed, still isn’t on the Taper list. The Taper returned a $125,000 grant from the W. Alton Jones Foundation to do the show, but Davidson said that when Kushner “is ready to do it, we’ll do it. Unless it no longer seems appropriate.”

The Antaeus Company, the classical troupe that staged “The Wood Demon” at the Taper a year ago and still uses the Taper for workshops and readings, also isn’t represented on next season’s list. Company manager Dakin Matthews said the company committed to a path five years ago that was designed to lead to classical productions at the Taper, with rotating casts working under Actors’ Equity contracts. But now “there’s not much of a future down that path,” Matthews said. “We’re getting the message fairly clearly.”

Matthews is adapting two classical productions for the summer season at the Old Globe in San Diego, but he said the Antaeus wouldn’t want to dislodge existing companies at the Old Globe or elsewhere. So the company is considering doing its own productions at 99-seat theaters in Los Angeles. “People feel the need either to produce or to disband,” he said.

Asked about classical theater, Davidson noted that one piece by Marivaux, “Changes of Heart,” is on the list of candidates for next season. The Taper continues to work with Antaeus, he said, and he pinned his hopes for more full-fledged classical productions on the possibility that Center Theatre Group might acquire a mid-sized theater to complement the 760-seat Taper and the 1,200-plus-seat Ahmanson.

The venue that Davidson has his eye on is a space at Bergamot Station, an arts complex in Santa Monica used primarily by galleries. But in remarks to the Santa Monica City Council last week about how the space might be used, Davidson didn’t mention the classics.

Matthews sounds skeptical that any new space will change the Taper’s commitment toward classical theater: “I don’t see any indication that it would be any different in a third space. They still have to appeal to politicized constituencies, and I don’t think they have enough evidence that classical theater sells in this city.”

One of those constituencies is represented in the Latino Theatre Initiative, but it too might be missing from next season unless Oliver Mayer’s “Blade to the Heat” makes the final cut. “Our goal is to have a (mainstage) play a year” from the Initiative, Davidson said. “But if we don’t, we wouldn’t use that (Initiative) money.” He noted that the Initiative embraces more than just mainstage productions, and Initiative activities will appear on the mainstage even if they’re not part of the subscription season.*