Brosius: ‘Mixed Feelings’ in Leaving Youth Theater : Theater: Although the artistic director of P.L.A.Y. has high praise for the Taper’s support, he says the ‘prospects for growth in the short term were certainly limited.’

Honolulu’s gain is Los Angeles’ loss. Peter Brosius, the respected artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum’s youth theater P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth) for 12 years, has announced that he is leaving the Taper to become the artistic director of the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, one of the nation’s flagship children’s theaters.

Under Brosius, P.L.A.Y. (formerly the Improvisational Theatre Project), which had its roots in Paul Sills’ Story Theatre and began in 1971 under the direction of Peter Bonerz, has been the Southland’s leading professional theater for youth. It has gained national and international recognition for passionate, multicultural works that explore serious youth and community concerns without compromising a strong artistic aesthetic.

Among its best works are Lisa Loomer’s “Bocon!,” a mythic tale of a young political refugee from Central America; “Robinson Crusoe,” an absurdist fable from Italy about isolation and connection, and the company’s landmark “One Thousand Cranes,” a powerful Cold War-era drama by Colin Thomas about a child’s fears of nuclear war that was filmed for the Lincoln Center Library Theatre’s permanent collection.

Although he has high praise for the Taper’s support, Brosius chafed under budgetary and space limitations that curtailed his hope that P.L.A.Y. could one day serve as the core of a permanent theater center for young people. Public performances, few in comparison to those in the schools, were held not at the Taper but at such venues as Barnsdall Art Park and the Natural History Museum.

“I leave with very mixed feelings,” Brosius said in a recent telephone interview from Washington, where he was participating in the Kennedy Center’s “New Voices, New Visions” playwrights festival. “The levels of discussion [at the Taper and in Los Angeles] about race, about politics of work, about community, are very sophisticated and were great teachers.

“But the prospects for growth in the short term were certainly limited,” he said. “It is hard for me to leave not having established a space for young people’s theater. I hope that the work continues--the young people need it, the artists need it, the life of the city needs it.”

P.L.A.Y.’s main public exposure has been in the schools, including intensive theater projects involving at-risk young people. An unapologetic theater activist, Brosius is unflagging in his fierce conviction that good theater can “light a fire,” stir debate and broaden horizons. The Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle, in a rare recognition of youth theater, awarded Brosius’ group its Margaret Harford Award for Distinguished Achievement.

Brosius is also a Taper staff director with extensive credits in adult theater. He directed last year’s acclaimed West Coast premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom” at the Odyssey Theatre. He has worked in play development at companies across the country, including South Coast Repertory and Robert Redford’s Sundance Playwrights Institute.

With characteristic fervor, Brosius--who will relocate with his wife, playwright Rosanna Staffa, and their toddler daughter--feels that the 40-year-old professional Honolulu Theater for Youth offers an “extraordinary” opportunity to expand his vision.

“The idea of having a company of actors to work with, to develop projects with, to investigate both issues on the island and in the culture at large, the idea that there is already in place a full-time education department doing playwriting with young people . . . that was extremely enticing.” As was the fact that the theater’s board “is totally focused on issues related to young people.”

Gordon Davidson, the Taper’s artistic director, acknowledges Brosius’ frustrations. “I’ll miss him,” he said. “I think he’s been an important part of the theater here. [In Honolulu] he’ll be able to do more work--a full season of plays. I’ve been concerned we haven’t been growing in the way I’d like, and I don’t see tremendous growth in the near future because of financial considerations. . . . Somewhere out there is a major funder that we haven’t found yet.”

It’s a “little premature,” Davidson cautioned, but he said he hopes to “incorporate aspects of what P.L.A.Y. does” at the Taper’s proposed new mid-size alternative space at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Davidson added that Brosius and he “have already begun talking about ways that there can be an interaction between Hawaii and here. It could be a developmental partner for work that eventually winds up here.”

No decision has been made regarding Brosius’ successor. “We’re going to take stock and see in what direction to go,” Davidson said. “There may be some changes in the format. . . . We’ll make a national search for a variety of possible replacements.”