Taper: A Legacy of Distinction

1967: The Taper opens with John Whiting’s “The Devils.” The season includes Friedrich Durrenmatt’s “The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi” and premieres of Romulus Linney’s “The Sorrows of Frederick” and Oliver Hailey’s “Who’s Happy Now?” The experimental series New Theatre for Now begins.

1968: The U.S. premiere of Heinar Kipphardt’s “In the Matter of

J. Robert Oppenheimer” addresses nuclear issues in the pre-SALT era and becomes the first Taper export to New York. Premieres of A.R. Gurney Jr.’s “The Golden Fleece” and John Guare’s “Muzeeka.”

1969: Directors include Tyrone Guthrie (“The House of Atreus”) and Harold Clurman (“Uncle Vanya”).

1970: “Paul Sills’ Story Theatre” and the premiere of Derek Walcott’s “The Dream on Monkey Mountain” go on to acclaim in New York and elsewhere. Gordon Davidson directs Harvey Perr’s “Rosebloom.”

1971: Premiere of “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine,” by and about war protester Daniel Berrigan, creates rumors of FBI agents stalking Taper halls. The Taper’s first Shakespeare, “Othello” with James Earl Jones, left. West Coast premiere of “Godspell.”

1972: “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” is the first Taper regular-

season play by a woman (Micki Grant). The Taper begins using a small space under the John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood for workshops; first called the Forum Lab, it later becomes Taper, Too.

1973: Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” is followed by Jules Tasca’s “The Mind With the Dirty Man.” Lanford Wilson’s “Hot l Baltimore.”

1974-75: Davidson directs Stacy Keach in “Hamlet” and the U.S. premiere of Christopher Hampton’s “Savages.” Athol Fugard directs his “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” and “The Island.”

1975-76: Michael Cristofer’s “The Shadow Box,” about cancer patients at a hospice, moves to New York and wins two Tonys and a Pulitzer. U.S. premiere of David Rudkin’s “Ashes.” The season includes repertory--six plays in two separate blocks--for the first time.

1976-77: Nine mainstage productions. A second Cristofer premiere, “Ice,” “The Robber Bridegroom,” “Vanities,” and “Travesties.” Rep season includes Doris Baizley’s “Bugs/Guns” and David Rush’s “Leander Stillwell.” The Taper receives a special Tony.

1977-78: Only four regular-season productions: Cristofer’s “Black Angel,” “for colored girls,” “Comedians,” “Getting Out.” Repertory suspended.

1978-79: Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit” is the first mainstream theatrical hit by a Latino writer and the first regular-season Taper premiere set in Los Angeles. It transfers to Hollywood’s Aquarius Theatre (which Center Theatre Group buys) and runs for eight months, but a later transfer to Broadway flops. Davidson directs “Terra Nova.” Anthony Hopkins in “The Tempest.”

1979-80: Mark Medoff’s “Children of a Lesser God,” about a deaf woman, premieres at the Taper, moves to Broadway, wins three Tonys, and becomes a 1986 film that brings revenue to the Taper. “I Ought to Be in Pictures,” the only Neil Simon play to premiere at the Taper, creates a flap when co-stars Tony Curtis and Dinah Manoff leave unexpectedly at intermission during one performance. Steven Tesich’s “Division Street” moves from the Taper to New York, unsuccessfully.

1980-81: The fourth and last Cristofer premiere, “The Lady and the Clarinet.” Repertory resumes with two plays. Literary cabaret begins at Itchey Foot restaurant.

1981-82: Two productions set in Los Angeles--”Number Our Days,” about old Jews in Venice, and the premiere of Christopher Hampton’s “Tales From Hollywood,” about World War II-era refugees. The Taper presents a New Theatre for Now season at the Aquarius, then sells the theater.

1982-83: U.S. premiere of Steven Berkoff’s “Metamorphosis.” Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play.” Jules Feiffer’s “Grown Ups.”

1983-84: Jose Quintero directs Kirstie Alley in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” A three-play rep season for the Olympic Arts Festival. A subscription series of small productions begins at the Taper, Too.

1984-85: Mark Medoff’s second Taper premiere, “The Hands of Its Enemy,” moves to the Huntington Hartford Theatre in Hollywood. The graphic prison play “In the Belly of the Beast” moves up from Taper, Too to the mainstage. Robert Egan stages his first mainstage show, “Measure for Measure.”

1985-86: New Theatre for Now suspended. Center Theatre Group and UCLA form Theatre Group Inc., buying the Huntington Hartford and renaming it for former owner James A. Doolittle. Davidson supervises programming there, including “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” “Gospel at Colonus” and “The Iceman Cometh.” A two-play rep season is staged at the Doolittle instead of the Taper. JoAnne Akalaitis’ immigration docudrama “Green Card,” at the Taper, gets heated responses.

1986-87: CTG tightens its belt, closing a Taper film and video wing and withdrawing from the partnership at the Doolittle, citing high costs there and decreased revenues from the Ahmanson. Premiere of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This,” starring John Malkovich and Joan Allen, which later moves to Broadway. Harold Prince directs a new musical, “Roza.” Two Joe Orton plays in rep.

1987-88: A musical “Babbitt.” Egan stages the U.S. premiere of Anthony Minghella’s “Made in Bangkok.” “The Colored Museum” moves from Taper to Westwood Playhouse. Repertory suspended.

1988-89: The Taper’s first Terrence McNally play, “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.” Its only Jon Robin Baitz premiere, “Dutch Landscape”--a legendary flop. Its first Asian American regular-season production, “Sansei.” Bill Cain’s “Stand-Up Tragedy” moves from the first New Work Festival to a small production at Taper, Too to the mainstage.

1989-90: U.S. premieres of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “Our Country’s Good” and Manuel Puig’s “Mystery of the Rose Bouquet,” with Anne Bancroft and Jane Alexander. Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre presents two Shakespeare plays with a cast that includes his then-wife Emma Thompson. “50/60 Vision” presents 13 absurdist plays in repertory.

1990-91: McNally’s “The Lisbon Traviata” with Nathan Lane and Richard Thomas. Premieres of George C. Wolfe’s “Jelly’s Last Jam” and Ariel Dorfman’s “Widows.” Oskar Eustis’ updated “Julius Caesar.” The Taper, Too subscription series ends.

1991-92: Robert Schenkkan’s two-part “The Kentucky Cycle,” previously part of the New Work Festival, moves from Seattle to the Taper to New York, becoming the first play to win a Pulitzer before a New York production. Kelsey Grammer in a “Richard II” that pits mostly white and mostly minority armies against each other. Itchey Foot literary cabaret closes.

1992-93: Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” a two-part epic on the AIDS crisis, gets its first full production at the Taper, goes on to win a Pulitzer and Tonys for each of its two parts. Anna Deavere Smith’s solo show “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” based on extensive interviews about L.A.’s 1992 riots, plays the Taper, then New York.

1993-94: Peter Sellars stages U.S. premiere of an adaptation of “The Persians.” Culture Clash’s “Carpa Clash.” The Taper cancels a scheduled “Oleanna” after playwright David Mamet insists on casting actor Lionel Smith, who is black. Smith charges the Taper with racism, which the theater denies. “Death and the Maiden” features an all-Latino cast. The in-house Antaeus Company presents “The Wood Demon,” using multiple casts. Premieres of Valdez’s “Bandido!”--as part of the $2.27-million Latino Theatre Initiative--and Lisa Loomer’s “The Waiting Room.”

1994-95: Eduardo Machado’s two-part “Floating Islands,” about a Cuban American family, misfires. The Taper imports its first play about U.S. Native Americans, “Black Elk Speaks,” from Denver. McNally’s “Master Class” is a hit.

1995-96: Kushner’s “Slavs!” is produced with La Jolla Playhouse. Marivaux’s “Changes of Heart.”

1996-97: “Having Our Say,” “Molly Sweeney,” “Arcadia,” “Valley Song.” Next month, the return of New Theatre for Now--mainstage productions of three new plays. “Nine Armenians” this summer.

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Compiled by Don Shirley