The Taper’s Real Agenda: Taking a Chance on a Writer’s Talent

Ralph Tropf (“The ‘House Arrest’ Agenda Is Showing.’ May 17) claims that he was raised in a liberal family and “was taught that it was wrong to give someone special treatment because of race or gender.” Apparently index terms The Taper’s something good was happening to them. His claim that the Mark Taper Forum did Anna Deavere Smith’s “House Arrest” because she was “a woman of an ethnic minority” is as absurd as his claim that American theaters “produce such plays to exclusion.”

My guess is that the Taper took a chance on “House Arrest” because Smith is a unique and extraordinary artist whose work is, by its very nature, risky business. They took a chance on her because of “Twilight.” They took a chance on her because of “Fires in the Mirror.” There are thousands of other “women of ethnic minorities” that they wouldn’t take a chance on, just as they wouldn’t take a chance on an angry white male playwright who believes and tries to propagate the absurd notion that American theaters are doing seasons devoid of white males, angry or otherwise.

KEN NARASAKI

Santa Monica

While I fully agree that many decisions regarding plays produced are politically motivated, I do not agree that the only reason Anna Deavere Smith’s “House Arrest” was mounted was because of the color of her skin. To say so, as Ralph Tropf does, is not only an insult to a gifted theatrical artist but also exposes a Pandora’s box of ignorance and prejudice in Tropf himself.

You don’t need an MFA in theater arts or a play produced in Thousand Oaks to know that,over the 30-plus years of the Taper’s existence, it has produced many lousy plays by white male writers--more, I would guess, than they have of female and/or ethnic writers.

I’m sure Tropf would never have said a word if this was an Arthur Miller play. He probably would have taken it for granted that Miller deserves as much attention and as much production value as is available. Well, so does Smith.

ALEJANDRO MEMBRENO

Sherman Oaks