New Work, New Home

Three men have been sent to Jamaica to spark an uprising of the slaves against the British, on behalf of the French. A master, a slave and a peasant morph into alter-identities, maneuvering about in a strikingly surreal world where the principles of colonialism hold sway as palpably as those of Marx and Freud. This is Heiner Muller’s “The Task,” staged by L. Kenneth Richardson.

Two young women hang out at a Southern California mall, where they run into a young con-man/hustler and his sidekick. Here in prefab paradise, these unmoored souls try, however fitfully, to connect. But the encounters only serve to lay bare the anomie of their purposeless lives. This is John Steppling’s “The Thrill,” directed by Robert Egan.

A repressed Mormon man and his drug-addled, sex-starved wife. Roy Cohn. A man dying of AIDS and his fearful Jewish intellectual lover. A flamboyant drag queen named Belize. These are some of the people caught up in a visionary vortex of American hypocrisy in Tony Kushner’s “Millennium Approaches,” a work-in-progress that would evolve into part of “Angels in America,” staged by Oskar Eustis.

All of these were Mark Taper Forum productions. Yet loyal patrons of the round theater at the Music Center may be forgiven for not recognizing them. After all, these plays were not seen downtown. They were part of the Taper’s “second stage” producing arm-known as the Taper, Too-at the John Anson Ford Theatre in the Hollywood Hills. And they were seen in the Taper, Too’s heyday, roughly a decade ago.

What has become of such provocative fare? Because the Taper, unlike most theaters of comparable size and stature, doesn’t have a second stage, such productions are without a home to call their own.

Most regional theaters have a second, and sometimes even third or fourth, space. These venues are usually smaller than the so-called main stage. They’re typically used for work that is more experimental, or that demands a different physical environment, or is not yet ready for the challenges of a larger theater. Philosophically, it is also where the next generation of artists may be most easily nurtured, without the pressures of a large and often comparatively staid subscriber audience. In Southern California, for example, both South Coast Repertory and the La Jolla Playhouse have thriving primary and secondary stages.

But the Taper has instead borrowed various venues over the years or, since 1995, gone without one. Until last year.

Taper, Too was revived in 2000 at the Actors’ Gang in Hollywood and is presenting its second season there through July 1. The season consists of four plays: Lynn Manning’s “Weights,” which closes today; Sunil Kuruvilla’s “Rice Boy,” opening April 25; Jessica Goldberg’s “Good Thing,” opening May 23; and John S. Walch’s “The Circumference of a Squirrel,” opening June 17.

But a borrowed venue has drawbacks. So, for decades, Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson has envisioned a permanent second space. And that dream appears closer than it has been in many years, with plans to convert the Culver Theater, a former movie house, moving toward realization.

Although this project has been on the drawing board for roughly four years, Davidson and his board have finally reached an important point: On April 2, the board voted to move ahead on an agreement with the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, which will provide the land and building to the Taper parent organization, the Center Theatre Group, via a long-term, low-cost lease. The agreement, which is expected to be finalized in June or July, would allow the next phase of design and fund-raising to proceed for the $7 million to $8 million facility.

No architect has yet been hired, but the design calls for a flexible 300-to 400-seat theater as well as a 99-seat black box venue. The facility would accommodate not only productions and workshops, but the Taper’s young audiences program, Performing for Los Angeles Youth, known as P.L.A.Y.

“My dream is to have a permanent home where this work can be done,” says Davidson, sitting in his Music Center Annex office filled with mementos and photos from his decades at the helm of both the 745-seat Taper and, since 1989, the 1,600-2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre. “This is very important to me, because I think it is part of my legacy.

“It’s not about empire-building,” Davidson says. “I’m just trying to create a home for artists and for audiences, and I think the variety of venues is important.”

Much of the impetus behind the Taper’s renewed push for a second space has to do with a generational shift affecting American theater. The Taper has been feeling increased internal pressures largely due to the presence of a number of artists who joined its staff in the past half-dozen years, as a result of infusions of multicultural grant money in the ‘90s.

These artists represent the changing-albeit, slowly changing-demographics of American theater. To be sure, the Taper has made more progress than most institutions of its kind in bringing diversity to the ranks of its staff and maintaining lab programs to foster the work of multicultural artists-despite decreasing grant funds. However, after a decade of multicultural advances, these staff artists have grown impatient with the relatively limited access to the Taper main stage.

“We’ve gotten restless with our own opportunities here, and I think the staff started to say it’s time for us to produce our way and with the kind of artists that matter to us,” says playwright-performer Luis Alfaro, who co-directs the Taper’s Latino Theatre Initiative with Diane Rodriguez. “It comes out of frustration, a horror at the lack of diversity on the main stage. So there’s a real push to see us produced and not be limited by that 750-seat stage that demands so much and for me represents another generation.”

Indeed, Davidson is well aware of the discontent among the ranks. “The opportunities are limited by the structure, and that’s not healthy,” Davidson says.

One question, however, is whether the second space becomes the de facto home of artists whose work is considered too risky for the main stage-and whether certain types of work will become effectively confined to the second space, thus precluding main-stage consideration.

On this question, Davidson is politic. “I don’t see the Taper, Too-or whatever we’ll wind up calling the new space-as a ghetto for the people who we’ll take care of there and let other people do the main stage. It will help this kind of synergy between the two.”

It’s true some past works have moved from a second stage-production to a main-stage run. “When we did have a Taper, Too operating, for instance, we found ‘Stand-Up Tragedy.’ It was very exciting in Taper, Too, and then we moved it to the main stage,” says Taper producing director Egan. “But I don’t think that should be the goal of the second space. It’s not a tryout space for the main stage.”

In the current Taper, Too season, however, the difference of perspective becomes more clear. “Weights,” directed by Egan, was presented for five performances in last year’s Taper, Too season. It is an autobiographical solo inspired by the night Manning was shot and blinded. Walch’s “The Circumference of a Squirrel,” directed by Mark Rucker, is a multi-character solo about one man’s trials and tribulations.

“I would say off the bat that ‘Circumference of a Squirrel’ and ‘Weights,’ unless they were packaged in a slightly different way-meaning like a rotating rep of interesting one-person performers-belong in a more intimate setting,” Egan says.

The two other plays in the Taper, Too season may hold more promise. Kuruvilla’s “Rice Boy,” directed by Chay Yew, is a memory play that follows the experiences of an East Indian boy born in Canada. Goldberg’s “Good Thing,” directed by Neel Keller, focuses on four troubled young people struggling with a variety of personal dilemmas. “Sunil’s play is a highly experimental piece in terms of its form and how he works the narrative, so I would say this production is really important to him to see how it works with an audience,” Egan says. “And then it could have potential life in a bigger space. Jessica’s piece is very delicate; who knows? I could see that happening in a bigger space.”

Others, however, are more adamant about the need for a necessary progression between the venues. “These four plays all came out of the New Work Festival, and I can see all four of these plays on the main stage,” says Alfaro, who produces the New Work Festival under Egan. “My job is to make everybody understand that. The New Work Festival has to lead to Taper, Too and that should lead to the main stage. That’s our new agenda.”

Yew, director of the Asian Theatre Workshop who also produces for Taper, Too under Egan, agrees that a second-stage production “could and should transfer to the main stage if it’s a financially successful engagement.” However, he adds, “it is imperative to say that this is not the goal of having a second stage-using it as a financial litmus test for the main stage-and that the plays that do not end up on the main stage are just as, if not more, exciting and provocative.

“Many theater artists are challenged and seduced by the Taper’s main stage to want to create a work there,” he says. “However, most of the artistic staff has never had much opportunity to work on the main stage, with or without a second space.”

Is there room for compromise? Of course. But it may not come easily. “A lot of the modern thinking about how to program involves mixing it up, not doing only the new plays in the smaller theater, but trying to cross the tracks a little bit,” says resident director Lisa Peterson, one of the few staff artists to have worked on the main stage. She has directed there twice and will mark her third outing with the Taper’s upcoming “The Body of Bourne,” written by staff artist John Belluso, who co-directs the Other Voices Project with founder and co-director Victoria Ann Lewis. “But with the Taper, the difference in size is so great, that kind of crossover might be hard.”

Founded in 1967 as an outgrowth of UCLA’s the Theatre Group, the Taper presents a year-round season that typically consists of five or six plays. From the start, however, Davidson had envisioned more for the Taper than main-stage programming.

The first effort at secondary programming was known as New Theater for Now, which began as a series of Monday-night readings in the Taper. From 1967 to 1986, New Theater for Now provided a place for new plays to be heard. The format changed over the years, but the intent remained developmental.

The Taper Lab, another development forum, has long been the theater’s umbrella for workshops and readings that take place throughout the year. The Lab was also the precursor to the New Work Festival, which has been the Taper’s primary outlet for public workshops and readings for the last 13 years.

The Taper, Too was launched in 1983 and lasted until 1992, when it fell victim to budget cuts. It consisted of an annual season of fully staged productions, housed at the John Anson Ford Theatre.

Taper, Too at the Ford lasted in reduced form for several more years, until 1995. “And then the county wanted the facility back, and I was without a home,” says Davidson.

Since then, the New Work Festival has been the primary outlet for public workshops and readings. The festival, which has from its inception been produced by Egan, has had several temporary homes, including the Falcon Theatre in Burbank and its current location, at the Actors’ Gang.

Meanwhile, the Taper has continued the search for a second space. Roughly five years ago, the Taper seemed close to closing a deal for a warehouse-type space at the Bergamot Station complex in Santa Monica. That deal fell through, however, when benefactor Hiro Yamagata pulled out.

Shortly after that, Culver City emerged as a viable possibility. But progress has been slow-at least until recently.

“About two years ago, I became the agitational voice in the institution, saying, we’ve got these great artists here and we are not giving them opportunities beyond development to,” Egan says. “We’ve got to start producing or these people won’t be around here very long. Then we cobbled together enough money to bring Taper, Too back alive.”

Last year, the Taper revived the Taper, Too. And while the first season at the Actors’ Gang went well, it wasn’t the same as having a permanent second home.

“I think we are suffering greatly in terms of our relationships with writers,” Egan says. “We can’t provide enough production possibilities. We only have these five or six slots on the main stage, and it’s almost an 800-seat theater with thousands of subscribers.”

But it’s not only about writers. “A second space will give us a much better possibility to develop more significant bonds with artists within L.A.,” Egan says. “There’s going to be more opportunities for actors. It would also become possible for us to present local theater companies. It would be great to do some kind of interaction with the Actors’ Gang or the Evidence Room.”

The plan is to make the Culver Theater a multipurpose theater center. Egan envisions expanding Taper, Too there, with a slate of five or six plays. The New Work Festival would be there, and P.L.A.Y. would have a bigger presence. “We’d like the space to become a kind of synergistic home for L.A. theater artists,” Egan says, “where people can come and use rehearsal rooms and book the space for small productions.”

The only thing standing in the way appears to be money. Davidson said extra efforts are being made to raise an endowment. But in the meantime, he says “we’re prepared to start small.”

“Any new thing brings a sense of risk to it,” he says. “But I’m pretty confident that there’s an audience out there and that there’s a pool of artists that want to work, and we can bring the two together, and that will enhance the theater scene in general.”

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* Taper, Too, 2001 at Actors’ Gang, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Ends July 1. $20. (213) 628-2772.