Theater in Seattle lures Taper’s Egan

Robert Egan, producing director of the Mark Taper Forum and a staff member there since 1984, will leave to become the artistic director of ACT Theatre in Seattle next year.

Egan is best known in Los Angeles as the founder and director of the Taper’s New Work Festival, an annual series of workshops and readings of developing plays. He also has staged a number of main-stage productions, including “Arcadia,” “Closer,” “Sansei” and Shakespeare’s “Richard II” and “Measure for Measure.”

For many years Egan was considered a possible replacement for Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson, who has announced that he will retire at the end of 2004. Davidson said Egan is “still a potential candidate” for the top Taper job, but the Center Theatre Group board that oversees the Taper was not able to respond to the Seattle offer because of the group’s current “process of transition.” However, he noted that Egan, as previously announced, will stage Jon Robin Baitz’s “Ten Unknowns” next year at the Taper and that other people have left the Taper staff and then returned.

Egan could not be reached for comment but in a statement released by ACT said, “This is an incredible opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

Formerly known as A Contemporary Theatre, ACT operates a 434-seat arena stage, a 409-seat thrust stage and two smaller flexible spaces -- all within Kreielsheimer Place, a rehabilitated building in downtown Seattle. The company has nearly 11,000 subscribers and a budget of approximately $6 million -- approximately half the size of the Taper’s.

“I’m excited for him,” Davidson said. “It’s a good theater with a modest budget, but it’s interested in new work, which is part of Bob’s strength.”