Center Theatre Group announced Wednesday it has received a $1 million grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation for the re-opening of the Mark Taper Forum and the return to regular programming at the downtown Los Angeles venue, which suspended programming for the 2023-24 season due to a spiraling budget crisis.
The Mark Taper Forum officially re-opens Wednesday with the launch of a new production of “American Idiot,” a musical based on the Green Day album and produced in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre, and performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken English.
“The mission of the S. Mark Taper Foundation is to enhance the quality of lives of Angelenos by supporting nonprofit institutions, such as Center Theatre Group,” Amelia Taper Bolker, president of the S. Mark Taper Foundation, said in a statement.
She said the foundation is proud to support CTG Artistic Director Snehal Desai and Managing Director/CEO Meghan Pressman “in telling the stories of this great city on the greatest stage in all of Los Angeles — which bears the same name as our foundation’s founder — the Mark Taper Forum.”
The S. Mark Taper Foundation grant, to be distributed over multiple years, follows last year’s support of CTG at a time when the organization was looking for new ways to re-open the doors of the Mark Taper Forum during the year-long pause in regular season programming, according to CTG.
That grant of $250,000 was in support of the company’s spring 2024 CTG:FWD programming at the Taper, an initiative created by Desai that featured a series of special events, short-run shows, community gatherings and legacy projects.