The Music Center's Mark Taper Forum

Photo by Tim Street Porter.

The Music Center's Mark Taper Forum

Opened in 1967, the Mark Taper Forum (Taper) is The Music Center’s smallest and most intimate theatre and was designed for the production of dramas and experimental theater. It was named for S. Mark Taper, a prominent real estate developer, banker and philanthropist. The venue is the ideal stage for dramatic plays and productions by Center Theatre Group and has received virtually every theatrical award including a special Tony for theatrical excellence, which was awarded in 1977. 

A circular building that measures 140 feet in diameter, the Forum rises from a reflecting pool. The upper 27 feet of the Forum cantilevers out from the base, which is covered in dark, split-face granite blocks. The dark granite mirrors that of The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion across Jerry Moss Plaza.   

The Taper’s drum-like structure features a 378-foot-long cast concrete relief mural in an abstract pattern that encircles the theatre and suggests the movements of the performing arts. Designed by sculptor Jacques Overhoff, the relief is a repeating pattern that is seven panels in width with seven repeats, for a total of 49 panels; the artist chose seven panels as the width so the eye would never be able to see the repeating pattern given the circular shape of the building. Inside the Taper, the entrance features a 60-foot wall, created by designer Tony Duquette, called “Curved Wall”, which is composed of 50,800 abalone shell tiles.   

Featuring a thrust stage that juts out into the audience, the theatre’s 736 seats are arranged in a semi-circle in classical amphitheater style, surrounding three sides of the stage. This design gives audiences the opportunity to view the performance from a variety of perspectives. As such, the theatre does not feature either a stage arch or curtain.   

The Music Center oversaw a $30 million renovation of the Taper interior from 2007–2008 to upgrade its technical capabilities and audience amenities while maintaining the structural integrity of the original design. Award-winning architectural and design firm, Rios Clementi Hale Studios (now known as Rios), led the theatre’s architectural renovation. 

As part of their work, the architects doubled the size of the lobby area, enhanced the abalone wall with recessed lighting and added a new main refreshment area. In addition, the lobby now includes mirrored columns a metal mesh wall covering called Cascade Coil Drapery, decorative terrazzo flooring and a raised ceiling and floor. By raising the lobby floor, the architects provided audiences with access to the theatre directly from Jerry Moss Plaza.  

Featured at the Mark Taper Forum

  • Wed Oct 02 8:00 PM

    Sun Nov 10 6:30 PM

    Center Theatre Group American Idiot

    Mark Taper Forum

    Slinging razor guitars, thundering drums, and an anti-hero named Johnny. Not the prelude of typical entries in the canon of musical theatre. But these elements herald a groundbreaking American musical all the same: with the burning passion of char...Show More

    Slinging razor guitars, thundering drums, and an anti-hero named Johnny. Not the prelude of typical entries in the canon of musical theatre. But these elements herald a groundbreaking American musical all the same: with the burning passion of characters who yearn for something more, songs bursting with emotion, and a story that dares you to feel and celebrate and hope.

    The music of Green Day and the lyrics of lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong captured the zeitgeist of a generation with its Grammy Award®-winning multi-platinum album. American Idiot puts those raw emotions front and center in a highly theatrical and thoroughly satisfying rock opera that burns up the stage.

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  • Fri Nov 22 7:30 PM

    Sun Nov 24 2:00 PM

    A TMC Arts Program: Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center Urban Bush Women

    Mark Taper Forum

    Building upon a repertoire of bold, life-affirming dance works, Urban Bush Women celebrates its 40th anniversary with the west coast premiere of SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, a new da...Show More

    Building upon a repertoire of bold, life-affirming dance works, Urban Bush Women celebrates its 40th anniversary with the west coast premiere of SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, a new dance-driven jazz club spectacular that tells the story of two people on a journey from the Great Migration to Kansas City. Urban Bush Women founderJawole Willa Jo Zollar grew up performing in floor shows in Black neighborhoods in a segregated Kansas City in the mid-20th century post-World War II—an era when Black businesses were booming, and there was great hope of upward mobility. Performed with a live band on stage and set to an original jazz score by Craig Harris, SCAT! tells of the powerful journey of the Zollar family and what happens when dreams encounter the harsh realities of American life in the 1940s.

    In Zollar’s words, “SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar is modeled after the structure and content of the great tradition of the Black floor show, which included comic MCs like Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham, flash acts such as the Nicholas Brothers or the Crackerjacks, eccentric dancers like Earl “Snakehips” Tucker, storytelling orators, kiddie acts, striptease/exotic dancers à la Josephine Baker or Sahji, and the Shim Sham Shimmy—a traditional tap dance finale.” Urban Bush Women promotes artistic legacies, projects the voices of the underheard and people of color and addresses issues of equity in the dance field and beyond, under the artistic direction of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis.

    Presented in association with Center Theatre Group

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  • Wed Jan 29 8:00 PM

    Sun Mar 09 6:30 PM

    Center Theatre Group Fake It Until You Make It

    Mark Taper Forum

    A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Nativ...Show More

    A bold world premiere comedy from Los Angeles-based playwright, Larissa FastHorse, about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. FastHorse is a critically acclaimed writer who focuses her keen sense of satire to examine Native American perspectives on contemporary life and will be the first Native American writer to have a mainstage production on the Mark Taper Forum stage. A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and author of the Broadway comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, FastHorse’s new work shines a hilarious light on ‘shifters’ who exist in a world of self-determined identity. This thought-provoking comic play asks what happens when you don’t believe you are the race you want to be? Change it! Fake It Until You Make It takes an absurd look at what defines who we are, and the lengths some people will go through to change it.

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