The Mark Taper Forum and South Coast Repertory won sizable 2001 grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The list of southern California theatre recipients of NEA money also includes NoHo's Deaf West Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse.

The NEA awarded a total of $20.45 million in arts grants to 825 recipients nationwide, including $2.72 million awarded to 122 California organizations.

The Forum received $50,000 to help mount a new play starring Alan Alda as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman; SCR was awarded $32,000 for its premiere presentation of The Beard of Avon by Amy Freed.

Deaf West Theatre's grant of $15,000 will go toward the production of a new play written by Mark Medoff, author of Children Of a Lesser God, while the $10,000 handout to Pasadena Playhouse will help finance a multicultural production of The Tempest using live Latino musical accompaniment. PP was also the beneficiary of two other large charitable grants recently: a $75,000 grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation for an upgraded ticket system; and a "generous" grant from the Pasadena Foundation for plumbing improvements.

Other local NEA recipients included the Diavolo Dance Theatre ($5,000) and the Jazz Tap Ensemble ($10,000). — By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent