LOS ANGELES -- The West Coast premiere of August Wilson's Jitney will take place at the Mark Taper Forum Feb. 3, 2000. The run is through March 19.

Marion McClinton directs Wilson's latest drama, which deals with a gypsy cab company (or jitney station) in Pittsburgh, circa 1970.

Working at the company are a group of black men scraping out a living as best they can. All is about to change if the city, in its urban renewal mode, makes good on its threat to board the office up. Wilson's central character is Charles Becker, owner of the unlicensed company, who must also face his estranged son, who is coming home after 20 years in jail.

Jitney continues Wilson's ambitious collection of plays that follow the African-American experience through each of the decades in the 20th century.

Performances are Tues.-Sun., but there will no public performances Feb. 29-March 3. *

In other Taper news, Gordon Davidson, who has been at the artistic helm of the theatre since its inception in 1967, will be inducted into the 1999 class of the Theatre Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in New York.

Davidson will be joined by fellow honorees Kitty Carlisle Hart, Hal Holbrook, Robert Morse, Jerry Orbach, Francis Sternhagen, Tom Stoppard and Teresa Wright in the Jan. 31, 2000 ceremonies at the Gershwin. Founded in 1971, the Theatre Hall of Fame annually honors professionals for Lifetime Achievement in the American theatre. The ballot of over 100 nominees is voted on by over 400 members of the American Theatre Critics Association and members of the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Mark Taper Forum is located at 135 N. Grand Ave. For tickets and information call (213) 628- 2772 or visit www.TaperAhmanson.com -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent