LOS ANGELES -- The Mark Taper Forum has moved a little closer to opening a second major theatre, this one on the West Side.

If the Taper's plans are realized, it would take over the Culver Theatre, a shuttered movie house on Culver Blvd., near the Sony film studio (formerly MGM).

Culver City's redevelopment board has endorsed a business plan prepared by the Taper staff.

The plan calls for an "intimate flex theatre" with 300-400 seats, a capacity scaled down from the figure cited in earlier documents. Project coordinator Chris Lore said that 300-400 seems "a comfortable fit" but added that the capacity would be flexible.

The new theatre would host "new plays," "family plays" and productions of the Taper's youth wing, Performing for Los Angeles Youth. A smaller "laboratory theatre" (99-120 seats) might also be included in the plan. It would host the New Work Festival and other developmental work.

The Taper is now studying ways to fund the Culver City operation.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent