It's Showtime, folks. And Center Theatre Group/the Mark Taper Forum couldn't be happier.

The television network and the theatre company have inked a script development deal, in the hopes of generating scripts for possible production on Showtime. The two-year contract calls for a series of commissions, readings and workshops, with Harvard grad Amy Handelsman serving as creative director of the project. Commissions will be for both new projects and plays that can be adapted into television films.

CTG/Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson said in a statement, "The current will definitely flow both ways in this relationship. We are eager to exchange new ideas on writers, actors and directors."

Independent producer Hillard Elkins, who brought the two parties together, praised Showtime as "a haven of creative freedom, consistently willing to take artistic and creative risks" and the Taper as a place with a "successful commitment to the development of plays and playwrights."

Shows developed at the 31-year-old Taper include Children of a Lesser God and Zoot Suit. -- By David Lefkowitz