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28-525: Dorothy Mae Buffum was born in 1901 in La Fayette, Illinois . Nicknamed "Buff" or "Buffie", her family moved to Long Beach, California in 1905. Her father, Charles Abel Buffum , alongside her uncle, Edwin, opened a store that would become later become the Buffums department store chain. Buffum attended Long Beach High School , and was described as a competitive student for her gender, especially against

56-601: A "Taper play"; one which is provocative, political and liberal. The Taper has been host to world premiere productions of many notable plays including The Shadow Box (1975), Zoot Suit (1978), Children of a Lesser God (1979), Neil Simon 's I Ought To Be In Pictures (1980), Lanford Wilson 's Burn This (1987), Jelly's Last Jam (1991), Angels in America (1992), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994), David Henry Hwang 's revised version of Flower Drum Song (2001), August Wilson 's Radio Golf (2005) and

84-542: A "woman before her time. A feminist in pioneer country. Always, above all else, a presence." Former Mayor Tom Bradley declared her "a giant in the cultural life of Los Angeles. We shall always remember her whenever we see the Music Center, knowing that without her vision and energetic leadership, it would not have been built in our lifetime." On September 17, 2005, the Walt Disney Concert Hall held

112-504: A 17th-century priest and a sexually repressed nun. The play received a great deal of protest from local religious leaders and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors , although the production continued. The production of such plays as Murderous Angels , The Dream on Monkey Mountain , Children of a Lesser God , Savages , The Shadow Box , The Kentucky Cycle and Angels in America has established definition of

140-558: A Dorothy Chandler memorial concert. La Fayette, Illinois La Fayette (named after Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette , pronounced locally "Lay - fay - et") is a village in Stark County, Illinois . It is located south of Kewanee off Route 78 on Route 17|IL-17 (Madison Street). The population was 223 at the 2010 census, down from 227 in 2000. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area . Once

168-584: A classical, semicircular amphitheater, which creates an especially intimate relationship between audience and performer. The building bears an architectural resemblance to Carousel Theatre at Disneyland , also designed by Welton Becket and Associates in 1967. It is similar in design concept and size to the Dallas Theatre Center , designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the original Tyrone Guthrie Theatre , in Minneapolis . On October 8, 1993,

196-794: A financial crisis closed the Hollywood Bowl during its summer season. Chandler chaired a committee that organized a series of fundraising concerts that led to the Bowl's reopening. She later served as president of its parent organization, the Southern California Symphony Association. Chandler served as a regent and chairwoman of the Building Committee of the University of California from 1954 to 1968, during its period of most rapid growth, when

224-422: A household in the village was $ 26,563, and the median income for a family was $ 28,125. Males had a median income of $ 28,125 versus $ 20,893 for females. The per capita income for the village was $ 15,002. About 9.0% of families and 13.2% of the population were below the poverty line , including 28.3% of those under the age of eighteen and 13.0% of those 65 or over. Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum

252-400: A larger main lobby, the designers reduced the ticket booth and removed about 30 parking spaces from the lower-level garage to move the restrooms below ground as part of a stylized lounge with gold, curved couches and mosaics of mirrored tiles that fit the era in which the building was designed. The theater seats are wider and total capacity was reduced from 745 to 739. The entrance was moved to

280-745: A memorial was held in the actor Richard Jordan 's honor. It was the same day his final movie Gettysburg was released. In June 2023 the Center Theatre Group announced an indefinite pause of shows at the Mark Taper Forum. It re-opened a year later. A $ 30-million renovation of the Taper led by the Los Angeles firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios began in July 2007 after the 2006/2007 season. The theater reopened on August 30, 2008, for

308-418: A prominent strip coal mine and farming village with; a general store, high school(until 1970), hotel, bank, grain elevator, train depot, and many other features and amenities. Once the coal mines shut down and railroad was removed in the early 1980s, it slowly became a low income and high poverty village with many people moving away and it eventually diminished to the hollow shell of what it once was. La Fayette

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336-746: Is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles . Named for real estate developer Mark Taper , the Forum, the neighboring Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre are all operated by the Center Theatre Group . The Mark Taper Forum opened in 1967 as part of the Los Angeles Music Center,

364-556: Is located at 41°6′35″N 89°58′25″W  /  41.10972°N 89.97361°W  / 41.10972; -89.97361 (41.109825, -89.973632). According to the 2010 census, La Fayette has a total area of 0.19 square miles (0.49 km ), all land. As of the census of 2000, there were 227 people, 91 households, and 63 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,235.2 inhabitants per square mile (476.9/km ). There were 93 housing units at an average density of 506.0 per square mile (195.4/km ). The racial makeup of

392-805: The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. The complex was completed in 1967, consisting of three venues: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , named in honor of Chandler, the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre . The Chandler Pavilion served as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1964 until 2003, when the Music Center opened its fourth hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall . Author David Halberstam referred to Chandler as

420-740: The Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. He died in 1973, and Chandler never remarried. The family lived in Los Tiempos (the Times), a grand house on Lorraine Blvd. in Windsor Square, Los Angeles , where she lived until her death in 1997. Chandler worked at the Times or its parent, the Times Mirror Company , from 1948 to 1976. She was a director of Times Mirror from 1955 until 1973, when she

448-564: The West Coast equivalent of Lincoln Center , designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Becket and Associates . Peter Kiewit and Sons (now Kiewit Corporation ) was the builder. The dedication took place on April 9, 1967, at an event attended by Governor Ronald Reagan. The smallest of the three venues, the Taper is flanked by the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Ahmanson Theatre on the Music Center Plaza. Becket designed

476-677: The building not knowing who would use it. Various proposals included chamber music concerts, or even grand jury meetings. Ultimately Dorothy Chandler , the Los Angeles cultural leader, convinced Center Theater Group artistic director Gordon Davidson to use the Taper. For 38 years, Davidson was the artistic director of Center Theater Group, which also ran the Ahmanson and eventually the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City. The Taper became known for its thrust stage, jutting into

504-455: The center in the style of New Formalism , which emphasized geometric shapes. The perfectly circular Taper is considered one of his best works, featuring a distinctive decorated drum of a design with its exterior wrapped in a lacy precast relief by Jacques Overhoff . The lobby has a curving, abalone wall by Tony Duquette . Charles Moore described Becket's design for the Music Center as "Late Imperial Depression-Style cake". Becket designed

532-406: The city's Westside and Hollywood, many of whom were Jewish. Attorney Paul Ziffren remarked that "before the Music Center, Jews were not a part of the social life of this community." He regarded Chandler to be "primarily responsible for opening up this community in terms of Jews and Gentiles." Chandler eventually garnered enough donations to cover $ 20 million of the estimated $ 35 million total cost;

560-432: The first preview of John Guare 's The House of Blue Leaves . The Taper, as originally designed, was a case study in what happens when a theater is built without a tenant in mind. Fitting the auditorium into the circular building left a tiny backstage and only a narrow, curved hallway for a lobby. The renovation updated nearly everything that was not concrete and did not disrupt the building's circular shape. To create

588-477: The load-in door to 6 feet by 9 feet. A wardrobe room was constructed in the space previously occupied by the air-conditioning equipment. The auditorium was renamed the Amelia Taper Auditorium after a $ 2 million gift from the S. Mark Taper Foundation. The Taper has presented innovative plays since its 1967-opening of The Devils from playwright John Whiting about the sexual fantasies of

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616-725: The opposite sex. An enthusiastic sprinter, she once marked that “I didn’t take to boys much except to run against them and beat them". Buffum went on to study history at Stanford University , and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority . At a school dance, she met fellow student Norman Chandler , the eldest son of the family that had published the Los Angeles Times since 1883. The couple married in 1922, and had two children, Camilla and Otis , both born in 1927. The Chandlers went on to have eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. In 1945, her husband became publisher of

644-403: The plaza level and an elevator added to increase the accessibility of the theater. The original theater also had very few women's restrooms opening with four women's stalls for a 750-seat hall. The renovation increased the number of stalls to 16. Backstage, changes included removing an outdated stage "treadmill" and old air-conditioning equipment, installing a modern lighting grid, and enlarging

672-549: The remainder was paid through private bond sales. Chandler was featured on the cover of the December 18, 1964, issue of Time magazine, which praised her fundraising efforts as "perhaps the most impressive display of virtuoso money-raising and civic citizenship in the history of U.S. womanhood." The Los Angeles Music Center held its first performance on December 6, 1964. Chandler hired its first conductor, Zubin Mehta , to lead

700-546: The system grew from five to nine campuses. She also served as a trustee of Occidental College from 1952 to 1967. Chandler later led a nine-year effort to build a performing arts center for the city of Los Angeles. In 1955, she raised $ 400,000 at a benefit concert at the Ambassador Hotel featuring Dinah Shore , Danny Kaye and Jack Benny . Chandler sought funds from both the long established "old money" families of Pasadena , but also to "new money" communities on

728-491: The village was 96.48% White , 0.44% Asian , 1.76% from other races , and 1.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.76% of the population. There were 91 households, out of which 30.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.3% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.7% were non-families. 24.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.4% had someone living alone who

756-452: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.98. In the village, the population was spread out, with 27.3% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 21.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.3 males. The median income for

784-643: Was named director emeritus.She initiated the Times Woman of the Year award, which was given to 243 women from 1950 through 1976. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Chandler to his Committee on Education Beyond the High School and, in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson named her to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information. As the wife of the publisher of the city's leading newspaper, Chandler became active in Los Angeles cultural circles. In 1951,

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