Mark Taper Forum 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 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
Vanessa Redgrave Award presenter Paddy Chayefsky, and sparked controversy. One Redgrave biography noted that "The scandal of her awards speech and the negative press it occasioned had a destructive effect on her acting opportunities that would last for years to come." Later film roles include those of suffragist Olive Chancellor in "The Bostonians" (1984, a fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination), transsexual tennis player Renée Richards in "Second Serve" (1986), Blanche Hudson in the television remake of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (1991), Mrs. Wilcox in "Howards End" (1992, her sixth Academy Award nomination, this time in a supporting role); crime