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 who paid the £50,000 bail for Jamil al-Banna, one of three British residents arrested after landing back in the UK following four years' captivity at Guantanamo Bay. Redgrave has declined to be specific about her financial involvement but said she was "very happy" to be of "some small assistance for Jamil and his wife", adding, "It is a profound honour and I am glad to be alive to be able to do this. Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp." In March 2014, Redgrave took part in a protest outside Pentonville Prison in North London after new prison regulations were introduced