Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company will keep its ensemble member Amy Morton busy this winter, spring and into the summer. Morton will play one of the three central roles in Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain , which fills the main stage Feb. 11-Apr. 4, 1999. Morton will then don her director's hat and stage the Chicago premiere of Jon Robin Baitz's Mizlansky/Zilinsky in the Studio Theatre, running May 6-June 27, 1999 (opening May 16).

Three Days tells of a famous architect whose will forces his children to probe their family's murky history. Morton will play alongside Tracy Letts and Ian Barford. The structure of the drama forces each player to essay dual roles. Morton will play Nan and Nan's mother Lina; Letts -- who is currently enjoying success as a playwright with the New York production of Killer Joe -- will play Nan's brother Walker and the siblings' father Ned; and Barford will play Nan and Walker's family friend Pip and Pip's father and Ned's partner, Theo.

Three Days of Rain received a successful mounting at New York's Manhattan Theatre Club last season; Miz/Zil was produced in New York at the same venue, also last season. The comedy is Baitz's look at two old-style Hollywood hustlers and their doomed last-ditch efforts to make one final fortune. No cast has been announced.

Next on the main stage schedule is Morning Star (Apr. 22-June 20, 1999), Sylvia Regan's 1940 drama about a widow and her extended family who find themselves caught up in the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, World War I and the Great Depression; Steppenwolf ensemble member Frank Galati (who staged Livent's Ragtime ) directs the piece (which is not to be confused with the Broadway-targeted musical of the same name).

Lastly, Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane will begin previews beginning July 8, 1999, for a run through Aug. 29, 1999. Queen received a Best Play Tony nomination for its current Broadway run at the Walter Kerr Theatre. For information, call (312) 335-1888.

-- By Robert Simonson