Elizabeth Ashley and Michael Hayden will be Alexandra Del Lago and Chance Wayne in The Shakespeare Theatre's production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. The Washington, D.C., show will officially open June 1 for a run through July 19. Artistic Director Michael Kahn will direct. Ashley is well versed in Williams, having starred in the 1975 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (also directed by Kahn), as well as productions of The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Suddenly Last Summer, and The Red Devil Battery Sign. Hayden, meanwhile, is no stranger to callow gigolos such as Wayne, his best-known credit being Billy Bigelow in the Lincoln Center revival of Carousel.

Kahn has directed several Williams plays, including Camino Real, The Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire. For information on Sweet Bird, call (202) 393-2700.

-- By Robert Simonson