Bamberwood, a new romantic comedy, will end its extended run at the Met Theatre in Hollywood, CA, through Dec. 20.

The play, by Los Angeles playwright Kirsten Dahl, takes place in 1972 at a college in Vermont, where mismatched lovers are thrown together in a lush forest a la Midsummer Night's Dream.

Bamberwood opened in October to excellent reviews, with the Los Angeles Times praising "the abundance of charm and wit in Dahl's script and Glenn Kelman's effervescent staging."

The five-member cast includes Scott Connell, Bari Hochwald, Jenifer Kingsley, Michelle McDonald, and Chad Tillner; their "dream sequences" are danced by five members of the Westside Ballet: Natalie Blanco, Adrienne Denniston, James Joyce, Carolyn Lawrence, and Keith Richardson. (The dancing itself is quite spectacular: The Westside Ballet, under the direction of founder Yvonne Mounsey -- a former principal dancer at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and New York City Ballet -- is one of the nation's top ballet training companies, with famous alumni including NYCB dancers Monique Meunier and Jock Soto.)

Author Dahl spoke recently about her inspiration for the play. "Goddard College was a hotbed of artistic activity, both avant-garde and traditional. David Mamet taught my Shakespeare class, people were studying clowning with our circus-in-residence, and my costume design teacher held public interviews with anybody who caught her interest," said Dahl. Bamberwood is both a poignant love story and a coming of age piece, and ballet is used as an extension of the writer's vision," said Gale Cohen, one of the producers of the play, in an interview.

Dahl's other work includes Della Doucette, which was part of the L.A. Theatre Works' live radio theater series.

Bamberwood is directed by Glenn Kelman and choreographed by Rebecca Yewell Witjas. The play runs through Dec. 20 at the Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood, CA. For reservations, call (213) 957-1152.

-- By Rebecca Paller