Writers and actors can breathe easier again. The Barrington Stage Company's Stage II production of Christopher Durang's The Actor's Nightmare and Luke J. Taylor's Writer's Block, both comic assaults on creative people, end their run Aug. 20. Performances began Aug. 3. Barrington Stage artistic associate Andrew Volkoff directs.

In The Actor's Nightmare, an accountant finds himself the lead in a series of plays ranging in style from Samuel Beckett to Noel Coward to historical drama -- and he doesn't know any of his lines. The other actors and an angry stage manager try to help him, but when he finds his head on the chopping block, there seems to be no escape. Durang is the author of the Obie winners, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and the Tony nominated A History of American Film.

The scribe in Writer's Block will do anything to finish his lifework including hiring a building contractor and a bodyguard to help him overcome his writer's block. Taylor died in June 1998 leaving behind the plays Kate and Two Guys and fiction published in "Satire," Nuthouse" and "Aura Literary Arts Review."

Jeff Kent stars in The Actor's Nightmare with Richard Rameaka as the lead in Writer's Block. Completing the casts will be Brandy Zarle, Nancy Franklin and Amanda Root (Actor's Nightmare only) and Jason Olazabal.

Tickets are $20-$10. The Consolati Performing Arts Center is located at Mt. Everett Regional High School, Berkshire School Road. For reservations, call (413) 528-8888. The Barrington Stage Company is on the web at http://www.barringtonstageco.org. -- By Christine Ehren