A former strip club is the scene for New York's Collapsible Giraffe's latest, 3 Virgins at the Big Top Theater II, April 29-May 2.

The Big Top II, a former "Show World" strip club, has not seen a live performance of any type since NYC Mayor Giuliani closed down many of the strip clubs and "burlesques" in town.

3 Virgins is a new theater piece based on the 10th century story of three Christian girls who are violently tortured and martyred by a pagan emperor. TCG merges the liturgical, with contemporary influences, mixing in texts from Japanimation and other unusual texts.

Amy Huggans will direct a cast including Lori Chodos, Makeda Christodoulos, Jim Findlay, Guy Larkin and Amy Webb.

The Collapsible Giraffe was founded in 1995 and comprises of a varied group of theater, film, and visual artists, composers, musicians and writers. All are committed to the collaborative creation of original theatrical performances using original, obscure, non-traditional, classical and contemporary texts. Previous productions include Damfino at The Performing Garage, Beer & Fisticuffs, Penthesilea/after Kleist at the Ontological, SMXL at El Bohio, Pre-Paradise Sorry Now at NADA, Stein Stein at Access Theatre and Acker Versus at HERE. For tickets or more information on 3 Virgins call (212) 674 9548.

-- By Sean McGrath