The show, which has had an extensive regional life, is a history of Ida B. Wells, born a slave in 1860s Mississippi, who grew to become a pioneer of civil and women's rights. It features some of America's greatest human rights advocates from Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington to Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams.

Featured in the cast are Janeece Aisha Freeman, Gail Grate, Tracey Conyer Lee, Laiona Michelle, and Gayle Turner.

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Next is a new comedy by frequent Westport playwright David Wiltse. Titled A Marriage Minuet, it promises to contain "Two couples. Marriage.  A single girl. Flirtation. Temptation. Opportunity. Infidelity. Consummation.  Satiation. Regret. Retreat. Repeat." Dates are Aug. 3-20.

Gregory Mosher will direct The Archbishop's Ceiling by Arthur Miller, Aug. 24-Sept. 10. The drama is one of Miller's most obscure, having premiered in 1977 and never run on Broadway. In the play, four famous writers and one woman who has relationships with three of them gather in an Eastern European city during the Soviet era. "The play asks the questions what happens to human beings, human behavior and relationships in a society that habitually pries and spies on its citizens, and what is the price of freedom?," according to Westport press materials. Finally comes Old Wicked Songs by Jon Marans, a popular play during the late '90s that had an Off-Broadway run and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The comic drama about an aging European music professor and a young, arrogant piano prodigy meeting for piano lessons in Vienna will run Oct. 19-Nov. 5.

This is the first year the former summer stock house, which recently rebuilt and restored its facilities, will present a year-round schedule of plays.

For information, call (203) 227-4177 or visit the box office at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Information about the Playhouse is also available at www.westportplayhouse.org.