Drama Dept. will debut its latest attraction, a trio of Paul Rudnick one acts, at the Greenwich House Theatre Aug. 31-Oct. 21, with a Sept. 20 opening. The evening, titled Rude Entertainment, plays directly on the heels of Douglas Carter Beane's current Music From a Sparkling Planet, which concluded its stay at the Greenwich House on Aug. 12. Christopher Ashley will direct Peter Bartlett, Harriet Harris and Neal Huff.

The first and best-known of the plays is Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach, previously seen at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Bartlett, the star at EST, will be featured again. The comedy is about "a flamboyant and opinionated tastemaker, who hosts his own extremely low-rent cable show in Florida on which he is more than happy to share his truly unique point of view on just about everything."

The middle one-act, Very Special Needs, brings audiences north to a Manhattan loft, and takes a magnifying glass to families, adoptions, modern love and "the hottest collectible in America today: children. " Finally, On the Fence deals with nothing less than life, death and celebrity.

Rudnick's credits include Jeffrey and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, both directed by Ashley and starring Bartlett. Harriet Harris, also seen in Jeffrey, had one of her meatiest roles last season as beleaguered assistant to Nathan Lane's Sheridan Whiteside in the Roundabout Theatre Company's The Man Who Came to Dinner. Huff, meanwhile, just completed a run in an Off-Broadway revival of Craig Lucas' Blue Window.

For tickets ($35) and information on Rude Entertainment at the Greenwich House Theatre, 27 Barrow St., call (212) 239-6200. —By Robert Simonson