Julie Harris, Glenne Headley, Shirley Knight, David Clennon and Scott Wolf are the featured players in L.A. Theatre Works' radio production of Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden which will be presented Jan. 10-14 at the Skirball Cultural Center. Each performance will be recorded before a live audience for future broadcast on KCRW 89.9 FM. JoBeth Williams is the director.

Hellman looks affectionately upon the sad and humorous frailties of human existence in this Chekhovian comedy about friends who meet annually at a genteel southern resort. The Pultizer Prize-winning playwright contemplates the meaning of middle age with understanding and compassion in drawing a portrait of longtime friends in the autumn of their lives. When an acquaintance from the past thrusts himself into their yearly gathering, he forces them to re-examine their mundane, yet seemingly idyllic existence, the opportunities they've lost, and the lives that have passed them by.

Hellman's other plays include the better known The Little Foxes and The Children's Hour. Harris is the recipient of five Tony Awards, and boasts such credits as the original productions of I Am a Camera and The Lark. Headley is a member of Chicago's lauded Steppenwolf Theatre Company, but has concentrated on film work for much of the last decade. Knight last appeared on Broadway in Horton Foote's The Young Man From Atlanta.

Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. For tickets and information call (310) 827-0889.

— By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent