A.C.T. artistic director Carey Perloff announced that the staging scheduled for the 2005-06 season will be replaced by another project to be named later. "It is with regret that we announce that A.C.T. will not present King Lear with James Cromwell as part of our subscription season next year," said Perloff in a released statement. "While James and I have been in discussions on Lear for well over two years, we have only recently realized that our visions for the project have moved in different directions. An artistic endeavor of this magnitude requires complex thinking from the very beginning of the process and rather than present a compromised collaboration we felt it best to move on to another project. James Cromwell has been a great friend to A.C.T. and a wonderful collaborator with us in the past and, we hope, will be again in our future. We wish him the very best."

Subscribers who selected King Lear as part of their season package will be contacted shortly by the A.C.T. box office with further information. Patrons are encouraged to call the box office at (415) 749-2228 with any questions.

The 39th anniversary season at the California company's Geary Theater includes Caryl Churchill's A Number , Canadian hit The Overcoat, as well as three new stagings of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rivals and Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

Subscriptions are available to the season at A.C.T., 415 Geary St. in San Francisco, CA, by calling (415) 749-2228. Single tickets will be available starting July 31. For more information, visit www.act-sf.org.