Kathleen Chalfant, Robert Glaudini, Rachel Hauck, Suzan-Lori Parks and David Yarbek are the "new faces" in theatre to be watched in the year 2000, according to a recent feature in the Los Angeles Times. Chalfant, 54, is an actress who was selected for her breakthrough roles in two major productions, Angels in America (1992) and Wit, which opens at the Geffen Playhouse Jan. 26, 2000, after a successful run in New York. Chalfant will also be seen this spring in the London production of the Margaret Edson play.

Glaudini, 53, is a playwright, actor and director. He has written and acted for TV's "NYPD Blue," but is best known for work as a director in San Diego and New York, with such credits as Cowboy Mouth and Mad Dog Blues to his name. In 1998 the Mark Taper Forum New Work Festival introduced his play, The Poison Tree in a workshop production. The Taper has now scheduled the play as a mainstage attraction in its current season, May 28-July 16, 2000. Glaudini will also be seen as an actor in the East West Players' production of David Henry Hwang's Golden Child, Jan. 26-Feb.20, 2000.

Hauck, 31, is a set designer. Since 1993, she has been resident designer at Actors Gang in Hollywood. She also designed Tongue of a Bird at the Taper and Wonderland at La Jolla Playhouse last year.

Parks, 36, is a playwright and screenwriter. Her 1993 play Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdowm was produced at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Peter Brosius (who runs the Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company). George C. Wolfe, head of the New York Shakespeare Festival -- which recently produced Parks' In the Blood -- has optioned her latest work, Topdog/Underdog, a two-character play about con-man brothers.

Yazbek, 36, is a composer-lyricist who has written the score for The Full Monty, opening May 23, 2000, at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Financed by 20th Century Fox, the musical has a libretto by Terrence McNally and is directed by Jack O'Brien. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent