Russell Lee's Nixon's Nixon will close Nov. 21 at the Portland Performing Arts Center in Maine. The political satire began performances on Election Day, Nov. 2. Michael Rafkin, who has not directed for the Portland stage company since 1975, returns to direct Nixon's Nixon.

In Nixon, it's the evening of August 7, 1974. Nixon and Kissinger grapple with the inevitable -- more specifically, the Watergate scandal and the pros and cons of leaving office. The play is based on a real-life, private meeting between the president and his Secretary of State.

John McNally stars as Nixon with Joseph Culliton as Kissinger. Culliton understudied Nixon in the original New York production of Nixon's Nixon.

Tickets are $29-$24 and available by calling the box office at (207) 774 0465. The Portland Stage Company is on the web at http://www.portlandstage.com.

Upcoming at Portland Stage will be: * A Christmas Carol, the Portland's Stage Company's adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens Christmas tale, runs Nov. 30 Dec. 24.
* Collected Stories, Donald Margulies' story of a young student who steals writings from her celebrated teacher, the writer Ruth Steiner, runs Jan. 11-30, 2000.
* Avner the Eccentric (aka clown and juggler Avner Eisenberg) will star in Samuel Beckett's existential classic Waiting for Godot Feb. 15 March 5.
* The Giles Havergal adaptation of Graham Greene's comic Travels With My Aunt runs March 14-April 2, 2000.
* Finishing off the season will be Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky, the story of a group of friends who found themselves in the Harlem Renaissance but may lose everything in the Great Depression (April 11 May 7, 2000).

-- By Christine Ehren and Sean McGrath