Up next in Long Beach Playhouse's New Works Festival will be Gary Page's mystery, Murder at the Black Bear Tavern, to be read June 26. Artistic Director of the Vanguard Theatre, Wade Williamson, directs.

Spinelli by Dan Riley, the first play in this year's New Works Festival, was read March 27. Following that was Stephen Ludwig's Accidental Dancers.

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Long Beach kicked off its 33rd season with Jest a Second by James Sherman (the sequel to his popular Off-Broadway hit, Beau Jest) that ran through April 17 on the mainstage. Also in the season are Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Soldier's Play; Bernard Slade's Tribute; Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen; Lillian Garrett-Groag's play about Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt, The Ladies of the Camellias; Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata; Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval; and Karoline Leach's Edwardian thriller-romance, The Mysterious Mr. Love.

All readings are in the Studio Theatre and are free of charge. The Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. Call (562) 494-1014 for information. -- By Christine Ehren and Willard Manus and Angelica Roderick