Following the 2 PM matinee performance of the Long Wharf Theatre presentation of The Cocktail Hour (which runs at the New Haven, CT, stage Jan. 10-Feb. 4), the playwright-author will appear at a free discussion.

Gurney has seen his recent works Post Mortem, Indian Blood, Strictly Academic, Big Bill, O Jerusalem, Mrs. Farnsworth and Screen Play play Off-Broadway, while the world premiere of his Crazy Mary debuts next at Playwrights Horizons.

The scribe known for Sylvia and Love Letters has also penned Scenes from American Life, Children, The Dining Room, The Middle Ages, Sweet Sue, The Perfect Party, Another Antigone, The Cocktail Hour, The Old Boy, The Fourth Wall, Later Life, A Cheever Evening, Overtime, Let's Do It (a Cole Porter musical), Labor Day, Far East, Ancestral Voices, Strictly Academic and Buffalo Gal.

Currently playing at Long Wharf is Joe Mantello's stage adaptation of David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries. The season continues with A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour (Jan. 10-Feb. 4, 2007), the Dale Wasserman-Joe Darion-Mitch Leigh musical Man of La Mancha (Feb. 21-March 18, 2007), an as-yet untitled David Cale (Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky) and Dael Orlandersmith (Yellowman) musical (March 28-April 29, 2007) and Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (May 9-June 3, 2007) .

Tickets to The Santaland Diaries and The Cocktail Hour at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven, CT, are available by calling (203) 787-4282 or visit the website at www.longwharf.org.