On Oct. 4 at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center's Decker Theatre, McNally will preside over an evening titled A Conversation with Barry Humphries — AKA Dame Edna — The Man Behind the Woman. Humphries, according to production notes, "will give an inside look at his career in show business and describe how he came to create Dame Edna and his other world-renown characters." The evening will benefit NCTC Youth Programs.

Dame Edna Everage's eagerly awaited Broadway return in Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance is currently enjoying a pre-Broadway run at San Francisco's Curran Theatre through Oct. 10. The show begins previews Nov. 5 at Broadway's Music Box Theatre with an official opening scheduled for Nov. 21. Dubbed Australia's First Lady, Dame Edna is the invention of Barry Humphries, a successful character actor in Europe and Australia as well as an esteemed landscape painter. Some of Humphries' theatrical credits include roles in Waiting for Godot, Oliver! and Maggie May, but his most successful outings have been as Dame Edna, a character he created in 1956. Humphries was given the Order of Australia in 1982 and was endowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Griffith University in Australia in 1994.

Playwright Terrence McNally received Tony Awards for his plays Master Class and Love! Valour! Compassion! and for the books to the musicals Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman. His many other works include Corpus Christi; A Perfect Ganesh; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Lisbon Traviata; Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and It's Only a Play. McNally is the playwright-in-residence of the NCTC.

Tickets for A Conversation with Barry Humphries are priced $35-$75 and include a post-program reception. The New Conservatory Theatre Center is located at 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market in San Francisco, CA; call (415) 861-8972 or visit www.nctcsf.org for more information.