Playwright Wendy MacLeod's latest, Schoolgirl Figure, will receive its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre of Chicago's Studio space. Previews will begin March 31 for an opening on April 10 and a run through April 30.

MacLeod is the author of The Water Children, which received an acclaimed run at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 1998, and The House of Yes, which was later made into a film starring Parker Posey.

Schoolgirl concerns a clique of high school girls who, in their to the-death competition to land a class hunk, try to attain a perfect size 4 by any means necessary. The play examines the mores of teenage society and the madness of applying "magazine model" perfection to the real world.

David Petrarca, who directed The Water Children, will stage the play. Petrarca's many credits include the original production of Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room and David Lindsay-Abaire's Fuddy Meers.

-- By Robert Simonson