As part of its 30th anniversary season, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles has brought back its "New Theatre For Now" series, with four plays to be mounted on the Taper's mainstage. For 20 years, from 1967 87, NTFN became a home for budding playwrights and developing new plays and forms.

This season's lineup, beginning May 3 and officially starting May 7, includes two long one-acts and two full-lengths:
Demonology is a short drama by Kelly Stuart about a mysteriously sexy office temp who sends her male superiors into "nail chomping, heavy breathing orbit." The show played Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1996 and starred Marisa Tomei. Stuart's The Woman Who Tried To Shout Under Water (1989) and The Interpreter Of Horror (1993) were part of the Taper Lab New Work Festival.

Quincy Long's short, The Joy Of Going Somewhere Definite, will first premiere at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theatre in March. This tale, commissioned by the Taper, tells of loggers capturing a stranger, commiting accidental murder and chasing an ex-wife across the Canadian border. Subtitled, "A Radio Play For The Stage," Joy is by the author of Shaker Heights and The Virgin Molly.

Joy and Demonology will be paired in the same evening and run May 3-May 18, with an official opening May 7.

The Street Of The Sun, Jose' Rivera's poetic and apocalyptic vision of contemporary Los Angeles, follows a Latino screenwriter who fears L.A. Has corrupted his soul. David Esbjornson, artistic director of NY's Classic Stage Company, directs. The show runs May 22-June 8, with an opening scheduled for May 27. Other Rivera plays include The House Of Ramon Iglesia, The Promise, Marisol and Cloud Tectonics. Playing June 12-29 will be Winsome Pinnock's Mules, about "misuse of dreams, be they the dream of escaping poverty or of a shiny new future." Pinnock's drama tells of three young women wooed into the treacherous world of international drug running. The London dramatist's other works include A Hero's Welcome, Talking In Tongues and Picture Palace.

For tickets ($29-$37) to NTFN On The Mainstage works call (213) 680 4017.

--By David Lefkowitz