North Carolina's Playmakers Repertory Theatre at Chapel Hill will open its 1999-2000 season with the world premiere of Tazewell Thompson's Constant Star, Sept. 22-Oct. 17. Also up in the season will be revivals of Edward Albee's The American Dream and The Zoo Story, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and Noel Coward's Hay Fever, as well as a production of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner, Wit.

Thompson will direct Constant Star, the history of Ida B. Wells, born a slave in 1860's Mississippi, who grew to become a pioneer of civil and women's rights. This new play features some of America's greatest human rights advocates from Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington to Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams.

Nov. 3-24, Playmakers will host a double bill of Albee plays, The American Dream and The Zoo Story. Nagle Jackson directs.

A revival of Tennessee Williams' drama, The Glass Menagerie follows, Feb. 2-27, 2000. Thompson will direct.

Margaret Edson's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Wit, will run March 8-April 2. Drew Barr, who helmed Playmakers' Violet, directs this examination of a tough English professor who is dying of ovarian cancer. The 1999-00 season will finish off with Noel Coward's classic 1920's comedy of the eccentric Bliss family, Hay Fever, April 12-May 7. A director has yet to be announced.

Playmakers, at 23, is North Carolina's oldest professional, resident nonprofit theatre. Last season, they mounted Shakespeare's The Tempest, Moises Kaufman's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Emily Mann's Having Our Say, Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Tesori-Crawley's Violet.

For subscription information ($60-$120), call the Playmakers box office (919) 962-PLAY.

-- By Christine Ehren