Seven plays -- three more than last year -- comprise the 1997 Key West Theatre Festival, Oct. 2-12. Writers -- selected from more than 400 entries -- in the 6th annual event include Tim Ferrell, Dave Christner and Julie Jensen.

Here's the line-up at various Key West, FL venues:
Where There's Smoke (Oct. 2-10, Red Barn Theatre)
Tim Ferrell directs this one-woman show, co-written and starring Leslie Abrams, who tells of her "bellybusting run-ins with love, marriage and the loss of a home."

Last Lists Of My Mad Mother (Oct. 4-11, Red Barn Theatre)
Julie Jensen's drama tells of a middle-aged woman caring for her elderly mom. Joan McGillis directs.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of... (Oct. 3-12, Old City Hall)
Based on an actual court case, Frank J. Adler's drama looks at the owner of a poultry factory in the aftermath of a tragic fire -- he had locked his fire escapes. Because the judge will be played by a real judge (Sandra Taylor), diretor Morgan Kostival calls the piece, "a case of art imitating life imitating art."

The New Orleans Story (Oct. 2-11, Waterfront Playhouse)
Three friends venture to New Orleans for a wedding but end up "immersed in a Bourbon Street Weekend from hell" in Michael McKeever's campy comedy. This Blood's For You (Oct. 3-11, Waterfront Playhouse)
John Papais directs Dave Christner's dark comedya bout a doomed man conned into donating his organs.

Gigi, The Merry-Go-Round Horse (Oct. 4-5, Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center)
Zouanne LeRoy adapts Elizabeth Foster's story about a broken and discarded carousel horse suddenly remembered by a wealthy woman who had the horse as a toy in her childhood. Daniel Bonnet directs.

Six In The Garden (Oct. 3-11, Kelly's Caribbean Bar & Grill)
Anne Boese directs six darkly comic one-act plays by David Fleisher.

Also part of the Festival will be six staged readings:
Curse Of Angels (Janyce Lapore)
Delirium (Daniel O'Brien)
Birthday Pie (Arthur Wooten)
Maria's Devotion (Linda Eisenstein)
Burden (Robert E. Williams)
Table No. 3 (Alexandre Olivier Phillippe)

This is Joan McGillis' fourth year as artistic director of the Fest, which was founded by Charles Munroe and Nancy Holkamp.

Area hotels are offering "special package rates," (The Pines, Sea Isle Resort and Alexander's Guesthouse cater to an exclusively gay clientele.)

For information and tickets ($12) to the Key West Festival, call 800-741 6945.

-- By David Lefkowitz