Winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, NJ's McCarter Theatre has announced its 1997-98 season, one which appears to be most notable for its directors.

Artistic director Emily Mann will stage Federico Garcia Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba, while Hartford Stage head Mark Lamos will make his McCarter debut with William Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Much as he did with Valley Song, Athol Fugard will write, direct and star in The Captain's Tiger, while Mark Nelson, best known as an actor, will bring his hit Off-Broadway revival of June Moon (for the Drama Dept. Company) to the McCarter.

Here's the season line-up so far:
Sept. 16-Oct. 5: June Moon, George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner's 1929 comedy with music, about a young man's initiation into the desperate world of Tin Pan Alley songwriting. Cynthia Nixon and Albert Macklin starred in the Off-Broadway mounting and may repeat their roles, both at the McCarter and a likely commercial run Off-Broadway later in the season. The show opens Sept. 19.

Oct. 21-Nov. 19: The House Of Bernarda Alba, Lorca's Spanish tragedy about a matriarch obsessed with the purity of her five daughters. The show opens Oct. 24.

Jan. 20-Feb. 10, 1998: Cymbeline, Shakespeare's romantic drama about evil potions, lost sons and Roman gods. The show opens Jan. 24, 1998. March 17-April 5, 1998: Still to be announced, though it could be a work developed in the McCarter Lab of readings and workshops, currently underway.

May 5-May 24, 1998: The Captain's Tiger, Athol Fugard's autobiographical story of a young writer haunted by a cherished photograph of his mother as a young woman. The show opens May 8, 1998.

Classical music, world music, dance and jazz series will also be on the McCarter schedule. For information on The McCarter Theatre, on University Place in Princeton, NJ, call (609) 252-0915.

--By David Lefkowitz