The Invisible Theatre is celebrating its 30th anniversary this 2000-2001 season. Six shows including renowned actresses, southwest premieres, special events and a world premiere will adorn the Arizona stage this year.

Opening the season is Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly Sept. 19-Oct. 8. A musical revue about Howard, who is put in charge of putting together a musical revue. Though he struggles against opposition, the result is an over-the-top extravaganza. Susan Claassen directs the comedy and Khris Dodge musically directs.

Actress Claire Bloom, perhaps most known in theatre circles for her one-woman show, These are Women: A Portrait of Shakespeare's Heroines, will follow the season opener. Her new show Enter the Actress makes its southwest premiere Nov. 10-11. The show follows the personal and professional lives of some of England's best actresses through success, failure and a little scandal. Bloom's film career included starring opposite Charlie Chaplin in his "Limelight."

Following Bloom's solo, Tucson playwright Elaine Romero receives her world premiere at Invisible. Her play Curanderas! Serpents of the Clouds runs Nov. 28-Dec. 17. This story of a young Latina doctor, whose life is changed when she meets a curandera (a shaman) on a trip to Mexico. Deborah Dickey directs.

Writer-performer Elizabeth Van Dyke (recently seen in OOB's Dance on Widow's Row) will perform her tribute to the first African-American woman playwright Feb. 9-11, 2001. In Love to All, Lorraine, she salutes Lorraine Hansberry, writer of A Raisin in the Sun. Van Dyke also directs. The second southwest premiere of the season will be The Exact Center of the Universe which runs Feb. 27-March 18, 2001. Carol Calkins directs this Joan Vail Thorne comedy -- which had an extended Off-Broadway run -- about a southern mother who is overprotective of her middle-aged son and what happens when a young woman falls in love with him.

The Invisible season closes with another southwest premiere in Lee Murphy's Catch a Falling Star. Playing May 22-June 10, this comedy follows the story of a television personality who returns home to explain to her parents a dark secret before they read about it in a magazine. Gail Fitzhugh directs the season finale.

Also playing this season is two special events. Coming Through - Ellis Island Revisited! is Wynn Handman's one-act adaptation the weaves together the stories of three immigrants as they 'come through' in 1922. Amy Almquist directs the shown that runs Jan. 4-7, 2001. Sketches - Edith Head's Hollywood plays April 11-15, 2001. This workshop production written and conceived by Carol Calkins and Susan Claassen is about the great Hollywood designer of the '30s and '40s. Calkins directs Claassen.

For tickets to performances at the Invisible Theatre, 1400 North First Ave, in Tucson, AZ, call (520) 882-9721.

-- by Ernio Hernandez