Connecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs, CT, has created an artistic program, the CRT Playwrights' Lab, to workshop and develop a new series of plays each summer.

Susan V. Booth, director of new play development at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, has been named director of the lab.

Among the plays selected for this summer's program are Migdalia Cruz's Vishnu's Dream, a CRT commission about the effects of war on children; and Ellen Lewis's Eastville, in which Harriet Tubman finds herself being held hostage by an ex-Quaker and an ex-slave shortly after the passage of the fugitive slave laws.

Discussions are also underway with the Long Wharf Theatre and the Goodman Theatre regarding other projects for this summer's inaugural lab.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre, under the artistic direction of Gary M. English, is the professional producing arm of the dramatic arts department at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. -- By Rebecca Paller