The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco will present the Celebrating Women Festival May 14-Sept 25.

Opening the festival and serving as a benefit for it is Karen Finley's Shut Up and Love Me!, written and performed by Finley. The woman famous for losing an National Endowment of the Arts grant for her deemed "indecent" 1990 performance piece We Keep Our Victims Ready offers a new show dealing with her psychosexual relationship with United States politicians including Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton. Part of the evening will include a segment where audience members can lick substances off Finley's body for money. Shut up and Love Me runs May 14-16.

June 10-July 31 NCTC hosts the 15-year anniversary production of Parallel Lives (based on The Kathy and Mo Show). Beginning with the creation of the world by two Supreme Beings, Lives follows two actresses playing men and women traveling through modern life's little rituals like teenaged dating, family funerals and the mating dance at a country western bar.

Seventy-four-year-old Berkeley artist Betty McAfee will give her multi media presentation Wake Up! Aug. 5-22. Through poetry, storytelling, visual images and music from various eras in her life, McAfee tells the story of 70-plus years of political, historical and personal experiences. Wake Up! has been performed in the Bay Area and across the country.

Obie Award-winning writer Holly Hughes will premiere her Preaching to the Perverted, Sept 8-25. In this performance piece, the lesbian David Gergen called a "threat to national security," reports on her recent appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court. Tickets ($25-$10) are available by calling the NCTC box office at (415) 861-8972. The New Conservatory Theatre Center is located at 25 Van Ness Avenue.

-- By Christine Ehren