Spinning Into Butter, Rebecca Gilman's hit problem play about racism on a college campus, makes its West Coast premiere March 5-April 14 at Seattle Repertory Theatre's Leo K. Theatre. Multiple Drama-Logue winner Richard E. T. White directs.

Spinning Into Butter, officially opening March 12, takes its title from the old Little Black Sambo tale of several thieving tigers who literally run themselves down into butter while chasing each other's tails, trying to prove which one is the grandest. In the play, an African-American student finds a racist note pinned on his dorm door and sets into motion a wave of political correctness that reveals deep-seated racial and racist feelings among the staff at the small Vermont college.

A longtime associate of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Gilman has recently sent two of her Goodman plays to New York City: Spinning Into Butter, which played Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Stage; and Boy Gets Girl, which recently began previews at Manhattan Theatre Club. She is also the author of Osborn Award winner The Glory of Living, The Land of Little Horses, My Sin and Nothing More and Blue Surge, which premieres at the Goodman Theatre this summer.

Spinning Into Butter features Julie Briskman Hall (Sarah Daniels), Ken Grantham (Dean Burton Strauss), Brian Homer (Patrick Chibas), Peter Lohnes (Ross), Cristine McMurdo-Wallis (Dean Catherine Kenney), Peter Silbert (Mr. Meyers) and Tommy Smith (Greg Sullivan).

Designing the show are Scott Weldin (sets), Jeanne Arnold (costumes), Rick Paulsen (lighting) and Stephen LeGrand (sound). Tickets are $42-$15. Seattle Repertory Theatre is located in the Seattle Center at the corner of Second Avenue and Mercer Street. For reservations, call (206) 443-2222. Seattle Repertory Theatre is on the web at http://www.seattlerep.org.

— By Christine Ehren