Four students' lives are forever altered by an influential English teacher in Wendy Kesselman's The Notebook, which begins previews June 13 at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre in Manhattan. The show is part of Second Stages' "New Plays Uptown" series and runs through June 30, with an official opening on June 23.

Kesselman is better known to theatregoers as the adaptor of the recent Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank. The Notebook takes place at a private school where a Miss Jean Brodie like English teacher called Ms. Thorne holds considerable sway over her students.

Starring in the piece are Lisa Harrow, Peter Van Wagner, Portia Reiners and Miles Puritan. Evan Yionoulis, who directed the Off-Broadway premieres of works by Warren Leight (Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine) and Richard Greenberg (Everett Beekin), is at the helm.

The Notebook was commissioned by Second Stage Theatre through the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund way back in 1994.

In other Second Stage news, Ricky Jay's magic act, On the Stem, recently extended to Aug. 4. Also, Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce, once mentioned for the 2000-01 season and then scheduled for the 2001-02 season, has been dropped from the roster. It will not be featured in the coming season. Second Stage's production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses continues to thrive on Broadway, at Circle in the Square. Zimmerman took home a 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.

—By Robert Simonson