Off-Broadway's Primary Stages Company begins its 12th season tonight, Oct. 17 with two one-act comedies by John Patrick Shanley, Missing Marisa and Kissing Christine, billed together as "Missing/Kissing."

In Marisa, two men wrangle over the memory of a woman they've loved and lost; in Christine, two bruised souls connect on a blind date. Shanley, who received an academy award for his screenplay for Moonstruck, will direct this New York premiere. The plays were staged at Louisville's Humana Festival in spring 1996 by Doug Hughes.

Shanley's last new play in New York was 1993's Four Dogs And A Bone (at Manhattan Theatre Club). His other works include Savage In Limbo, Psychopathia Sexualis, Italian American Reconciliation, and the play that first brought him critical attention, Danny And The Deep Blue Sea.

Jake Weber stars in Missing/Kissing; he appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1990 production of Shanley's The Big Funk at The Public Theatre.

-- By David Lefkowitz