The new season at Princeton, NJ's McCarter Theatre will begin Sept. 12 with auteur Mary Zimmerman's take on Homer's classic, The Odyssey. A star director in Chicago, Zimmerman's highly visual, physical work is rarely seen on the east coast. She is the recipient of a MacArthur grant and an associate artist at the Goodman Theatre, where Odyssey debuted.

The Odyssey will officially open Sept. 15 and run through Oct. 1.

The large cast will include Mark Alhadeff, Christina Apathy, Anjali Bhimani, Kevin Bott, Duane Boutte, Mario Campanaro, Julanne Chidi Hill, Christopher Donahue, Anna Fitzwater, Andrew Grusetskie, Kyle Hall, Felicity Jones, Christian Kauffmann, Natasha Kelly, Louise Lamson, Karl Light, Mariann Mayberry, Michael A. Patten, Paul Oakley Stovall, Gary Wingert and Dexter Zollicoffer.

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The 2000-01 season also includes a new Athol Fugard play, and Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Thirteen years after winning a Best Actress Tony Award for her solo star turn playing multiple characters in Jane Wagner's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Tomlin began touring the material again last year. The McCarter stop may lead to a New York engagement.

Sorrow and Rejoicings, a new play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, will reach the McCarter in May 2001. Fugard's many plays include Valley Song and The Blood Knot. Fugard will direct the piece.

Filling out the main stage season are a revivals of Sheridan's The School for Scandal, A Christmas Carol, and an unnamed production by Emily Mann, the longtime artistic director of the McCarter.

The second stage will see Marc Wolf's one-man show about gays in the military, Another American: Asking and Telling, which proved a hit for New York City's The New Group last fall.

The complete 2000-2001 schedule is as follows:

Main Stage:

• The Odyssey by Homer, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman, from the translation by Robert Fitzgerald, beginning Sept. 15.

• The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, by Jane Wagner, directed by Wagner, starring Lily Tomlin, beginning Oct. 20.

• A Christmas Carol, beginning Dec. 16.

• The School for Scandal, by Sheridan, directed by Mark Lamos, beginning Feb. 16, 2001.

• An Emily Mann production to be named later, directed by Mann, beginning March 30, 2001.

• Sorrow and Rejoicings, a world premiere by Athol Fugard, directed by Fugard, beginning May 4, 2001.

Second Stage OnStage:

• Another American: Asking and Telling, written and performed by Marc Wolf, beginning Jan. 14, 2001.

--By Robert Simonson