Sitcom star Bonnie ("One Day at a Time") Franklin will open Charlotte Rep's 1999-2000 season, leading their production of Communicating Doors by Alan Ayckbourn, Sept. 10-26.

Although primarily known for her portrayal of a single mom on the sitcom which ran for nine years, Franklin has extensive theatre credits, including starring as Viola in the off-Broadway musical, Your Own Thing. Subsequent roles included Applause (Tony nominee) Dames at Sea, Frankie & Johnny in the Clair DeLune and Grace and Glorie.

Communicating Doors opened Off-Broadway this past season in a production starring Mary Louise Parker. The comic time-travel fantasy is set in a posh hotel in the year 2014. A leather-clad dominatrix-for-hire has been called in to provide one final good time for an ailing zillionaire, who, she soon finds out, has a fondness for killing his wives. One young prostitute attempts to flee through a door she thinks leads to the next room but in fact leads into the same room 20 years in the past. There she meets a woman (Franklin) whom, she has been given to understand, the zillionaire murdered on that very night, and the two set about rewriting history before it's too late.

Other Ayckbourn plays include Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, The Norman Conquests and Woman in Mind.

For tickets or more information on Communicating Doors call (704) 372-1000. -- By Sean McGrath