Cherry Lane Alternative's 2002 mentoring program pairs three new writers, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Julia Cho and Eliam Kraiem with three professional playwrights, Marsha Norman, David Henry Hwang and Michael Weller to bring three new works to the Cherry Lane Theatre this spring. Laufer's Out of Sterno plays first, April 2-13, followed by Cho's 99 Histories, April 23-May 4, and finally, Kraiem's Sixteen Wounded, May 14-25.

In Sterno, mentored by Norman and directd by Eleanor Reissa, a woman named Dotty expounds on her happy life. Granted, she hasn't been out of her apartment or spoken to anyone besides her husband for seven years, but everything is really great. Laufer's other plays include Random Acts and The Last Schwartz.

Cho's 99 Histories, mentored by Hwang and directed by Maria Mileaf, tells the story of Eunice, a Korean woman whose strongest memory of childhood is her mother reading letters that made her cry. Having returned home pregnant and with an attitude, she confronts her mother about the hidden aspects of their past. April 26, 99 Histories will be read at South Coast Repertory Theatre's Pacific Playwrights Festival in Costa Mesa, California. Chay Yew (Red) will direct that reading.

Sixteen Wounded is a timely piece in which a terrorist becomes torn between his duty to his country and his own gradaul acceptance of the West. Matt August directs the reading, mentored by Weller.

Tickets to the Mentor Project presentations are $15. The Cherry Lane Theatre is located at 38 Commerce Street. For reservations, call (212) 727-3673.