Plowshares Theatre Company, Detroit's leading professional African American theatre company, will offer the world premiere Detroiter Jeff Chastang's Continued Warm in the five-show 2000-2001 season.

The fact-based play centers on a 1943 riot in the Detroit River park known as Belle Isle. The event is seen through the eyes of eight tenants in a boarding house in the Detroit neighborhood known as Paradise Alley.

Performances run July 12-Aug. 5, 2001, at the Anderson Center Theatre, Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn, MI.

Chastang saw his Full Circle have a world premiere in Plowshares' 1999-2000 season.

Also in the season: • Ain't Misbehavin', the Fats Waller musical revue, Nov. 9-Dec. 3, at the Museum of African American History in Detroit.

• Mule Bone, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes' play about two friends, Dave and Jim, who argue over a woman and have their entire Florida community at odds, Jan. 18-Feb. 18, 2001, at Anderson Center Theatre, Henry Ford Museum.

• A play celebrating women's history month, to be announced, March 8 April 8, 2001, at Anderson Center Theatre, Henry Ford Museum.

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson's play about African American yearnings, artistry, rage and the legacy of oppression, set in a recording studio, April 26-May 27, 2001, at the Anderson Center Theatre, Henry Ford Museum.

For season-ticket information, call (313) 872-0279.

-- By Kenneth Jones