LOS ANGELES -- Dinner at Grandpa's, Bobby Wittenberg's comedy that won Honorable Mention in the 1997 McLaren Playwriting Competition, will open Mar. 20 at the Wooden-O Theatre.

Wittenberg has previously received the Corwin-Metropolitan Theatres Writing Award for Somebody Else's Dream and is currently a finalist in the America's Best Writers competition in the screenplay category for The Oinkaroo. His play The Crime of Danny Segal was produced in New York at the American Theatre for Actors and at the Knightsbridge Theatre in L.A.

Dinner at Grandpa's is "set at an annual family dinner celebrating grandpa Sidney Gromsky's heart attack. Adult grandson David Fine has decided to get in touch with his history and Grandpa Sidney, a Jewish-Russian immigrant, tells his story and insists he has lived the American Dream. But when David inadvertently calls up the ghost of his deceased grandmother, grandpa's complex string of lies unravels," said a company spokesperson.

Featured in the cast are Lara Baird, Ciro Barbaro, Natalie Barish, Gloria Grant, Andrew Morris and Nicholas Saunders. Set design is by Jacqueline DiBernardo, lighting design by Cheryl Waters and sound design by Walter Zooi. Scott Sinnott is stage manager and Wittenberg directs.

Performances are Fri. & Sat. at 8 PM through April 25 at the Wooden-O Theatre, 2207 Federal Ave. in W. L.A. For tickets, $15, call (213) 612-5229. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent