The Southwest premiere of William Finn's A New Brain, the quirky Off-Broadway musical about a composer struggling with brain dysfunction, will play Dec. 2-12 at tiny Collin County Community College in Plano, TX, outside Dallas.

Brad Baker will direct the hybrid staging, made up of students and Dallas area professionals, at the Quad C Theatre, on the CCCC campus. Jennifer Laws is the choreographer.

Designers are Craig Erickson (scenery and lighting), Sandra Snyder (costume) and James Grim (sound design).

The company includes professionals Coy Covington, John Garcia and Lucia Welch, and students Brian Yarbrough, Dondrie Burnham, Edward Fraim, Jason Stuart, Jennifer Pasion, Laura Ault, Wendy Brantley, Megan Woodall and Nolan Noska.

James McQuillen is the musical director. Composer-lyricist Finn wrote the piece with James Lapine, drawing on Finn's real-life crisis in 1992, when his brain malfunctioned and a doctor mistakenly diagnosed it as an inoperable brain tumor. Graciela Daniele staged the original 1998 production at Lincoln Center Theatre's Mitzi Newhouse. The score is preserved on a cast album.

Finn won the 1992 Best Score Tony Award for Falsettos.

For information about Quad C Theatre's A New Brain, call (972) 881-5809.

-- By Kenneth Jones