The work, bowing Dec. 10-Jan. 16, 2005, concerns "a group of wonderfully eccentric characters, living in a crumbling Berkshire cottage artists' retreat." They are "immersed in a life of nature, poetry and the desire to fulfill their dreams." Ackerman penned The Batting Cage and other plays.

Florida Stage calls itself "the Southeast's only professional theatre dedicated to the production of exclusively new and developing works."

The new season will also include what's being called the "co-world premiere" of Claudia Allen's Hanging Fire (Jan. 28-March 6, 2005), starring Frances Sternhagen. The play is a "new comedy about two adventurous sisters throughout the generations of their lives." The piece was to premiere in spring 2004 at Victory Garden Theater in Chicago, with Julie Harris, but was bumped to fall 2004 due to Harris' unavailability.

Casting for the separate staging by the Tony Award honored VGT has not been announced, but that run is also being called "the co-world premiere."

Also at Florida stage in 2004-05, expect the Florida premiere of Joshua Ford's Miklat (Oct. 22-Nov. 28), "a funny and poignant story about faith, family and homeland"; the Southeastern premiere of Michele Lowe's String of Pearls (March 18-April 22, 2005), "about more than two dozen funny, sensuous and warmhearted women whose stories converge over the years around a single strand of pearls; and the Southeastern premiere of David Wiltse's The Good German (May 6-June 12, 2005), "a spellbinding new play set during World War II, [in which] a couple risks the consequences of harboring a Jewish publisher in Nazi Germany." Florida Stage is located at 262 South Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan. For more information, call (561) 585-3433 or (800) 514-3837, or visit floridastage.org.