The last time most people remember Zack Galligan, he was scampering away from evil gerbil-like creatures in the teen horror flick, "Gremlins." Ah, but maturity comes to everyone, and now Galligan will be playing poet Robert Browning in a staged reading of Carol Chapman Galligan's one-act play, Hearts Remember. The July 14 and 15 readings, which co-star Belinda Wolfe as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, are produced by NYC's Riverside Stage Company and being held at the Wilton Playshop in Wilton, CT. (The author, by the way, is the actor's mom.)

Hearts Remember and two other plays, Tribune, by Louise Felder, and The Incubus, by James Hindman, were selected out of a national contest sponsored by Riverside Stage. Tribune, kicked off the mini-fest July 7-8, and featured Ted Koch, who played Happy in the recent Broadway Death of a Salesman, and Ken Prymus (The Wiz.

The Incubus, running July 21-22, stars Barbara Walsh (Blood Brothers, Big) Nancy Opel (Triumph of Love) and Ray Wills (the Wise Guys workshop), with a young boy still to be cast. Incubus, by the author of Pete `n' Keely, is also getting a private reading in mid-July from OOB's Lark Theatre Company, with Walsh and Wills again in the cast but Mary Testa (Marie Christine) in the Opel role.

All performances are followed by discussion and snacks. For reservations ($10 donation) and information on the reading series at the Wilton Playshop, 15 Lover's Lane in Wilton, call (203) 762-8130.

-- By David Lefkowitz