Clarice Taylor, best-known for playing Grandma Huxtable on TV's "Cosby Show," has a new one-person show to add to her successful Moms Mabley solo. Spermegga, a look at a young woman journeying into womanhood, premieres at Philadelphia's Freedom Theatre June 16-July 3, before a national tour whose itinerary is currently being planned. Previews began June 11.

Freedom artistic director Walter Dallas is directing the comedy/drama, which will play at the Painted Bride Arts Center. (While Freedom Theatre continues its major construction project, it has to continue renting out other spaces for its mainstage projects.)

Also on the front burner for Freedom is a new musical, Sparkle, undergoing a two-week workshop process, culminating in a presentation July 1. Walter Dallas is directing the piece, adapted by Ntozake Shange from the Warner Brothers film of the same name. Sparkle looks at three sisters hoping to make it big in R&B in 1950s Harlem. Evan Solot is the music director/arranger for the piece, to be choreographed by Patricia Scott Hobbs.

The Sparkle presentation takes place at the Large Auditorium of the Community College of Philadelphia, July 1 at 7 PM. For information call (215) 978-8497.

-- by David Lefkowitz