The play by the author of American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, November and The Cryptogram will begin rehearsals Oct. 19 toward a first preview of Nov. 17 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre with an official opening Dec. 6.

Mamet will also direct.

The design team will include set designer Santo Loquasto, lighting designer Brian MacDevitt and costume designer Paul Tazewell.

Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler will produce Race. No details about the plot have been announced.

James Spader won two Emmy Awards for his work on "Boston Legal" and one Emmy for his work on "The Practice." His numerous film credits include "Pretty in Pink," "Mannequin," "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "Storyville," "Keys to Tulsa," "Crash," "Secretary" and "Wall Street," among others. The Barrymore, which was the recent home of the much-in-the-news revival of Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, is located at 243 West 47th Street.

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Mamet's directing credits include the world premieres of his plays Oleanna, The Cryptogram, Boston Marriage and Faustus, as well as Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants and Ricky Jay: On the Stem, and various productions for the Atlantic Theater Company and Circle Rep.

For motion pictures, he has previously written and directed "Redbelt," "Spartan," "Heist," "State and Main," "Catastrophe," "The Winslow Boy," "The Spanish Prisoner," "Oleanna," "Homicide," "Things Change" and "House of Games."

For television, he has directed numerous episodes of his CBS hit series "The Unit," for which he also is creator and executive producer.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet has also written Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Duck Variations, Reunion, The Blue Hour, The Shawl, Bobby Gould in Hell, Edmond, Romance, The Old Neighborhood and the recent adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A two-time Academy Award nominee for "The Verdict" and "Wag the Dog," Mamet's additional film credits include "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "The Untouchables," "Hoffa," "Ronin," "The Edge" and "We're No Angels."

He is a member of New York' Atlantic Theater Company, which he founded in 1985 with William H. Macy.