Linda Purl will star as faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Richard Thomas and Daniel Davis will pair with Joseph Fuqua for Art during the 2002-2003 season at Los Angeles' Rubicon Theatre Company.

The theatre's fifth season kicks off with a world premiere, Sunrise in My Pocket, in November. A co-production with North Carolina's PlayMakers Rep, Sunrise takes its inspiration from a 1941 Edwin Justus Mayer script about woodsman Davy Crockett's last days. Jeffrey Hayden adapted the script and will direct the production.

Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa follows Sunrise. Emmy Award winner Susan Clark ("Webster," "Porky's") will play Kate with Jennifer Smith at the helm.

Purl is a Broadway vet whose credits include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Getting and Spending. On TV, she best known for her roles on "Happy Days," "Matlock" and "Undercover." Streetcar Named Desire is expected in the winter months.

The summer will get the light-hearted Art. A comic examination of friendship among three men, the play will pit "The Waltons"' Thomas and "The Nanny"'s Davis against one another with Fuqua stuck in the middle. Davis recently performed on Broadway in The Invention of Love and Wrong Mountain. For tickets and information call (805) 667-2900. The Laurel Theatre is located at 1006 East Main Street in Ventura. Rubicon Theatre Company is on the web at http://www.rubicontheatre.org.

— By Christine Ehren