Lesbian playwrights will stop having their say at San Francisco's Magic Theatre Jan. 23 when the theatre's two week festival of Lesbian works comes to a close. The Magic hosted the festival in response to the lack of attention lesbian playwrights receive, as opposed to their gay male couterparts.

The festival's centerpiece is the world premiere workshop production of Claire Chafee's Five Women on a Hill in Spain. From the author of Why We Have a Body, Five Women examines the lives of a group of women traveling in Spain, while the first solo female cosmonaut flies high above them. Abigail Deser directs the piece.

Accompanying the workshop are a series of staged readings:

Who Killed Yolanda Saldivar? by Cherrie Moraga, an stylized examination of both the woman who killed the Tejana singer Selena and Moraga's son, who murdered a Tejana friend of hers
Damage and Desire by Kate Moira Ryan, a one act comedy about the politics of lesbian and gay journalism
Kissing the Witch by Ireland's Emma Donoghue, a stage adaption of her book of the same title, a collection of new fairy tales with strong and sensual heroines
Catastrophe of Peace by Bernadette Flagler, a bizzare comedy about growing up lesbian in a household where everyone else is hiding a fatal illness and you may just be the next Messiah

Tickets are $15 for the workshop production, $10 for all staged readings. For tickets, call (415) 441-8822. The Magic Theatre is located in Building D in the Fort Mason Center. -- By Christine Ehren