Coming off winning four Jeff Citations for 1996's Red Dragon, Chicago's Defiant Theatre has announced its 1998 season, which includes three local premieres and one world premiere.

Opening the season, June 10, is Phaedra's Love, directed by Lisa Rothschiller. In Sarah Kane's bawdy adaptation of Euripides' Hippolytus, the latter is a once-tough-guy now bored with his celebrity. He embarks on an incestuous relationship with his stepmother, Phaedra.

Following Phaedra will be the world premiere of Action Movie: The Play (opens July 22), a parody of all those guns, cars, karate-chop action flicks. Joe Foust's piece uses no multi-media in staging its apocalyptic sequences.

Finishing the season (October) will be Mac Wellman's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Richard Ragsdale. The 99-year-old thriller tells of a gracious host who never drinks...wine.

Now in its fifth season in Chicago, Defiant has staged such works as Ubu Raw and The Skriker. The not-for-profit troupe, headed by Jeff Arena, employs such techniques as vaudeville, puppetry, kabuki and naturalism. Shows in the `98 season will take place at the American Theatre Company space on North Lincoln Ave. For season tickets ($25) and information on Defiant Theatre call (312) 409-0585.

-- By David Lefkowitz