Kicking off the year at the New Jersey theatre will be Stephen Dietz's Last of the Boys. Directed by artistic director Emily Mann, this world premiere concerns two Vietnam veterans who "come together for a final hurrah." Last of the Boys will play the Berlind Theatre, Sept. 7-Oct. 17. Kyle Donnelly and Cathy Madison have adapted Zora Neale Hurston and Dorothy Waring's Polk Country, which will play the Matthews Theatre Oct. 12-31. Subtitled "A Play with Music," the work "charts the passions and poetry of sawmill camp workers deep in the woods of central Florida." Donnelly directs.

Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman — of Metamorphoses fame — turns her attention to the tales of the Brothers Grimm for her latest project. Adapted and directed by Zimmerman, The Secret in the Wings interweaves several of the Grimms' fairy tales with "stunning visual inventiveness, quirky humor and more than a touch of the macabre." The Secret in the Wings will play the Berlind Jan. 4-Feb. 13, 2005.

The Matthews Theatre will house the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck's The Bells, March 22-April 10. Set in the final years of the Alaska Gold Rush, the new work will be directed by Emily Mann. The play intertwines the stories of an innkeeper, his daughter and the various "drunks and misfits of a boomtown gone bust."

The McCarter season will conclude with William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Hamlet, May 3-June 19. Reimagined for the intimate Berlind stage, Hamlet will be directed by Daniel Fish.

For more information visit www.mccarter.org.