Tina Howe's latest play, Agog in the Galapagos, set to star Tony winner Elizabeth Franz, will premiere at Syracuse Stage April 30, 2003, for a run through May 25.

Playbill On-Line first broke the story of the unusual project last May. Howe has written the one-person show specifically for Franz. Syracuse Stage artistic director Robert Moss introduced the two artists, who had never met before. Moss will direct.

Franz will play two daughters in the work, Cassandra and Lucy. The first is "the tragic straight woman," the second "the wise clown." Howe, with her usual emphasis on empathy for the human condition, cut with whimsy, describes the story as being about "silence and tears, laughter and rapture, plus an eighty-year-old parrot painted white"

Franz was a Tony nominee for Morning's at Seven last spring. She won the Tony a few seasons back for her Linda Loman in the Brian Dennehy Robert Falls revival of Death of a Salesmen.

Howe is the author of such plays as Pride's Crossing and Coastal Disturbances. Her Museum was recently revived Off Broadway. Single tickets for Agog in the Galapagos go on sale to the general public on Jan. 13, 2003. Only subscribers are able to purchase tickets to the show from now until Jan.10. For information, call (315) 443 3275.

—By Robert Simonson