"It's a very big epic piece taking on the nature of America," the younger Schwartz told Playbill On-Line about the production slated for a March 31-April 25, 2004, run at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The three-act play with music is based on the novel by Willa Cather of the same name. "It's set in the late 1800's, around 1885-1886, and it's about a young American boy named Jim and this girl who immigrates to America from Bohemia — what was Bohemia, which is now Czechoslovakia," Schwartz revealed. "It is sort of their love story though they never actually get together. So, I suppose their bittersweet love story, you can call it. It's about the immigrant experience in America, it's about memory and the America spirit."

The director is currently in California casting the show which will employ 15 actors. The work is adapted and directed by Scott Schwartz and features original music by Stephen Schwartz. Both are currently represented on Broadway by Golda's Balcony and Wicked.

Scott Schwartz is mostly known for his directing, including work on the musicals Jane Eyre, Bat Boy and tick, tick...Boom!. The patriarch Schwartz has composed the musicals Pippin, Godspell, Working and Children of Eden.

For tickets to My Antonia at TheatreWorks' Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, call (650) 903-6000. For more information, TheatreWorks is on the web at http://www.theatreworks.org.