The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum--recipient of this year's Margaret Hartford Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Circle's highest honor--has announced its 2000 repertory season. Things will kick off June 4 with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, which will be followed July 8 by Harold and Maude by Colin Higgins; July 29 by Thornton's Wilder's Our Town; and Sept. 1 by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Artistic director Ellen Geer will direct Shrew, which features Richard Tyson, Jim LeFave and Melora Marshall. Heidi Helen Davis is the dirctor of Harold and Maude, which was adapted by Higgins from his popular film about a melancholy boy obesssed with funerals and staged suicides, and the 80-year-old, free-spirited woman who offers him real lessons in life and love and taking chances. Geer, who made an appearance in the 1971 film, has been cast as Maude.

In addition to the rep season, Theatricum will present Alfredo Music Series, five intimate evenings of outdoor cabaret; Theatre for Kids and Kids Koncerts. On Aug. 19, such celebrity guess as Tyne Daly, Michael Learned and Wendie Malick are scheduled to appear in a pseical concert performance of The Strength of Women.

Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga. For tickets and information call (310) 455-3723.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent