In the true sense of collaboration, The Actors' Gang and the Cornerstone Theatre Companys present three theatre classics, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella in a groundbreaking simultaneous production, April 3 - May 2.

Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, an epic, three-ring circus-style production intertwining a collective interpretation of these plays about ambition, representing three great traditions of populist theatre -- Greek tragedy, Elizabethan drama and American musical theatre.

Euripides', Shakespeare's and Rodgers and Hammerstein's plays/musicals are performed simultaneously (one in each ring of the "circus") with characters from each of the plays - sometimes invading each others' worlds/ring during specific crowd scenes in each of the plays, as in the Prince's Ball or Macbeth's banquet.

Medea is performed entirely by women, in efforts to heighten the feminist issues of the play, while Macbeth is played by an all-male cast, (including Lady Macbeth) in efforts to emulate the original Elizabethan production. Cinderella, however, has the standard mixed gender casting: males play males, females play females.

Based on the two companies' reputation on doing daring, serious-minded, productions of the classics, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization has given the companies special permission to use Cinderella. Cornerstone Artistic Director Bill Rauch approached The Gang's Tracy Young, last year during a collaboration for Cornerstone's Candude, or The Optimistic Civil Servant. Rauch descibed a workshop he'd done in college of Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella with many of the future members of The Cornerstone. Young loved the idea, and proposed that the two companies co-produce it under the join direction of Young and Rauch.

Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella runs April 3 - May 2, at The Actors' Gang Theatre. Tickets for the production are $15, and can be ordered through Tickets L.A. At (213) 660-TKTS.

-- By Sean McGrath