The Austin Pendleton-directed Admissions will open Mar. 5 at the Blue Heron Arts Center on E. 24th Street in Manhattan. That production has originally planned to open on Feb. 28 and then resume performances on Mar. 5, but the Feb. 28 was changed to a dress rehearsal, making Mar. 5 the official opening. The show is set to run through Mar. 28, though extra performances in April may be added.

Tony Vellela's drama is about a group of diverse student leaders who take over the offices of the college president only to be torn apart by their own political differences.

Vellela and Pendleton have been working on Admissions since 1992, staging numerous reading with the likes of Cynthia Nixon and Stephen Mailer. The play, under Pendleton's direction, was first produced, to some acclaim, in 1995 at New Perspectives Theater.

Over the past decade, the Obie Award-winning Pendleton has made a habit of accepting big assignments with small Off-Off-Broadway companies. Recently, he played Claudius in the Frog & Peach company's staging of Hamlet.

Pendleton began his acting career in the original production of Oh Dad, Poor Dad... by Arthur Kopit and directed by Jerome Robbins. Other credits include Fiddler on the Roof , The Last, Sweet Days of Isaac , The Sorrows of Frederick , Sophistry , acting in the Mike Nichols The Little Foxes and directing the Elizabeth Taylor The Little Foxes . His movies include "What's Up, Doc?," "Simon," "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" and "Amistad." He's also author of the acclaimed plays Booth and Uncle Bob. For information on Admissions, call (212) 332-0027.

-- By Robert Simonson