The Director, a new play about theatre folk, will have its world premiere at the Actors Lab in Hollywood on March 19, after one preview, March 18. The run is for six weeks only.

The plays tells the tale of Annie (Tasha Lawrence, winner of the 1996 Drama Desk Award for Who Will Carry the Word), a playwright unhappy with the status of her soon-to-be-produced play. Then she comes across a burnt-out director (Tim Monsion, seen recently in Chicago in A Flea in Her Ear), who is now scraping by as a janitor in a New York rehearsal studio. She convinces him to work with her on the play, but, as director Evan Bergman said, "each rehearsal, dangerous and exhausting, brings them face to face with questions of life, true art, and the ultimate control of one human being over another."

Bergman's cast also features Marja Adreiance, Warren Press, Todd Simmons and Shula Van Buren.

The Rehearsal is produced by Actors Lab, Kate Wachter Productions and New Voice Theatre.

The Actors Lab is located at 1514 N. Gardner St. Call (323) 878-0255 for information. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent