With his work on the film "Shakespeare in Love" and plays like The 15-Minute Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard may as well be the Bard's ghost writer. Now the Women's Shakespeare Company detour from Shakespeare's folios and dive into one of these Stoppard classics in their all- female production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Abingdon Theatre which is set to close, as scheduled, Nov. 18. The production began Oct. 30.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern focuses on the somewhat futile lives of these second-string personas. The title characters are dropped onto the stage, wait for the plot to develop, serve their purpose in the Shakespeare classic and, well, you know the end.

Taking on the very reverse-Elizabeth tradition, the all-female cast includes Missy Bonaguide, Cheryl Dennis, Gwyneth Dobson, Clayton Dowty, Sarah Gifford, Ginny Hack, Ellen Lee, Heather Mieko, Diane Neal, Kate Sandberg and Kelly Ann Sharman.

Brian PJ Cronin directs the Women's Shakespeare Company production with costumes by Mary Margaret O'Neill and lights by Owen Hughes. The WSC's previous productions have included Henry V, Othello and Measure For Measure.

For tickets to the production playing at the Abingdon, 432 West 42nd St., (between 9th and 10th Ave.), call (212) 501-1986. For more information on the WSC, visit their webpage at www.womensshakespeareco.org. — by Ernio Hernandez