Mr. Folie again sets the action in a corporate environment but this time his concerns are serious — and timely, Mr. Shooner says, pointing out that there are echoes of the Enron scandal in a story of “corporate expediency and morals of the moment.”

        Most immediately, Slave Shack is a racial hostage drama. A white executive is set up for a fall. When a young, female African-American speech writer is sent to help him fashion his resignation announcement, he takes her prisoner.

        Mr. Shooner was originally set to star, but a couple of weeks ago he was felled by a back injury. He'll watch from the sidelines as Bob Elkins steps in opposite Ericka Smith.

        Director is Steve Easterling of Dayton. Slave Shack plays Thursday-Sunday through March 3 at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. Box office: 241-7469.

        A good fit: Actresses Peggy Cosgrave and Karen Radcliffe so inspired playwright Carter Lewis that he named his Women Who Steal characters after them.

        Peggy is playing Peggy in the production at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Wednesday through March 10. “Very rarely at this stage in life does a woman get a role this size,” says the fiftysomething Ms. Cosgrave, “and one that's such a good fit.”

        Her former co-star Ms. Radcliffe is in Cincinnati, too, starring in Mr. Lewis' Men Who Steal at Playhouse.

        The women have been road-tripping, just like the heroines of Women, in their off-hours. “Nails, toes, shopping, Super Bowl,” Ms. Cosgrave laughs. They've also been taking in the museums and are much impressed.

        Following their Cincinnati engagements, they will travel together to Florida Stage to reprise Women Who Steal until June.

        Ensemble (Women): 421-3555. Playhouse (Men): 421-3888. See both and receive a $5 discount with your ticket stub at the box office.

        The beat: Sycamore High grad Michael Croiter (class of '93) can be spotted playing Jerry, drummer for the Crickets in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, opening Tuesday at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton.

        Mr. Croiter's varied musical career has been largely based in Miami since getting his master's degree there, and includes New World Symphony and cruise ship gigs.

        Buddy has renewed his taste for theater (“I acted when I was younger — till I was 12”) and he's recently relocated to New York. When this tour ends in June, he says, he'll try for some acting jobs, although he's enjoying his current speciality, which is either a drummer who acts or an actor who plays drums.

        Mr. Croiter isn't worried about getting work. “I think there are going to be a lot of Buddy Hollys coming up,” he says, if audience response to the London hit is anything to go by.

        Buddy continues through March 3. (937) 228-3630.

        Copyright law: Messing with copyright law can get people in big trouble, so it's surprising how often artists decide to “fix” material, for whatever reason.

        Ohio Community Theatre Association (OCTA) Southwest regional reps and ACT/Cincinnati will co-sponsor Pay the Piper: What You Don't Know About Copyright Law Can Hurt You starting at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Rita School for the Deaf (1720 Glendale-Milford Road).

        Judge Susan Metz-Foster, Magistrate of the Coshocton Court of Common Pleas, will lead the workshop and advise community, school and professional theater directors on copyright law, including copying scripts, videotaping and making unauthorized script changes.

        The two-hour workshop is open to the public. Free to OCTA and ACT members, $2 fee for non-members. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. For more information and to pre-register call Pat Robb at (513) 471-2030.

        Tribute to Hughes: Artists from Chicago Lyric Opera, Broadway, Cirque du Soleil and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will come together Feb. 22-24 in Dayton for Only Heaven, a program of music, poetry, song and dance that sets 30 poems of Langston Hughes to music by composer Ricky Ian Gordon.

        The event, newly expanded to two acts, is presented by Dayton arts and education organization Muse Machine, celebrating both its 20th anniversary and Langston Hughes' centenary.

        “Langston Hughes is a real poet for the people,” Mr. Gordon says. “He writes so well about those in the margins . . . the disenfranchised . . . the ones who don't get the brass ring.”

        Mr. Gordon, who has won great acclaim for the CD Bright Eyed Joy, won critical raves for an earlier one-act version of Only Heaven.

        Opera News wrote, “Gordon's music (is) melodic, intimate with an inspired gift for bringing out the inner music of a given poem in unexpected ways.” USA Today reported that Mr. Gordon wrote “the most distinctive music heard all season.”

        Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at Dayton Art Institute. Tickets $18; $12 students. Call Muse Machine at (937) 222-6873.

        Back from Hong Kong: Mary Ellen Marzullo makes her U.S. community theater debut this week with Loveland Theatre Company in Three Murders and It's Only Monday, after 15 years of trodding the amateur boards in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

        “There's a huge American community,” in Hong Kong making up the audience of expatriates, she says. The only problem is that with the British influence, a lot of her castmates were trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, giving her a decided inferiority complex.

        There was a tendency to produce “heavy stuff” on those Far East stages, including Uncle Vanya, Agnes of God and Inherit the Wind. Mrs. Marzullo says she's delighted to be playing a flighty socialite in Murders.

        During her Hong Kong years, she did everything from voice-overs for French cartoons to dubbing English dialogue onto the films of a Cantonese pop star . She also achieved dubious fame as a wiener-loving opera singer in a TV commercial.

        Murders, which spoofs the film noir genre, runs Feb. 22-March 3 at the Shoe Factory Antique Mall (120 E. South St.) There will be an opening night dinner/fund-raiser with a bistro theme.

        Information: (513) 494-1932.

        New space: A second small theater is opening for rental biz on Newport's Monmouth Street. Joining the No Name (at Eighth) is the Monmouth Theater at 636, three blocks south of Newport on the Levee.

        “It was a big risk,” says Rose Galbraith, who, with daughter Joy, owns the Costume Gallery next door. The women bought the former strip club 18 months ago for storage space, then took a big gulp and leaped.

        “We decided that we'd make the front of the building a small performing space” that can be used for private parties, poetry readings, business meetings, receptions and more, Mrs. Galbraith says. They've been renovating ever since.

        The 1,950-square-foot space accommodates “about 140” for traditional theater seating and “60 to 70” as a cabaret. Interested? Call them at (859) 655-9140.
       @tag:Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@enquirer.com.
       

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