L A Theatre Works

L.A. Theatre Works' live performance radio theater series will offer seven plays during the fall-winter season.

After more than a year of negotiations, an acclaimed literary organization has signed a new lease to remain in the former Venice City Hall, officials said. The 10-year lease for Beyond Baroque, a literary salon and bookstore which took up residence in the historic building in 1980, was approved by the city Department of General Services Monday, said Niki Tennant, a spokeswoman for City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who pushed for the unusually long lease. The annual rent is $1, Tennant said.

THEATER "The Colored Museum," L.A. Theatre Works' radio drama. Call for times. Skirball Cultural Center. (310) 827-0889. BOOKS Lauren Dockett and Kristin Beck discuss their book, "Facing 30," Thursday at Book Soup, West Hollywood. (800) 764-BOOK. FOOD The Farmers Market at St. Agnes Church in L.A. sponsors "Ask the Dietitian" today, 2:30-4:30 p.m. (213) 244-9190. MUSIC Bobby Short performs love songs for L.A. nightly through Sunday. Catalina Bar & Grill, Hollywood. (323) 466-2210.

Loretta Devine and Vickilyn Reynolds will re-create their New York Shakespeare Festival turns in George C. Wolfe's "The Colored Museum," during performances Feb. 17-21 at the Skirball Cultural Center. The Black History Month production is part of L.A. Theatre Works' "The Play's the Thing" live radio series and will be recorded for a broadcast on KCRW-FM (89.9). Tickets are $28 and $32, with half-price seats, subject to availability, offered five minutes before each performance.

Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason, founding members of the award-winning L.A. Theatre Works Radio Company, are protesting a decision on the part of KCRW-FM (89.9) to drop "KCRW Playhouse" and its "star attraction": their group's Sunday-night series "The Play's the Thing." In a letter sent to general manager Ruth Seymour on Monday, the actors called the move, initiated in late March, a retreat from the kind of programming that made the station the "flagship" of the Los Angeles public radio scene.

When actor Stacy Keach was a student at UC Berkeley in the early '60s, he appeared in Bertolt Brecht's political satire "The Life of Galileo." Although he played a small role, the experience sparked a lifelong interest in the 17th century astronomer. In fact, during a recent conversation, Keach rattled off facts about the man he referred to as "the father of modern science." "I've learned so much about Galileo that I didn't know before," he said.

Finding a cure for cancer would, of course, be a positive thing. But might such a monumental discovery come with equally big questions of ethics, money and power? Find out when a young cancer researcher makes an apparent breakthrough in playwright (and clinical psychologist) Bob Clyman's science-minded drama "Secret Order," opening at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday. Don't expect any lab coats here, however, as the cast -- including George Segal ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Helen Mirren's big return to the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the new play "The Audience," by Peter Morgan, now will be a global event. Fans around the world will be able to experience the London stage production when it is broadcast to cinemas this summer as part of the National Theatre Live series. "The Audience," which has already begun performances at the Gielgud Theatre on London's West End, will be broadcast starting June 13. Movie times will vary by time zone, and there will be encore broadcasts throughout the summer.  Participating theaters in the Los Angeles area include the Hollywood Chinese 6 theaters at Hollywood & Highland; the Downtown Independent; and the L.A.