Lisa Peterson

Lisa Peterson is a quiet, affable woman who admits, right off the bat, that she's a bit uncomfortable in the suit she's worn to accommodate a photo shoot today. To hear her tell it, the hiking boots on her feet are probably closer to who she really is. Laid-back ways aside though, Peterson, 35, is also one of the fastest-rising directors of her generation.

Ruth Steiner (Kandis Chappell) is a respected short story writer, a sharp older woman who has little time for social niceties and who teaches in a graduate writing program at New York University. Lisa Morrison (Suzanne Cryer) is her adoring student, eager assistant, and, soon enough, her good, good friend. When Lisa finally gets published, pointedly without Ruth's assistance, a struggle for primacy ensues, as complex and primal and laden with love as any Oedipal battle.

Ruth Steiner (Kandis Chappell) is a respected short story writer, a sharp older woman who has little time for social niceties and who teaches in a graduate writing program at New York University. Lisa Morrison (Suzanne Cryer) is her adoring student, eager assistant, and, soon enough, her good, good friend. When Lisa finally gets published, pointedly without Ruth's assistance, a struggle for primacy ensues, as complex and primal and laden with love as any Oedipal battle.

Lisa Peterson is a quiet, affable woman who admits, right off the bat, that she's a bit uncomfortable in the suit she's worn to accommodate a photo shoot today. To hear her tell it, the hiking boots on her feet are probably closer to who she really is. Laid-back ways aside though, Peterson, 35, is also one of the fastest-rising directors of her generation.

Playhouse Season Opener: Athol Fugard's latest play, "Valley Song," will open La Jolla Playhouse's 1996 season with a May 19-June 23 run at the Mandell Weiss Theater. Lisa Peterson will direct. The play, which premiered in Johannesburg in August, is set during South Africa's first free elections. Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif will stage Diana Son's "Boy" as the first show in the nearby Mandell Weiss Forum, June 16-July 14.

Re "Some healthful choices for an unhealthy place," Oct. 4 I applaud your article illuminating how the work of places such as St. John's Well Child and Family Center is transforming the health in our communities by placing prevention front and center. This is crucial, with the significant increase in obesity and chronic conditions whose treatment contributes so much to healthcare costs. But helping families cope with the shameful social conditions that put them at risk is not enough.

Toni Barrett had three hits and three RBIs to lead Golden West College to a 13-1 victory over Phoenix Friday in the pool-play round of the Glendale Arizona softball tournament. Golden West lost the opening game earlier Friday to Southwestern, 7-4. Jennifer Pattinson had five hits and three RBIs and Lori Peterson had five hits and four runs in the two games for Golden West (2-1).

I propose this addition to "50 Ways to Love Your Dodgers" [March 27], under the heading "Know Your History": Meet the Ghosts of Chavez Ravine: To appreciate where you are, you need to understand where you've been. Before Chavez Ravine became Dodger Stadium, it comprised the neighborhoods of Bishop, La Loma and Palo Verde, home to more than 1,000 people. The anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s derailed the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority's progressive ideal of building state-of-the-art low-income housing on the site, and the land was eventually sold to the Dodgers.

CONTRARY to popular belief, the warm weather doesn't lower IQs and summer fun needn't be brainless. Happily, theatergoers hungry for a little substance have much to choose from, with a particularly strong lineup of playwrights who adore the sun more for its elucidating light than for its tanning rays.

A $50,000 grant from AT&T will help South Coast Repertory produce "Getting Frankie Married ... and Afterwards," a new play by Horton Foote that will have its world premiere April 5 at the Costa Mesa theater. Foote, the 85-year-old Texan who has two screenwriting Oscars and won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for his drama "The Young Man From Atlanta," will receive an additional $5,000 under the grant program, an SCR spokesman said.

A series of Positive Parenting classes is being offered to the public by Interface Children Family Services. The 10-week series of classes will be held in five locations at $10 per two-hour session, said Lisa Peterson, a family life specialist with Interface. Peterson said Interface plans to open a sixth class for the Santa Paula-Fillmore area soon. "We call this 'active parenting-plus,' " she said.

Lesbian chic gives way to applique sweaters and Aquanet in "Late Bloomers," a weirdly mundane morality tale about sapphic love in the South. Not, mind you, that there is any real sense of place in this movie, produced by siblings Julia, Gretchen and Stephen Dyer, written by Gretchen, directed by Julia.