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A Double-HeaderFor Noel Coward%u2019sComedy, 'Blithe Spirit%u2019%u201cStars at work: %u2018%u2018Nancy J. Yost(seated) and Loren Taylor areshown rehearsing for theirleading roles in the GalleryPlayers%u2019 forthcoming production%u201cBlithe Spirit.%u201d The play isopening on March 24. (Photo:Sharon Strachan)Gallery1PlayersPromiseWitty EveningNow in rehearsal under the direction of Fred Hasert, the Gallery ' Players%u2019 production of Noel Coward%u2019s %u201c Blithe Spirit%u201d is set to open on Sat., March 24 at 186 St. Johns Place.Hie director, who is best known to Brooklyn audiences for his work as a director of operas, has been a member of the Gallery Players for six years. %u201c Blithe Spirit%u2019 %u2019 represents his first directorial assignment %u201c without music.%u201d %u201c I %u2019m working with a great cast,%u201d says Fred. %u201c I promise Gallery fans a brittle, witty evening of Noel Coward.%u201dThe play will run for three weekends, Friday and Saturday nights at 8, Sundays at 7. Reservations may be made by calling 622-1037 or 638-4415.Players Production Opens This FridayThe Heights Players will open their production of Noel Coward%u2019s %u201c Blithe Spirit%u201d this Friday, March 9. The performance will be presented at the Alfred T. White Community Center, 26 Willow Place at 8:30 p.m.The direction of Mr. Coward%u2019s witty World War II comedy will be in the hands of the Heights Players current president, John Bourne. Mr. Bourne directed last season%u2019s highly successful production of %u201c Auntie Marne.%u201d He performed earlier this season in %u201c Guys and Dolls%u201d and also added his acting talents to last season%u2019s Heights Players musical theater production of %u201cSouth Pacific.%u201d John has worked in all facets of theater during his many years of association with the Players.Enacting Mr. Coward%u2019s highly amusing characters will be Heights Players regulars Robert Bauer; who performed this season in %u201c Guys and Dolls; Frances Breithart, also from %u201c Guys and Dolls; Jean Houston, this season%u2019s Adelaide in %u201c Guys and Dolls%u201d and last season%u2019s Mame in %u201c Auntie Marne;%u201d Andy Krawetz, last season%u2019s Sheldon Whiteside in %u201c Hie Man Who Came to Dinner,%u201d and Karen Richter who performed earlier this season in %u201c Dark At The Top of the Stairs%u201d and %u201c Guys andJohn Bourne will direct.Dolls%u201d and portrayed Gooch in last season%u2019s %u201c Auntie Mame.%u201d Joining this illustrious cast, in their debuts with the Heights Players, will be Ilze Levis and Liz Thackston. Both have previously worked in theater with other associations.%u201c Blithe Spirit%u201d will also be performed on the evenings of March 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24 at 8:30 p.m. Reservations can be made at Womrath%u2019s Book Store on Montague St. or by calling the theater, 625-8875. All reservations will be honored until 8:15 on the evening of the performance.Renovated St. FelixOpens With FirebugSwiss playwright Max Frisch%u2019s black comedy, %u201c The Firebugs,%u201d will be (resented by the LIU Theatre on March 9,10,16 and 17 at the newly-renovated St. Felix Street Playhouse, 128 St. Felix St., adjacent to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Curtain time is 7:30 pm.The production, directed and designed by Christopher Thomas of the LIU Brooklyn Center Speech-Theatre Department, will mark the reopening of the 70-yearold, 300-seat playhouse which has undergone extensive refurbishing in die lobby and stage areas.%u201c The Firebugs%u201d has been translated from the German into English by noted scenic designer, Mordecai Gorelik, a member of the LIU Theatre faculty, for theproduction. It is described as %u201c a learning play without a lesson.%u201dThe play concerns Gottlieb Biedermann, a cautious German businessman, who discovers that the two men who have entered his home uninvited are the arsonists who have already burned down much of the town. He and his simple-minded wife, concerned only with saving themselves and their home, lodge them, feed them a sumptuous dinner, and provide them with all the matches they can possibly use %u2014 all of which serves only to postpone the inevitable holocaust.JAMES DEMARTISPaintings on PaperMARCH 2 to 23,5:00-8:0QPMBROWNSTONE GALLERY Tues. to Sat. 11-6PM76 Seventh Avenue 636-8736CEUTHESP IR ITDirected by~^FtntWNRvrcTM ardi910161723-248:3026 Willow Place / 625.-3875%u00a3PHOENIX. Page FiveMid-Winter Re-Hash: IA Dialogue Begun ; What%u2019s Next Depends On ArtistsBY BILL PYLESWhat next now that the Midwinter Art Exhibit at Christ Church and Holy Family is ended? The recent venture was a first in the sense that it was a nine-day exhibit and that it included the performing arts in its scope as well as the plastic. The purpose of the exhibit, of course, was to both provide a show case for artists and to be a vehicle for sales. Perhaps more important than either of these was the possibility that through this exhibit a dialogue would be established between artist and artist, artist and public, and public and artist. This was basically accomplished through the Cafe Exhibitioniste programs and via the Bal de Tete. It was exciting to note that a great number of visitors to the exhibit were artists who were not themselves exhibiting with us.The exhibit itself was mounted by and for working artist of Brooklyn for working artists of Brooklyn. The majority of the works shown were by artists who live and or work in the sections that surround downtown Brooklyn. I have a studio where I paint at 451 Court St. Other artists on theworking committee have their workshops and studios no more than a mile from the locale of the exhibit itself. It is not so much that we wished to be selfish in limiting the selective scope of the exhibit as much as we truly wished to let artists and public alike know that our part of Brooklyn is alive with artists and craftsmen.We were most concerned that we give the contributing artists &s good a showing as it was possible of us to give them. In fact, a passing comment by Dianne Dillon, who with her husband Leo was responsible for the two small jewel-like galleries on the street floor, set the mode for the whole festival. She said in a telephone conversation with me the week before the exhibit was hung, %u201c What we want to di is to make something that is beautiful. That is all.%u201dAnd this is what the Dillons, the Henriques and their crew certainly did. Jim and Evelyn Hughes set a photography show that was a match for any uptown gallery. Liz Hill and the craftsmen who workedwith her set a pace for crafts exhibits that will be hard to match let alone beat anywhere. I feel, therefore, that our show case for artists hit its mark.I ask a standing ovation for the musicians, singers, actors and dancers who did a valiant ground breaking service in their work at the Cafe Exhibitioniste and Bal de Tete. Their work was exemplary and shows that Brooklyn is just as well endowed with performing artists as it is with craftsmen and workers in the plastic arts.What is next? This depends upon the community of artists, painters, sculptors, writers, actors, musicians, craftsmen, and what they want to do with this particular show case setting and with the other facilities available to them in the downtown section of Brooklyn. I feel the time is ripe for the next move%u2014 to find better ways to show and attract buyers for paintings, sculptures and other works.I myself would prefer to see Brooklyn as the working base for artists and to keep Manhattan as the major sales outlet facility. Through show cases, such as the one just presented, it should be possible for dialogue and discovery %u2014 dialogue between craftsmen, painters, sculptors and discovery by the people with money so that some of us may one day hit the market the good work we produce demands.Future of ArtSend your ideasto-Bill Pyles, c /oPHOENIXHNSANEis whet yaw'll call owr prices on recordsand S track tapes. Would you believe$1.49 tor Streisand, The Byrds, Chambars Bros., Ta| Mahal, Blood, Sweat &Tears, Chicago, etc.? CRAZY hours too!Closed Mon-Friday. OPEN only everySaturday 10 5 and Sunday 50 5 Locatedowl of sight at US-Wh St. Comer 3 Avenue BrooklynRecord A Top%u00aeWarehousekPOMEROY & RON JOSEPHSlojo musicFRIDAYth8:00Pmpreserved Seafs;$3.5u $J.uu $2.50 TICKETSAcademy Box Office 30 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn Heights Cinema 70 Henry St.i _ r ___ :%u25a0 mur muiiun %u25a0 y ft 'l ft 4 n At