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A Season%u2019s Eye View by Linus GelberLocal Theatre Groups EmbarkOn A Year of Eclectic ProductionsHeights Players Plan Newer ScriptsThe Heights Players are the piece de resistance among the ranks of local theatre groups. Over their twenty-four seasons of performance, the Players have become facile with a kaleidoscope of theatre forms, and routinely run theatrical seasons filled with childrens' plays and adults%u2019 plays, and plays with music and plays without, and plays with dancing and complex choreography and plays without.Before each show, the groups makes a standard mailing that can count off as high as 700. The actual program often sells out, experience runs on reserve tickets and attract patrons from all over Brooklyn and even as far away as New Jersey. According to a 'guesstimate' by John Bourne, President of the Heights Players, there is a current coterie of some 50 people who are %u201c very active%u201d in the planning, scheduling, selecting, arranging and producing of this year%u2019s plays, a number roughly twice that of smaller groups.Just the basic physical plant at the Players%u2019 theater at 26 Willow Place could fuel the envy of a borough of theatre groups. Besides having a permanent theater-in-theround setup in the basement there, they occasionally branch out into rehearsal space above and conduct workshops and drill sessions in extra rooms.\out the season,%u201d Bourne says, \we usually do. In the past, we%u2019ve done plays from around 1930 and 1940. This year we tried to get a little more modern, so that our productions won%u2019t be just pure mostalgia.%u201dThe Heights Players season has already begun with a three-weekrun of %u201c Forty Carats.\adult production on the boards is scheduled for November, when the Players will stage the musical %u201c Fiorello,%u201d based on the life of New York's %u201c Little Flower%u201d mayor, Fiorello H. Laguardia. After that, the season will fill out with Herbert Gardner%u2019s \(%u201c that's a comedy with a serious note,%u201d explains Bourne) in January, the mystery %u201cGaslight%u201d by Patrick Hamilton later on (spurred bv the success of last year%u2019s Agatha Christie whodunit, %u201c Mousetrap\and finally Shakespeare%u2019s \Night\classical pre-nostalgia.The kids shan't be left wanting, with planned productions of a modernized %u201c Robin Hood%u201d adapted by Jane Stanton, president of another Brooklyn Heights group the Penny Bridge Players, %u201cThe Snow' Queen%u201d for Christmas, and shortened and spiced version of Gilbert and Sullivans%u2019 %u201c Pirates of Penzance%u201d , and a musical rendition of \to end things up in late Spring. Additionally, there will be a weekend of workshop productions over one weekend in January and a three-week festival of rehearsals for one-acts and original plays, designed to give amateur and would-be directors their spot in the spotlight, slated for sometime in Mid-May.The Heights Players continue to seek new members despite their already bulging ranks. %u201c You always need new blood,\comments, letting out the secret of two dozen seasons of successful shows. %u201c We%u2019re constantly looking for new members%u2014anyone who wants to help out.%u201dGallery Players Open Original Sloper PlayNext to the Heights Players, the Gallery Players number at their 13th season as the second most senior group in the area. Thev, too, have a mouthwatering array of facilities: through their long tenure at the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, the Players have amassed a comfortable stage, a workable sound system and a brand-new lights setup (%u2018%u2018that purchase cut our reserves pretty low,\Alice Kellman).The Gallery Players move in different circles than the Heights Players, though. While the latter tends to bring out revivals only, the Gallery Players tread the riskier line of new works and premieres. Last season, they staged the New York premiere of %u201cThe Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew,%u201d a quasichildren%u2019s tale by Robert Bolt, and commissioned a brand-new translation of Jean Anouilh%u2019s %u201c Antigone,%u201d as well as composing new music to several scenes in Shakespeare%u2019s %u201c Midsummer Night%u2019s Dream.%u201d Over the past several years, seven original plays by Slope residents have been performed by the Gallerv Players.In fact, the next play Gallery will %u201c a c i %u201e ; %u201e v i , , i , , >>- * ~ * ' \. . . U V V ,was written by Sloper, Barbara Perkins Andrews, and will premiere on November 2. This season%u2019s kickoff was a P.G. Wodehouse adaptation of Ferenc Molnar%u2019s %u201cThe Play%u2019s The Thing.%u201dUp and coming in the Slope, Kellman reports, will be %u201cArsenicand Old Lace,%u201d round about December and an original compilation and musical revue of show music written by women sometime in the early spring. While there may be others before or after, she says the tentatively scheduled last production of the year will be Tom Stoppard%u2019s %u201c Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are Dead.%u201d There may or may not be theatre workshops, usually traditional Gallery Players fare, held this year. %u201c If we do have them, they%u2019ll be sometime in January,%u201d Kellman estimates, %u201c but we may not be having them.%u201dKellman says that the years have brought with them growth to the group. %u201c Last season was our best season to date--I%u2019m very excited about it,%u201d she beamed. %u201c Financially, we were in the black once again, and our last two shows- %u201c Antigone%u201d and %u201c Midsummer Night%u2019s Dream%u201d -were sold out for several performances. As far as publicity, we got mentions for several of our shows in the New York Times--it was a very successful season.%u201dGallery Players has roughly 200 members (%u201cnot all pay their dues,%u201d Kellman sighs) and a fairly faithful following. %u201c We like to call our-%u2014 r*vtheatre,%u201d she says. %u201c Not only do we pick up people from the Equity showcase and use professional people, but we also pick up talented people from the neighborhood-we have bits of both in the Gallery Players.%u201dMaking Peace: A Fantasy by karen Malpede, one of the productions of the New CycleTheatre of Park Slope (Donna Gray Photo).New Cycle Sets Goals For Slope PlaysIt%u2019s been three busy years for the New Cycle Theatre since Burl Hash initially banded the company together in 1976. Beyond the standard problems of locating space and time and money, the New Cycle Theatre also set itself early on to going beyond and forming a theatrical philosophy. %u201c We%u2019re dedicated to a theatre of poetry and passion,%u201d Hash explains, %u201c a theatre that is based around and founded on non-sexist, non-violent images. We are students of the epic and poetic play, and believe in the power of the theatre to bring about social changes through educating people.%u201dThe Theatre%u2019s latest production, %u201c Making Peace: A Fantasy%u201d has hit the road for Manhattan, where it is showing through late October in the All-Crafts Center Theatre at 19-23 St. Marks Place in the East Village. Although it was shown last year in the Slope as a freebie, admission across the river is $4. Box office proceeds join funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs to keep Brooklyn-based plays running for audiences free of charge.While Hash says that New Cycle is busy %u201c working to create new works,%u201d the next plans are for a production in late November of %u201cThe Mothers,%u201d a piece written in 1915 by Edith Ellis. Beyond the basic script, New Cycle will throw in other material gleaned from biographical information about Ellis and her Husband Havelock, to create a sort of semi-biographical staged pastiche about Edith and her life with her husband. Later in the season, Irish playwrights John Arden and Margaretta D%u2019Arcy will come in to stay for severalu n o l / n n H %u2666 r\\ Tw> 1 %u00ab%u2022> /->%u00bb%u00bb* t U r . r>