Teach Me Tonight

The line of educational mainstage offerings for the upcoming fall season certainly bears attention from South Florida playgoers. Here's a look at what's ahead at some of the area's educationals:

Barry University (305-899-3398) in Miami Shores offers the comic operetta The Pirates of Penzanceand the grand opera La Bohème.

Florida International University (305- 348-3789) presents Steve Martin's comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile,plus As You Like It, Cabaret,and a new AIDS drama, Before It Hits Home.

Florida Atlantic University (561-297-3810) serves up Alfred Jarry's absurdist classic Ubu Roi, followed by Peter Weiss' hard-hitting take on Auschwitz, The Investigation, and then Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Much Ado About Nothing.

New World School of the Arts (305-237-3852) offers Poor Murderer, Anything Goes, and Yukio Mishima's Madame de Sade, plus an array of new works.

The University of Miami (305-284- 3355) starts off with Noises Off, the British comedy hit, followed by the strange, intriguing musical Violet, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Jane Martin's send-up of Chekhov, Anton in Show Business, and the classic musical Sweet Charity.

This selection of shows is a lot livelier than most of what the pros are offering, and many of the student performers offer a lot of talent and creative juice. Just the thing for a jaded playgoer with an attack of the gripes.