Like "Ancestral Voices" the plays opening next Thursday at two venerable South playhouses are sure to teach and entertain their audiences.

And the local talent on stage is sure to wow.

Little Lake Theatre

"Ancestral Voices," which opens Sept. 6 at Little Lake Theatre, is A.R. Gurney's play-slash-staged reading about a patrician Buffalo, N.Y., family during World War II. As narrator Eddie reminds us, "Voices" is a play that wanted to be a book, "but people kept wanting to talk."

And as a reading, it sounds like a breeze to stage: Six actors read from scripts placed on music stands. No set, little movement, line memorization optional.

But as cast and director have discovered, what sounds simple on the page can be anything but on stage.

Little Lake artistic director and "Voices" director Sunny Disney Fitchett, 50, of North Strabane, said she's an admirer of Mr. Gurney's "hugely entertaining" family drama, but that it's presented her and her cast with unexpected challenges.

First, said Ms. Fitchett, there's the intimacy of the play, which suits Little Lake's unusual in-the-round stage. "But it's written to be performed on a traditional stage," she pointed out, in which all actors are facing the audience, an arrangement not possible in theater in the round.

Since, Ms. Fitchett said, "the audience should never be aware of not seeing all they want to see," she's met some of these challenges with innovative light and sound design, plus some "technical tricks" she keeps up her sleeve.

Paul Laughlin, who play's Eddie's jilted grandfather, also named Ed, said performing in a staged reading is different from acting in a traditional play. "I won't tell you it's twice as difficult," he said, "but it's definitely more frightening."

Although the words are in front of him, Mr. Laughlin pointed out, he can't depend on movement to help define his character. "It's all through the voice." he said.

He added that listening to old-time radio shows has helped prepare him for "Voices," since radio stars also relied only on their voices. Mr. Laughlin, 70, is a trial lawyer from Mt. Lebanon.

Joe Bender, who plays Eddie, said "Voices" offers him a different set of challenges. At 14, he's the youngest cast member and shoulders a major dramatic burden as its narrator. He'll attend ninth grade at Mt. Lebanon High School this fall.

Joe's biggest part to date was as the young son in City Theatre's "The Muckle Man" in January. Yet he said any "pressure" he feels in "Voices" is overshadowed by the fact that it's an ensemble piece, where "everybody's perspective is important to the story."

Bruce Crocker and Jill Sinatra play Eddie's parents, Harvey and Jane, and Carol Lauck plays grandmother Madeline.

Mr. Laughlin and Ms. Fitchett agreed that audiences should come to "Voices" expecting to use their imaginations more than in a traditional play.

"You could almost close your eyes," said Mr. Laughlin about the show. "It's all there, in the sound."

"Ancestral Voices" is at Little Lake Theatre, Route 19 South, near Donaldson's Crossroads, North Strabane, at 8 p.m. Sept. 6-8, Sept. 13-15 and Sept. 20-22. Tickets are $13.50 - $15, $8 children 15 and younger. Call 724-745-6300.

South Park Theatre

"The Melville Boys," which opens at South Park Theatre Sept. 6, begins with brothers Lee and Owen holed up at their lakeside cabin, anticipating an all-male, beer-and-fishing weekend when sisters Loretta and Mary arrive out of the blue.

Bill Crean, 49, plays Lee and admits that, described like this, the comedy sounds like a Bob and Doug McKenzie movie, or an episode of "Red Green," especially since playwright Norm Foster is Canadian. But all is not as it appears: Lee is dying of cancer, and Owen is in denial about it.

"It's a slice of life, done with a sense of humor," said director Mr. Critchfield, who lives in Carrick. "It's a little gem."

Besides acting as education director for Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater, audiences may know Mr. Critchfield from his 14 years playing Scrooge in Pittsburgh Musical Theater's "A Christmas Carol."

Mary Randolph, who plays Mary, agreed the play was more complex than it appeared.

"The potential is for the play to be overly sentimental, or to play it for laughs. But we're not doing that." Mrs. Randolph, a Whitehall resident, teaches at Vincentian Academy.

Instead, she said, the cast is playing "Boys" as "four people in transition" who affect each other in surprising ways. When the play begins, her character has been in limbo since her husband left her, and flirty younger sister, Loretta, played by Kauleen Cloutier, hopes for an acting career.

Mr. Crean pointed out his character, Lee, is trying to get his affairs in order, and Owen, played by Dalton Pecosh, "keeps trying to help, but he keeps doing all the wrong things."

Mr. Crean, who lives in Greenfield, is a street maintenance supervisor for the city of Pittsburgh.

All three agreed, though, that what sets apart South Park's production of "Boys" is its cast. "

They are perfect in their roles," said Mr. Critchfield, and both Mrs. Randolph and Mr. Crean used the same words to describe the play's ensemble: "There's no weak link."

Plus, said Mrs. Randolph, the play does many things well. "It makes you think, it gives you hope, it makes you laugh." And though she has acted in many area plays, she said she especially urged her friends and family to see this one: "I tell them, you have to see this show."

"This isn't a show about dying well," said Mr. Crean. "It's about living better. It's about changing your outlook."

"The Melville Boys" is at South Park Theatre, Corrigan Drive at Brownsville Road, South Park, at 8 p.m. on Sept. 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22. There are matinees at 2 p.m. Sept. 9, 12, 16, 19 and 23. Tickets are $11. Call 412-831-8552.