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Whether or not Los Angeles ever decides to host an international arts festival (Mayor Tom Bradley has appointed Robert Fitzpatrick to look into the matter) the Olympic Arts Festival has whetted local appetites for foreign work--a sure sign that the city and the area are developing an international outlook.

Some people and institutions aren’t waiting. The theater arts department at UCLA has invited the Teatro di Roma to come in with a new English language adaptation of an anonymous Renaissance play called “La Venexiana,” which opens at the Ralph Freud Theater for six performances beginning March 26. The adaptation is by UCLA faculty member P. M. Pasinetti, with Murtha Baca. Maurizio Scaparro, who is Teatro di Roma’s artistic director, will direct here. The cast will be made up of UCLA theater arts students, faculty and alumni--and Valeria Moriconi, a prominent Italian actress.

“La Venexiana” was written in the 16th Century in the Venetian dialect, but not published until the 20th, when a faded copy was found in St. Mark’s Library. The story deals with a young man who travels on his own to the city and becomes the amorous object of both a widow and a young bride. Ah, Venice!

The production is part of an cultural exchange between Teatro di Roma and UCLA. A conference on the future language of the theater will be held at UCLA from March 30 through April 2, and the evolving relationship between theater, film and television will also be up for discussion.

Not to be outdone, UC San Diego will host the Suzuki Company of Toga, Japan, which will perform “The Trojan Women” at the Mandell Weiss Theater on April 5 and 6. Tadashi Suzuki directs, as he did when the production played the Olympic Arts Festival. Kayoko Shiraishi stars.

Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company are making their annual foray into the Southland starting Wednesday at Occidental College, when the troupe plays its scaled-down “As You Like It.” “Samuel Beckett This Evening” is also on this year’s bill. The RSC moves to Cal State Fullerton March 9 with the Shakespeare play. Their Beckett performance at Fullerton, curiously, will not be for the public.

The Burbage Theater Ensemble, which has finally begun to settle into its new second space on Sawtelle Ave., will open its new season March 13 with Rick Foster’s “The Heroes of Xochiquipa,” which artistic director Ivan Speigel describes as “ ‘The Trojan Women’ set in the Old West,” though there are no women in it, only a single man, who will be played by Thomas Maguire. Scott Paulin directs.

Martin A. David’s version of “The Golem” follows later in the month, then a new work by John O’Keefe called “Ghost.” The season ends in May with Rob Sullivan’s “Full Moon Jim Beam.” In the meantime, the theater’s 49-seat space will host what Speigel describes as “New Wave plays, performance art and non-commercial plays--the dream of our theater.” The dream was for a while a nightmare, as, for well over a year, Speigel worked his way through a labyrinth of city building regulations while the space stayed dark at a cost of $100 a day--quite an expense for an Equity Waiver operation. Proceeds came mostly from the loyal fans of “Bleacher Bums,” where the sun will rise and the moon will set and the Cubbies will still never win.

LATE CUES: Julie Harris will give a benefit performance of her one-woman show, “The Belle of Amherst,” on March 16, at and for the St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church and Coldwater Counseling Center. Curtain goes up at 8 p.m. Information: 877-7850. . . . Lily Tomlin and Christopher Reeve are honorary co-chairs for the Old Globe Theatre’s Year of Jubilee and expect to be on hand for the theater’s May 29 birthday celebration and Sept. 14 Jubilee Gala. . . . Speaking of birthdays, the Los Angeles Actors Theatre celebrates its 10th anniversary today at 3:30 p.m. by unveiling one of the theaters at its new downtown site at 514 Spring St. Paula Kelly will perform and Miguel Pinero will read some of his poetry. There will be a big cake. . . . Ray Stricklyn takes his one-man Tennessee Williams’ retrospective, “Confessions of a Nightingale,” to Houston’s Alley Theatre for two Monday nights, beginning March 18.