THREE NEW SHOWS: 2 UP AND 1 DOWN

Two thousand steelworkers lost their jobs when Bethlehem Steel shut down its Vernon mill in 1982. How the lives of six of these victims of economic change were affected, and how they ended up performing in a play--”Lady Beth”--about their experiences, are the focus of “A Steel Life Drama,” playing on KCET’s weekly “California Stories” series (7:30 tonight, Channel 28).

The documentary shows how actress Susan Franklin Tanner and others fashioned the feelings and actual words of laid-off steelworkers into a stark, spare dramatic reading that was staged in Los Angeles and for unemployed steelworkers in 16 other U.S. cities.

“Steel Life” has some nice moments: the proud men fondly recalling their long, hot and dirty work, for instance, and shots of the silent, empty mill before it was demolished and sold for scrap to Japan. Without bashing union or management, and without dishing out economic nonsense or over-emotionalizing, it effectively shows what happens to some of the humans behind the headlines.

As for the play “Lady Beth”-- scenes from which are re-enacted by the steelmen--let’s hope it worked a lot better on stage.