‘Did You Invite That Simon Guy?’ ‘I Thought <i> You</i> Did’

The biggest local playwrights’ powwow in years is on tap for next weekend. “Inventing a Future: The Playwright’s Perspective” will be sponsored by the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre at UCLA.

Only one session is open to the public: at 7 p.m. next Sunday, L.A. Festival director Peter Sellars will address the conference, followed by a panel discussion featuring playwrights Tony Kushner, Marlane Meyer, Jose Rivera, Paula Vogel, Mac Wellman and George C. Wolfe. The event is free of charge.

Earlier in the weekend, at least 50 invited local playwrights will thrash out topics of mutual concern, joined for some of the sessions by theater administrators.

The list of participating playwrights reflects a wide diversity of ethnicities, ages and styles--though not, perhaps, of incomes; the most commercially successful L.A. playwright, Neil Simon, had not been invited as of press time. It was “an unintentional omission,” said a conference spokesman.

The list of theater administrators includes no one from the Pasadena Playhouse, arguably the county’s second most prominent theater, but “they tend to import a lot of their shows” and lack the workshops for local playwrights that are found at, say, the Taper, said the spokesman.

Among the opening speakers will be Keith Antar Mason and Robert Schenkkan. Information: (310) 284-8965.

THE CYCLE SPIN: Speaking of Schenkkan, he was initially disappointed by the yearlong postponement of the return of his “The Kentucky Cycle,” but now he discerns “advantages”--more preparation time, and the possibility of a ready-made subscription audience and a longer run at Washington’s Kennedy Center in the fall of 1993.

If the “Cycle” had gone ahead this fall as planned, the marketing of it in Washington would have been more difficult, for the Kennedy Center subscription season was already committed to other projects by the time the “Cycle” deal was arranged.

Schenkkan has revised the last two plays of the nine-play “Cycle” since they were seen at the Mark Taper Forum--which makes the idea of a locally recycled “Cycle” all the more interesting. But don’t hold your breath.

A preliminary run at UCLA, which would have served as a warm-up for the Kennedy Center’s proscenium stage, may no longer be necessary for that purpose. Assuming all goes as planned, the Washington production can run longer next year than it would have this year, so there will be more time for previews there. These might take the place of the UCLA staging.

There will be no further rewrites, by the way. “I’ve finished my work,” Schenkkan said last week.

OVI WATCH: The Ovation awards, not so fondly known as the “Ovis,” are coming back. Theatre L.A.’s supposedly annual lifetime-achievement awards ceremony was postponed and then seemed threatened in the wake of the illness and death of the show’s producer Franklin Levy. It is now slated for Nov. 16 at the Doolittle Theatre, preceded by an official announcement of this year’s winners on Thursday at the Harmony Gold Theatre.

BUNKER HILL PREMIERE: Ignore the Mark Taper Forum’s designation of its production of Terrence McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” as the “West Coast premiere” in its season brochure.

The Taper’s production, scheduled for July 25-Sept. 19, 1993, will follow four other West Coast “Lips”--at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego in November, at Seattle Repertory Theatre in January, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Portland venue in February and its Ashland venue next spring.

Taper officials thought they had the West Coast premiere when their brochure was printed, said a spokesman. He added that the Taper is removing the inaccuracy from future promotional materials.

AUNT SADIE’S SEDER?: On the heels of the announcement of an interactive production called “Barry Moses’ Bar Mitzvah” comes word of another such audience-participation show focusing on a Jewish family, “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral,” opening 12 days later, on Oct. 4, at the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood. What’s next--”Barry Jr.’s Bris”?