FACES ’93 : Some Names to Be Reckoned With in the New Year : STAGE

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You’ll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.

Jose Rivera

Influenced by Tennessee Williams, steeped in magical realism and possessed of a twin affinity for image and language, Rivera, 37, is aggressively straddling theater, film and TV. In 1992, his doomsday play, “Marisol,” was the stunner of Louisville’s Humana Festival. It was produced in September at the La Jolla Playhouse and opens this spring at Hartford Stage and New York’s Joseph Papp Public Theatre. A 10-minute play, “Tape,” from a new collection of one-acts will be Rivera’s entry in the 1993 Humana Festival. Having recently developed an interest in directing, he’s considering staging an L.A. premiere of his own “Each Day Dies With Sleep.” He has just finished a screenplay, a pilot for NBC, and La Jolla and the Public have commissioned him to write a play for 1994.