Faces to Watch in ’96 : The Year’s in Their Hands : Well, maybe not just theirs (notice we don’t list Jim Carrey). But these artists and entertainers--some you know, some you don’t--are most likely to make some kind of splash in ’96. Ready? Everybody into the pool. : THEATER : Doug Wright

At 32, Doug Wright has already penned six plays and a musical, but no one really cared until now. Never mind that he just won the $10,000 Joseph Kesselring Award, previously awarded to Nicky Silver, Tony Kushner and Anna Deavere Smith.

His new play, “Quills,” a gorgeously written Grand Guignol and farcical look at the last days of the Marquis de Sade just seen at the New York Theatre Workshop, is a breakout work--wildly theatrical, smart, funny, terrifying. This is a play that will not go away.

“Quills” addresses Bob Dole’s favorite question: Do violent works of art foster violence? But the answer is complicated, unclear--and frightening.

One thing is made clear by “Quills”: Wright is a playwright with something to say and a wholly original voice in which to say it. A rather important Los Angeles producer was spotted looking happy at a recent performance, so it may not be too long before “Quills” comes west.