Faces to watch 2003

Luis Alfaro

Playwright-producer

2003 will be busy for Alfaro, 41, Mark Taper Forum’s associate producer of new play development. He’s taking over Taper, Too and the Taper’s New Work Festival from the departing Robert Egan. Alfaro’s own work will be produced: “Body of Faith” by Cornerstone Theater in February; “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” at Taper, Too in April; “Borderlands” will be seen in Seattle and “Electricidad” in Tucson. “Straight as a Line” is a hit in Romania. -- Don Shirley

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Kelly Stuart

Playwright

Work by Stuart, 41, a veteran of Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, has been seen mostly in smaller venues. Her “Demonology” was on the Mark Taper Forum stage in 1997. In March, her new work, “Mayhem,” set in Los Angeles during the 2000 Democratic Convention, will open at the Evidence Room with Megan Mullally. Before that, her “Homewrecker” -- which features President Bush as a character -- will premiere in Germany.

-- Don Shirley

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Harry Groener

Actor

TV and film audiences may not know his name, but they probably recognize Groener’s Jimmy Stewart-esque face. The actor, 51, has earned three Tony nominations and has trod the boards over the years in L.A. These days, Groener’s back on the Great White Way, eliciting whispers of a Tony nomination for “Imaginary Friends,” in which he plays all of the men in the lives of Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. He also has a small but juicy part in the Golden Globe-nominated “About Schmidt.”

-- Susan King