That youthful company in the suburbs, Theatre Horizon, has snagged the rights for the first Philadelphia-area production of Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour. This 2003 drama garnered good reviews but had a brief run at the Manhattan Theatre Club, damaged somewhat by star Jasmine Guy's departure during the previews (her part here is played by Karen Vicks).

The Violet Hour transports us to 1919, where a young book publisher ponders whether to produce the autobiography of his lover, a black chanteuse (Vicks) who reminds us of Josephine Baker. A literati couple evocative of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is played by Jered McLenigan and Theatre Horizon co-artistic director Erin Reilly. Like Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, the newer play involves audiences in a puzzle that includes time traveling. Greenberg is hot right now — a Tony win for Take Me Out, a Broadway revival of Rain starring Julia Roberts, and a Lincoln Center production of his new play, The House in Town.

Theatre Horizon's audiences have tripled during the past three years, as it uses venues ranging from a high school auditorium to a park gazebo to Kildare's Pub in King of Prussia. TH also presents an annual six-hour play marathon in which 12- to 19-year-olds write short plays, memorize them, make or find costumes and props and perform in front of an audience.