Carolyn Gage, a lesbian-feminist playwright and director whose playUgly Ducklingsexplores the consequences of compulsory heterosexuality on girlsrelationships, is coming to West Virginia University this week to screen a documentary on the play.

Ugly Ducklings: The Documentary,will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday (April 12) in Room G-24 Eiesland Hall on the Downtown Campus. Gage will screen the film and take part in a discussion afterwards.

Her play and the documentary both examine the so-calledOphelia Syndrome,in which adolescent girls lose their assertive personalities and instead turn to others to determine their own self-worth. Girlsrelationships with each other, in turn, are also affected as they strive to meet the imposed societal standard of heterosexuality.

Ugly Ducklingsin 2004 was nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for its prestigious Steinberg New Play Award, which is given annually for the best new play produced outside New York. That same year, the play won Curve MagazinesLesbian Theatre Awardfor best dramatic work.

The documentary premiered last June at the Frameline International Film Festival in San Francisco.

Gage is the author of 55 plays and four books on lesbian theater. She has also written several musicals and one-woman shows. She specializes in creating non-traditional roles for women characters. She also chronicles the lives of famous lesbians whose personal stories were either inaccurate or unheard.

Thursdays screening is free and is part of WVU s Gay Pride Week. Books, tapes and videos will be available for purchase.

Sponsors are the WVU Center for Womens Studies; the Department of English; Presidents Office for Social Justice; the Council on Sexual Orientation; the Bisexual, Gay Lesbian and Transgender Mountaineers group; Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance; and Morgantown chapter of the National Organization for Women.

For more information, contact, Jessi Kalvitas, WVU Center for Womens Studies, at hagdinvincible@yahoo.com or 304-293-2339.