Training for a Lifetime for the Role of Pearl Bailey

As the book writer (Jack Murphy wrote the lyrics to Wildhorn's music), Allen's job was to come up with the structure of the show. He created outlines, "then I wrote the script, including monologues where I thought songs should go. Then Frank and Jack took the monologue and put a song [there]," he says.

The Prague producers nudged him into a more overtly passionate style. As the author of "Nijinsky's Last Dance," "In the Garden," "Fallen From Proust" and "Melville Slept Here" -- all Washington area premieres -- Allen was no stranger to drama, but he wasn't comfortable with the romance-novel emotion the producers wanted.

There were "many pints of Pilsner, and we really argued it out . . . I kept fighting it, because it's not something we see in the United States anymore -- maybe in some Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff," Allen says, but his agent urged him to agree. "At that point, I kind of let go and listened to my inner melodrama."

Now he thinks those producers "were absolutely right. It absolutely works."

The show opened early this month, and now Allen is back in Washington, where he heads the English department at Cesar Chavez Charter School for Public Policy. His two careers seem to give his life balance. "One, as exciting as it is, is not going to change the world," he says, "and then I get to come back and do something that really means something."

Earlier this year, after seeing a performance of a family play Allen had written, a student looked at his teacher with surprise and said, "Mr. Allen -- you got skills!"

Follow Spots

· The Helen Hayes Awards will hold its annual auction Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel, to help fund educational programs to create new -- and especially young -- theatergoers. Former Post columnist Bob Levey will be auctioneer and WTOP's Bob Madigan will emcee. Visit http://www.helenhayes.org or call 202-337-4572.

· The Contemporary American Theater Festival, based in Shepherdstown, W.Va., will hold a fall benefit Saturday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. Dramatist Lydia R. Diamond, whose "Stick Fly" was done at the festival this summer, will read excerpts from her works at 102 E. German St. in Shepherdstown, with receptions before and after the performance. Tickets are $40. Call 304-876-3304 or e-mail lcobetto@shepherd.edu.