She can't, she says. It reminds her of how much she had to let go when adapting the novel into a one-woman play, which she'll perform at Wilson's Theater of the American South festival this month.

"It has remained a perpetual heartbreaking experience, because all of the characters are so rich and so splendidly drawn that it hurts to leave any of them out," says Hawkesworth, who premiered the play in 1998 and kept it as part of her touring repertoire.

Hawkesworth portrays Smith's mountain woman Ivy Rowe, who tells her life story through letters to the living and the dead.

Virginia-based Hawkesworth is a solo queen, whose portrayals include Emily Dickinson, Charlotte Bronte and Lucy Marsden in "Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession."

The latter portrayal headlined the festival last year, drawing such a positive response that organizers decided to maintain the literary theme.

Hawkesworth's repertoire alone could keep the festival well-booked. But she's particular when it comes to expanding it.

"If you're going to live with someone for an extended period of time, to learn the words coming out of their mouths, to picture how they are physically and the life around them, if you're going to climb into their skins, you have to love them and never get tired of them," she says of her characters. "I'll never be finished with any of these women I have chosen."

'Agate Hill' adapted

In other Lee Smith theatrical news, Chapel Hill's Deep Dish Theater will present "On Agate Hill," an adaptation of Smith's post-Civil War story, performed by Barbara Bates Smith (no relation). That runs June 5 to 14. Details: 968-1515, www.deepdishtheater.org.

Writer invites rewrites

Playwrights don't typically get much reward for their effort, in terms of big money or recognition. But they do have one perk that their big-screen counterparts lack: control over their words. You can't go toying with someone's script without legal repercussions.

Charles Mee has relinquished that with his "(re)making project." Mee invites theaters to "pillage" his plays, "as I have pillaged the structures and contents of the plays of Euripides and Brecht and stuff out of Soap Opera Digest and the evening news and the Internet, and build your own, entirely new, piece."

Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern artistic director Jay O'Berski took Mee up on his open invitation, creating "Fistful of Love" from Mee's "Big Love" (itself a retelling of Aeschylus' "The Suppliants," about a group of brides who flee from forced marriages to their Egyptian cousins) and other Mee scripts.

"It's the equivalent of music sampling, which has been taken so far and yet in theater it seems to be one of the last art forms to catch up," says O'Berski. He estimates that his adaptation includes about 15 percent new material, including a film of a massive "wedding war" by Durham filmmaker Jim Haverkamp -- all with Mee's permission.

O'Berski's version, co-produced by Durham's Manbites Dog Theater, has the grooms fleeing. Charles Bukowski and Virginia Woolf are in the mix. And, seeing as he's in a romantic mood, having recently eloped with actress/director Dana Marks, O'Berski says, he has created a love poem rather than a battle of the sexes.

Does that mean no spousal murder? The odds still show an 85 percent probability.

We'll see.

"Fistful of Love" runs May 15-31 at Manbites Dog. 682-3343, manbitesdogtheater.org. Read Mee's scripts and more about "(re)making" at www.charlesmee.org.

Theater teacher honored

N.C. Central University associate theater professor Karen Dacons-Brock has won yet another honor: the UNC Board of Governors' Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dacons-Brock has directed a series of plays intended to teach audiences about health issues such as AIDS and breast cancer, and to measure the plays' effectiveness as a teaching tool. She has also nurtured the career of the prolific and gifted Durham playwright Howard L. Craft, directing his plays at NCCU and commissioning more.

Brock and honorees from other UNC schools will receive their awards at a luncheon Friday.

Prove you're funny

Think you're funny? DSI Comedy Theater wants to be the judge of that.

The Carrboro company is hosting a "Carolina's Funniest Comic" stand-up comedy competition on Fridays from May 16 to June 13. The company is looking for 32 contestants. Surf to www.dsicomedytheater.com for details.

DSI has also permanently removed its admission charge for the "Mister Diplomat" series in celebration of its fifth anniversary. The show features true stories told by guest stars such as politicians, novelists and musicians, and improv comedy inspired by those stories.