Katja Hill's job frustrations in "Cornucopia of Me" may have come to a happy end with her gig as associate managing director of Durham's Manbites Dog Theater. But her solo show is still sadly relevant for countless unemployed or unhappily employed people.

Hill will give us another chance to empathize with her frustration, when she revives the one-act show for a fourth run, this time as a fundraiser for Manbites Dog.

"Cornucopia" features Hill miming her ordeals to her own voice-over. Dressed in a toe-to-crown form-revealing unitard, Hill recounts highlights and low points of her life, from discovering drama club as a misfit teen to struggles with weight loss and gigs as an exotic dancer, office grunt and amusement park elf.

Hill has reworked it since its last incarnation, but her expressive performance and inventiveness made it easy to forgive its initial flaws. And her literary impetus -- "The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling" by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild -- is intriguing.

"Hochschild uses the term 'emotional labor' to describe the underlying work of people in the service industry and argues that the deepest cost to those performing the work can result in something approaching dissociation from a real personality, if not a real life," she wrote in an e-mail.

"I've been performing emotional labor in every job I've had, from fast-food to stripping to receptionist to actor," she wrote. "It's not digging ditches, but even emotional labor has an insidious cost, one we don't think about enough."

Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $15, and additional donations are encouraged. Call 682-3343 or go to www.manbitesdogtheater.org for reservations or for a clever video preview.

Street kids portrayed

For another view of the impact of today's faltering economy, check out Naomi Iizuka's "Polaroid Stories," which Meredith Ensemble Theatre will stage Aug. 6-9.

Iizuka is known for her stylistic and structural collages on stage. "Polaroid Stories" features gritty tales of contemporary street kids melded with parts of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The show is a fundraiser for Stand Up for Kids, a national organization that helps street children. Theatergoers who bring donations -- such as used clothing, sleeping bags and sheets, cell phones or toiletry items -- will receive $1 off admission.

Parental warning: The play contains profanity and other mature content. Chip Rodgers directs.

Shows will be in the Carswell Auditorium in Jones Hall (Jones Auditorium is being renovated). Tickets are $10; $5 students and seniors. Call 760-8586.

On a 'Sugga' high

If you think N.C. Central University's diabetes play "A Touch of Sugga" sounds as exciting as a middle school science film, you haven't seen playwright Howard L. Craft's work.

The play is part of a series created to determine whether theater can help audiences learn about illnesses that disproportionately impact African-Americans. But Craft's plays are never populated by medical encyclopedia-reciting drones. His "Sugga" characters offer humor and humanity, centering not just on the main character's life-threatening diabetes but also his colorful life as a bail bondsman, his stern but doting wife and a soldier son serving in Iraq.

Director Karen Dacons-Brock has gathered a solid cast, and she keeps the plot moving briskly.

The run concludes with shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at University Theatre in the Farrison-Newton Communications Building. Admission is free.

As with all good theater, you just might learn something. And depending on your health habits, the lesson could be life-altering.

It's not just dance

Dance fans who love the multidisciplinary nature of N.C. State University dance program director Robin Harris' choreography have a new treat in store from assistant director Autumn Mist Belk.

Where Harris finds her inspiration in literature, newspaper articles and old how-to records, Belk -- a photographer and graphic designer -- will look to film and visual art with her new company, Code f.a.d. ("fad" is an acronym for film, art and dance).

Belk will audition dancers Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Raleigh School of Ballet. She would also like to hear from filmmakers and visual artists. E-mail her at autumnmistarts@gmail.com for details.

Dance master classes set

Dancers in various styles, from jazz to hip-hop and tap, can immerse themselves in a weekend of master classes next month organized by Vision Dance.

The convention, Aug. 16 and 17, is geared toward children ages 7 to 18. But dance teachers may also arrange to attend. Go to www.visiondancenc.com for more information.