Intermission

David Drake is coming out of the closet. Not about his homosexuality. He's been open about that for years and dealt with it frankly onstage in his acclaimed 1992 one-man show, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. No, this time he's coming clean about his surname - his legal surname, Drakula. Receiving its world premiere at the Theatre Project, Drake's latest one-man show, Son of Drakula, is about the Obie Award-winning former Marylander's efforts to trace his ancestry back to that other Dracula, a k a Vlad the Impaler.

I would tell you that decorum at the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra's presentation of Giuseppe Verdi's dramatic choral Requiem Saturday night at Maryland Hall reminded me of the atmosphere at a hockey game, but that would be an insult - to hockey fans. As conductor Leslie B. Dunner began the intensely prayerful introduction to Verdi's opening "Kyrie" (aptly titled "Lord Have Mercy" in English), late-comers were still being seated, with a pair of Maryland Hall ushers at the rear of the auditorium engaged in a vigorous, fully audible discussion of where they should be placed.

River Hill scored 44 second-half points to blow open a one-point game at halftime and defeat Wilde Lake, 71-48, last night in a Class 3A East quarterfinal at Wilde Lake. The top-ranked Hawks (23-0) received scoring contributions from 11 of 12 players. Junior Greeba Outen-Barlow, who is nursing a sprained right ankle, came off the bench to score 19 points. Freshman Megan Buescher also came off the bench for a career-high 15, 11 in the second half. River Hill was too quick and had too many weapons for the Wildecats (12-11)

Katie Parise scored a game-high 14 points as York College defeated Goucher, 60-36, last night in a Capital Athletic Conference women's basketball game in York, Pa. The Spartans (12-5, 5-2) closed the first half with a 13-3 run for a 27-13 lead at intermission and used an 8-1 run early in the second half to push their lead to 41-21 with 14: 48 left. York had its largest lead, 59-28, with four minutes left. The Gophers (3-13, 0-7) were led by Kim Rogers' nine points.

So this is how third-ranked Archbishop Curley can play. This is what the Friars have shown only flashes of for much of the season.Curley's front line showed speed and an assortment of deft moves in dismantling one of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference's better defenses. Dale Rothe and Peter Johnson led a group that was a force in the middle of the field. And the Friars played a tight defense that allowed few chances.Curley's 5-0 victory yesterday against visiting and sixth-ranked Loyola (10-4-2, 7-3-1)

PHILADELPHIA -- Scott Erickson was a man of few words and many pitches at Veterans Stadium yesterday. He needed 131 pitches, barely half of them strikes, to survive eight innings and take a 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Then Erickson showered, dressed quickly, gave a few dismissive answers and rushed to catch a flight for Lake Tahoe.Within minutes of his first win in almost a month, Erickson had disappeared.So it goes with the Orioles, Team Scowl. They reach the All-Star break 36-51, 16 1/2 games out of first place, 12 1/2 games behind the wild-card front-running Boston Red Sox and with a lesser record than at last season's intermission (38-50)

Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" is usually performed with two intermissions -- after the prologue and the second act. Besides dramatic sense (25 years passes between the prologue and Act I), there are other reasons for that first intermission -- reasons that became clear Saturday when the Washington Opera presented its new production at the Kennedy Center.The single intermission (after Act II), which divided "Simon" into a 90-minute first half and an hour-long second half, was almost certainly motivated by economic necessity: a running time of three hours instead of four meant paying the orchestra less.

"Ruthless" -- a musical about a homicidal child actress -- has to be nasty and has to be nice.At Theatre on the Hill, where the show is receiving its area premiere, director Josh Selzer's production succeeds in being a little of both.Something of a cult off-Broadway hit in 1992, "Ruthless" is an unconventional choice for this small summer-stock theater, in residence at Western Maryland College. If musical theater fans arrive expecting traditional fare on the order of "Gypsy" or "Applause," they're going to be surprised.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Amazing sometimes the difference between victory and defeat when two teams hunker down and go ferociously at each other for 60 minutes.Right from the start, the crowd of 4,099 at the State Farm Show Arena knew its Harrisburg Heat team would do everything possible to avoid elimination from the playoffs by the Spirit.The Heat did, but there was an instant when it let its guard down, and the Spirit was there to capitalize on its way to a 7-6 victory.The visitors had the lead, 5-4, halfway through the second period when they got a restart outside the Harrisburg box. No sooner had the whistle blown when Omid Namazi sent a pass through the Heat defense to Jason Maricle, camped out at the far post.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- It's easy to overlook the contributions of Baltimore Bandits goalie Mike O'Neill.O'Neill is a 28-year-old playing in a developmental league, and his name won't be found among the leaders in goals-against average or save percentage. Yet, he is the reason the Bandits beat the Rochester Americans, 1-0, last night, and he is largely responsible for any chance the team has of making, or succeeding in, the playoffs.O'Neill kept the Bandits in the game, stopping 56 shots for his second shutout of the season.