Olney

It's been described as a cross between a church and the space shuttle because it combines a spiritual mission with fancy technology. It's the new kid on the block, even though it's been in the same place for 67 years. And it's one more sign that Montgomery County - resolutely suburban and within an hour's drive from two great cities - rapidly is becoming a force in the arts world. The official opening last week of the sparkling new 429-seat performing space at the Olney Theatre Center embraces all of these seeming dichotomies.

''The Woman in Black,'' a surprise hit of the 1989 Londo season, is being given an excellent production at the Olney Theater. The direction, by Bill Graham Jr., is without flaw. The set, by James Kronzer, is completely suitable to the material, and the acting, by Leland Orser and Tony Rizzoli, is the best.The only trouble with all this is that there is almost no play. ''The Woman in Black'' is subtitled ''A Ghost Story,'' and that, more or less, is what it is. Its weakness is that it is much ado about next to nothing.

Residents of a small community in Olney are mourning the deaths of two neighbors who were killed in the Swissair Flight 111 crash that claimed the lives of 229 people off Nova Scotia Wednesday.Mark J. Chapman, a 42-year-old engineer, and his wife, Cauley H. Chapman, a 34-year-old flight attendant for American Airlines, were killed on the flight while traveling to Greece to visit Mark Chapman's parents. Their deaths rippled through the 10-home cul-de-sac in Olney where they had lived for about four years.

OLNEY -- President Clinton talked over the heads of his young audience yesterday to hammer home a message aimed at the adults who control the nation's purse strings."

Four decades after Philip Barry wrote his 1928 play Holiday, the main character's quest would have been described as "trying to find himself." Though that phrase didn't exist in the '20s, the playwright chose strikingly similar wording for his non-conformist protagonist, Johnny Case, an up-and-comer who proclaims that he wants to leave the workaday world "to find out who I am and what I am and what goes on." It's easy to understand how this quest might be interpreted as sheer hedonism, and that's exactly how some of the other characters in Holiday see it. Indeed, even Cary Grant's agile performance in the classic 1938 George Cukor movie had more than a hint of that devil-may-care insouciance.

OLNEY - He has something to say to us, this brawler and vandalizer of convents, this acclaimed playwright who, at age 51, became a priest. He has something to say about fathers and sons, fate and free will, passion and reason, about how to find meaning in a world that's falling apart. And Pedro Calderon de la Barca says it in his most famous play, "La Vida es Sueno," or "Life is a Dream." The production of "Sueno" currently running at the Olney Theatre Center has clumsy moments. Some can be blamed on Jose Rivera's adaptation, while others are flaws in the execution.

Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" is a family drama, and Rebecca Rice, who plays the role of Mama in Olney Theater Center's production, has good reason to feel a member of that family.Thanks to her current casting, Rice, 51, has now played all three of the play's female roles. She played Mama's daughter, Beneatha, when she was just 13 years old, appearing in a neighborhood production in Chicago, where she grew up. And about 10 years ago, she portrayed Mama's daughter-in-law, Ruth, in a workshop production at the Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, Minn.

Theater `Brooklyn Boy' at Olney See the regional premiere of Brooklyn Boy, a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies. The show starts at 7:30 tonight at the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. Tickets are $25-$46. Call 301-924-3400 or go to olneytheatre.org. FYI Susan Reimer is on assignment. Her column returns next week.

On Saturday, March 1, 2003, WILLIAM C. OTTO, of Olney, MD; beloved husband of Lucille H. Otto; father of Susan Otto and Janet Baker; son of Barbara Otto and the late William C. OttoRelatives and friends may call at COLLINS FUNERAL HOME, 500 University Blvd West, Silver Spring, MD., Monday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. Memorial Service at the Lutheran Church of Good Shepherd, 4200 Olney-Laytonsville Road, Olney, MD 20832, on Tuesday, March 4, 2003, at 7:30 P.M....