Backwoods Confidential

A fellow gay Southern playwright, Tennessee Williams, has inspired playwright Charles E. Polly more than once. Last year, Polly's Eastenders Repertory Company staged the Bay Area debut of Williams' Something Cloudy, Something Clear, with Polly taking on the role of August, a character Williams created to represent himself during a pivotal point in his experience as a young gay scribe. Meanwhile, Polly wrote his own semi-autobiographical play cycle, the "Twyla Trilogy," which began with Twyla's Boy, the story of a young gay Southerner who comes out of the closet and of age after trekking west. Eastenders Rep follows up its '93-94 production of Twyla's Boy with the second part of the trilogy, Twyla's Story, in which that same Southern boy, Ervin, returns home to Three-Mile Holler, Ky., and finds himself both stranger and prodigal son. Shortly after his arrival, he's forced to consider his roots, as a violent thunderstorm and a family squall simultaneously break loose and cause all kinds of upheaval around him. In this sometimes comic production, Craig Dickerson takes on the role of Ervin, which Polly wrote based on his own trying experiences as a gay youth in the Appalachian hills. The show previews 7:30 p.m. Sunday (and runs through Sept. 6) at the Magic Theater, Building D, Fort Mason, Marina & Buchanan, S.F. Admission is $18-20; call (510) 482-5054. (