Dreamweavers Theatre will present more plays in its 2007 season, but with shorter runs.

Beginning with Neil Simon’s “Prisoner of Second Avenue,” opening Friday, main-stage productions at Dreamweavers will run nine performances over three weekends, down from 14 performances over five weeks in 2006.

“Five weekends was more than our audience base could support,” said John Anderson, a Dreamweavers board member who co-founded the troupe 20 years ago.

It was also a long haul for actors, directors and theater staff, said artistic director and co-founder Louise Anderson. “We are all volunteers and most of us have full-time jobs,” she said.

Troupe members hope the schedule changes will fill more seats and attract more Dreamweavers volunteers in 2007.

The streamlined calendar for main-stage plays will also allow for more productions in Dreamweavers’ newly-reopened “black box” performance space, where Louise Anderson will direct A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” next month.

“There’s always something going on at Dreamweavers now, and that’s what we’ve always wanted,” she said.

‘Prisoner’ a Broadway hit in ’72

Neil Simon wrote “Prisoner of Second Avenue” in the anxious early 1970s, when many middle-aged Americans like the play’s Mel and Edna Edison found themselves facing economic uncertainty and alienation from their fellow humans.

“Our economy was really bad,” recalled Julia L. Glattfelt, who is directing the Dreamweavers production. “There was a mass exodus of businesses from Manhattan.”

The Edisons live in a Manhattan high-rise; their two daughters are in college. At 47, Mel should be in the prime of life; but he can’t get comfortable. The air conditioning is too high, the neighbors are too noisy, crime is rising, his company is laying off executives and sure enough, he gets the ax. Then Mel’s troubles really begin.

Building a comedy around a nervous breakdown was a delicate task, but Simon mined a vein of dark laughter from the Edisons’ misadventures, and audiences responded: “Prisoner” ran 798 performances on Broadway from 1971 to 1973, earning a Tony nomination for best play in 1972 and winning the Tony for director Mike Nichols.

Time magazine wrote that Simon created “an atmosphere of casual cataclysm, an everyday urban purgatory of copelessness from which laughter seems to be released like vapor from the city’s manholes.”

In Napa, actor Trevor Wright, last seen at Dreamweavers as the older brother in Simon’s “Broadway Bound,” plays the role originated by Peter Falk opposite Lee Grant on Broadway (Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft played the Edisons in the 1975 film). Krisi Pilkington is Mel’s wife Edna, supportive and loving — but with a loosening screw of her own as the couple’s tribulations begin to pile up.

Mel’s trio of babying sisters is played by Jeanne Maxwell, Rose Marie Sweeney and Gail Silverman, while Arthur Goulart is older brother Harry.

The radio newscasters who introduce new scenes in the play — much like the loudspeaker announcements in Robert Altman’s 1970 film “M*A*S*H” — are voiced by Joe Lewis and Jerry Glattfelt.

“Prisoner of Second Avenue” opens Friday with a 7 p.m. reception before the show, featuring finger foods and wine, at no extra cost to ticketholders.

This Saturday, as with the first Saturday of every Dreamweavers run, is “Date Night,” with two-for-one admission. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. The show’s final performance is Jan. 28.

Dreamweavers, named “Best Theater Group” for six years running in the North Bay Bohemian readers’ poll, is at 1637 Imola Ave., to the rear of the Riverpark Shopping Center. For tickets and information, call 255-LIVE (255-5483) or visit www.dreamweaverstheatre.org.

'Prisoner of Second Avenue'

Dreamweavers Theatre

1637 Imola Ave., Napa

Jan. 12-14, 19-21, 26-28. Friday and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2.pm.

Tickets: $20, regular, $18 senior/military/student or groups of 10 or more.

Opening gala: $25.

Info: 255-5483

www.dreamweaverstheatre.org