THE STORIES: Four disparate works demonstrate David Ives' mastery of the short form. THE OTHER WOMAN is a dark drama of sexual obsession within a marriage, as Thomas's sleepwalking wife, Emma, becomes his mistress without knowing it. (1 man, 1 woman.) ST. FRANCIS TALKS TO THE BIRDS is a comic excursion into death and dying in which the holyman meets a couple of desert vultures waiting to turn him into dessert. (2 men, 2 women.) THE BLIZZARD brings Salim and Natasha into the country house of Jenny and Neil on a fateful night when the house's owners must decide whether to put their trust in a pair of strangers. (2 men, 2 women.

) In MOBY-DUDE, OR: THE THREE-MINUTE WHALE, Nathaniel, a stoned-out surfer dude, summarizes Melville's classic for his skeptical high-school teacher in a high-speed monologue. (1 man.).