As the new season draws near, Cal State Long Beach's California Repertory Company finds itself busier than ever, adding last-minute touches to its world premiere, "The Puccini Project," and making local recognition one of its goals for the year.

Cal RepÕs move to a 99-seat theater in downtown Long Beach later this year is a major step toward that goal.

"We want Cal Rep to become the buzz-word downtown, as well as on this campus. It seems we are recognized more nationally and internationally than locally," said theater manager Keith Gotowicki.

According to Howard Burman, the company's artistic producing director, Cal Rep does not attract enough attention from students and faculty, despite its acclaim.

"[Cal Rep] is an institution on this campus just like the Pyramid. We'd like to get more people on campus to come and see the work that we do," Burman said.

Cal Rep prides itself on being more cutting-edge and avant-garde than other companies.

"We have a reputation as being an innovative, chance-taking company. We never do any plays that have ever been shown in Southern California before," Burman said. "With Cal Rep, we mostly make our own plays and do a lot of premieres."

According to theater manager Lisa Krick, the company's upcoming season promises to be exciting.

"We have an older, more experienced body of actors this year. It's exciting to see sparks going off because they aren't used to each other," Krick said.

Burman has high hopes for Saturday evening's premiere. "I think this play is going to be very successful for us. And if it is successful, we're going to take it to Europe."