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ZIPPY TAKES THE STAGE

An unshaven man wearing a bright yellow and red polka dot muumuu and clown shoes sits in a cafe, discussing astronomy and confectionery with a gravel-voiced toad sporting a bow tie and three-piece suit.

"Scientists now say the universe is doughnut-shaped," he Pandora Gold Beads proclaims, reverently raising his glazed. "The doughnut is nature's Pandora Birthstone most perfect form."

Subconscious spillage from a bizarre dream? Yow! -- it's part of "Zippy the Pinhead in Fun: The Concept," a wild stage performance based on Bill Griffith's comic strip.

Driving the droll humor of Zippy the Pinhead to more broadly comic heights, Cheap Pandora Bracelets the stage version centers on the relationship of the cartoonist Griffy (played by Mikl-Em) and his character Zippy (). Impossible Productions) in the space formerly occupied by Mission Records. During their two years at Spanganga, a former arts and performance space in the Mission, the duo shared producer and creative director duties on plays based on "Dr. Strangelove," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Cheap Pandora Beads Twilight Zone."

"It's a blast to reinvent an already great piece of art, whether it be a book, a film, a TV show or a comic strip," Ohanneson says. "We now have almost a year's worth of material we want to develop and produce."

A more personal adaptation takes place at the Dark Room in August, when Fourniadis and Ohanneson begin teaching an eight-week media arts workshop for at-risk youth. The program, created in conjunction with the Job Corps, Pandora Bijoux Online will culminate Pandora Dangle with the kids staging and performing their own play.

When Spanganga's closing was announced in February, Fourniadis and Ohanneson accepted an offer to revamp the old Mission Records space. Within two months, they had bleached, gutted, cleaned, repainted and transformed the claustrophobic interior into a cozy theater and recording studio. In May, they opened with a series of sold-out shows of "Clue -- the Play," based on the Parker Bros. board game. ("Clue" will be reprised for three weekends beginning Sept. 10.)

Meanwhile, Fourniadis was closing in on his dream to bring Zippy the Pinhead to the stage.

Getting Bill Griffith's blessing on the project, he signed up playwright , by day a corporate consultant who "uses improvisation as a tool to increase collaboration and productivity for Fortune 500 companies."

Meyers culled about 75 percent of the play's dialogue directly from Griffith's strips, and penned the remaining "connective tissue" to sustain the narrative.

"You can't out-Zippy Zippy," Meyers says. "I was very conscious of having the staging and rhythm feel like cartoon strips while still advancing a longer plot thread. It was a challenge, since 70 minutes of non sequitur wouldn't be very good theater, but too much sense wouldn't be true to the strip. If no one leaves the theater either angry or confused, we haven't done our job."