Harvard theater will head off-Broadway this year, thanks to the directing ability of Paul W. Warner '84.

Warner's adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," performed at Harvard last November, will open this December at a theater to be determined.

If it does well, the show may tour other cities, including London and Toronto.

David Charles Keeton Enterprises-Artists Unlimited will stage the $500,000 performance, Warner said recently. He added that three actors from the Harvard production will remain in their roles and travel to New York.

Keeton said he wants to produce the show because he finds it "very innovative and entertaining." While many Shakespearean performances can be dry and confusing, he explained, Warner's adaption is easy to follow and "accessible to the audience."

"The theater community will eat it up alive," the partner added.

Warner called his style "sensory theater." He said he uses music, character gestures and lighting to bring out the full meaning of a play in a way that "hits the audience in the face."

"Language merely allows the audience to find the rhythm in the character movements," he said, adding, "Music and visual images are the highest form of art, and these should convey what the characters are feeling."

Keeton said the show will be performed in a 300-seat theater. "With the right press and hype," it will play to full houses, he added.

"But Shakespeare being who Shakespeare is," the play won't be able to "run and run and run" and continue to fill the theater, he said. He would therefore like the show to tour after playing in New York, he added.

"London would love it," the producer said, adding that he has an associate in that city who is interested in the play.

The musical scores for "The Winter's Tale" were written by Peter R. Melnick, a student at the Berklee College of Music. He and Warner have worked together in the past and are currently collaborating on an adaption of Neil Simon's "Fools," which will be performed at Harvard this month