The Price of Admission Includes a Starring Role.

ARTS facilities; PERFORMING arts audiences; PARTICIPATORY theater; INTERACTIVE art; STAGE directions

It feels like a historical inevitability: scavenger hunts, cinema, the game of Clue, video and the iPod (well, Microsoft's Zune media player) have converged in ''Suspicious Package,'' a distinctly 21st-century form of participatory theater. By participatory I don't mean sitting in the front row and being called to the stage or getting splashed by the actors. No, this is wearing a prop and reading lines and following stage directions -- with the stage being three Brooklyn blocks, that is -- from a Zune. When making a reservation to attend, you choose to portray one of four roles: the Detective, the Producer, the Showgirl or the Heiress. (That's right: only four people join in at a time.) The ''cast members'' assemble at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg and meet Gyda Arber, the exuberant actress-director who, with her mother, Wendy Coyle, conceived this novel hybrid. (Some have called it iPod noir, but is that right? Shouldn't it be iNoir or something? And now that I think of it, can this be called a theater review if I took part?) Ms. Arber asks the ''performers'' to introduce themselves and answer a mild question or two. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of New York Times is the property of New York Times and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)