March 9, 1998

Telefonica de Espana Planning New U.S. Alliance Telefonica de Espana, Spain's dominant telephone company, plans to announce an alliance with MCI Communications and Worldcom today. Telefonica had already jilted its original American partner, AT&T, in favor of a deal with an international group led by British Telecommunications.

Crisis in black theater, and search for new ways to carry that theater past millennium, is explored by theater artists and business and foundation executives during marathon talks and panel discussions at Dartmouth College; playwright August Wilson, who convened five-day conference, says that black theater definitely has a future and that he hopes its organization will be self-determining and self-sufficient (M)

HBO will televise reunion of Monty Python's Flying Circus; their reunion, minus one member who died, is crowning event of US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo; photos (M)

Women's rights groups throughout Islamic world are increasingly speaking out against what they call Muslim system of apartheid, where texts of Koran and appendages attached in Middle Ages are invoked to deny equal rights to women; issue of how women are viewed is at heart of much conflict in Muslim nations, from fundamenalist policies in Afghanistan and Iran, to demands to abolish discrimination in family laws in Morocco and Tunisia; activists in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria--where women rank among more emancipated in Arab world--say UN international women's conference in Beijing in 1995 was important catalyst for defining issues and planning action; say support has grown because women are caught in growing contradictions and shifts within Islamic societies; situation in Morocco--where women still need permission from male relative to marry, name children or work and suffer other forms of discrimination--discussed; photos (M)

Washington Opera will present East Coast premiere of The Dangerous Liaisons, with score by Conrad Susa and libretto by Philip Littell, at Kennedy Center Opera House; photo; more than 100 priceless sculptures from two ancient Chinese dynasties are on display at Dayton Art Institute in first leg of tour of United States; show is called Eternal China--Splendors From the First Dynasties; photo; Circus Diva, billed as first circus with gay theme, will have world premiere at Roseland (M)