An opening gala, featuring a champagne reception with the cast following the production at 8 p.m., will be held tonight. Tickets for the performance and gala are $25. Subsequent performances will be at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, and at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23. Tickets for these performances will be $10 general admission, $5, students.

Teatro Avante is a nonprofit organization whose objective is to preserve the Hispanic cultural heritage, and in particular that of the Cuban community, through theater. The troupe has toured widely in Europe, Japan and the Americas, presenting works of Hispanic, U.S. and European playwrights.

The UB production, "Mirando al Tendido," ("Looking into the Stands") by Venezuelan playwright Rondolfo Santana, received the best production award at its 1994 premiere during Teatro Avante's IX International Hispanic Theatre Festival. The play uses the bullfight as a mechanism for a meditation on life and death, but reverses the role of the matador and the bull.

Rondolfo Santana, one of Venezuela's most prolific playwrights, has written nearly 50 plays and eight movie scripts, and has directed several theater groups, including the Group Cobre, which represented Venezuelan theater at national and international festivals while under his leadership.

"Mirando al Tendido" is produced and directed by Mario Ernesto Sanchez, Avante's artistic director, and stars Magaly Aguero and Gustavo LaboriÚ. The cast will include seven UB students from the Department of Theatre and Dance. Leandro Soto designed the set, costume and makeup. Lighting is by Manolo Fern½ndez, with music and sound effects by RenÚ Alejandro.

Tickets may be purchased at the Center for the Arts Box Office or by calling 645-ARTS, and at Ticketmaster outlets.