Michele Lowe is that relative anomaly, a full-time playwright of some 15 years standing, not a teacher or TV writer who writes plays on the side. She is known here for "String of Pearls," which had its world premiere at City Theatre in 2004 and has gone on to other productions, awards and publication.

Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette Playwright Michele Lowe, on the set of her play "Mezzulah, 1946" at City Theatre, says she researched the play for years before completing it. Click photo for larger image. 'Mezzulah, 1946' Where: City Theatre at Bingham and 13th, South Side. When: Through April 8; Tues. 7 p.m., Wed.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 5:30 and 9 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.; also 7 p.m. March 11 and 13 and 1 p.m. March 28; no 9 p.m. March 10. Tickets: $15-$45; 412-431-CITY.

Lowe is one of a small group of playwrights who have come to regard City Theatre in the Tracy Brigden era as a home. So it seems somehow right that she anticipates a special thrill when her second City play "Mezzulah, 1946," now in previews, has its formal opening Wednesday: for the first time, her 11-year-old daughter, Isadora, will be sitting beside her mom at an opening.

If that seems odd, the reason is, as Lowe says, "my subject matter." Those who remember "String of Pearls" will understand. A sensitive portrait of several women's journeys toward fulfillment, it was off limits because of its sexual details (one of them right there in the title, as the play explained).

"Mezzulah, 1946," however, is a story that might inspire a child. It dramatizes the plight of women who worked on Boeing airplanes during World War II, then were expected to step back when the men returned from war. The story of 19-year-old Mezzulah Steiner interweaves with that of her town and with an exciting time in aviation design, with punctuation by pop tunes of the day such as (obviously) "Don't Fence Me In" and "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer."

Specifics, Lowe says, are what give plays "character, content and atmosphere." She researched "Mezzulah" for many years. With the Internet, that's easier than it used to be. But it was the encouragement of City dramaturg Carlyn Aquiline that helped her find her way to completion.

Lowe was delighted to find New York-based Erica Schmidt to direct. They had never collaborated before, but Lowe liked Schmidt's work, and when Schmidt read the script, she told Lowe her grandmother had delayed her marriage after the war to work and her father worked in aerospace. So they shared an immediate connection to the materials.

Lowe loves being back at City, "working with familiar people." In addition, "what's so great about City is, I have five previews" -- performances before the play formally opens. This is a valuable rarity, she says: "I re-wrote the last scene of 'String of Pearls' after the first preview."

Some City audiences had a taste of "Mezzulah" at last year's "Momentum" weekend of new plays. Lowe says she can get a lot out of putting a play on its feet quickly for a reading, "all very raw. You learn what the actors' instincts are and how the audience reacts."

A Long Island girl, she went to Northwestern University to study journalism, then worked in the advertising business where she learned to re-write on her feet. Then she went back to school at Playwrights Horizons in New York.

What she seems to like most about playwriting is, "when you're in the zone, not editing, digging down deep and you just know it's working. ... Plays not only have to be about something; they have to have stakes. Life and death are high stakes."

More prosaically, she says, "it takes me about three months to do a first draft. On her most recent play, for example, written on commission (which means there's some money up front) for the Denver Center Theater, she started the first draft when her daughter went back to school in September, and "finished the first night of Hanukkah."

Though Lowe doesn't feature herself a teacher, she has discovered she takes pleasure in leading playwriting workshops. Last week, as one of City's New American Trio special events, she gave a workshop in "the play as a physical journey -- like 'Pericles,' 'The Odyssey' or 'The Wizard of Oz' ... we hope every play has an emotional journey, a revelation or self-discovery," but the journey motif can also be literal.

Last year, when "Mezzulah" was being read at Momentum, she gave a workshop in "how to fictionalize from a newspaper" -- how to make it your own. Granted that truth is stranger than fiction, "you still have to make a good story out of it."

Story is the key. Pittsburgh gets to see Lowe's new story starting tonight. And next week, she will be there with not just Isadora but also her husband, Michael Porte, about whom she says, "everything he touches turns to gold, including me."

"Mezzulah, 1946" is the second production in City's New American Trio and is sponsored by The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania and UPMC. Theo Allyn will play Mezzulah Steiner, supported by Jeffrey Carpenter, Johnny Giacalone, Rebecca Harris, Brett Mack, Sheila McKenna, Larry John Meyers, Gwendolen Morton, Joel Ripka and Jenny Wales.