Above: Alissa Mortenson in Nebunele Theatre Company’s Medea Knows Best, part of this year’s DIVAfest at the EXIT Theatre in San Francisco. Photo by Rob Gruhl

Celebrating the work of established and emerging women writers, directors and performers, the seventh annual DIVAfest opens Thursday, April 10 and runs through April 26 at San Francisco’s EXIT Theatre.

The highlight of this year’s festival is the world premiere of Medea Knows Best by Seattle’s Nebunele Theatre Company, winner of the Best New Play award at the 2006 Fringe Festival with Secret Truths of Island House. As its title suggests, Medea Knows Best is a dark, sexy, funny drama that re-writes Euripides’ Greek tragedy and sets it in the fabulous ’50s complete with a doo-wop chorus.

Medea previews April 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. and opens April 12 at 8 p.m. and continues through April 26. Tickets are $12-$20 on a sliding scale.

Also part of this year’s DIVAfest: More or Less Love Poems by Diane di Prima at 3 p.m. April 12 (free); War Harvest by San Francisco playwright/poet Pireeni Sundaralingam gets a staged reading at 3 p.m. April 26 (free); DIVAfest Cabaret sets loose Sean Owens (in drag, so he qualifies as a diva) with musician Don Seaver and singers Janet Roitz, Mia Paschal, Alison Bloomfield and Libby O’Connell among others (10 p.m. April 18, 19, 25 and 26, $15).

Call 415-673-3847 or visit www.theexit.org for information.