IT'S A BUSY WEEKEND AT THE LITTLE Theatre. Though up till now they've offered an eclectic selection of classics and rarities, the theater is officially the exhibition space for WigglyWorld Studios, and this week they prove it, with what amounts to a mini-festival of local and regional talent.

The Summer Shorts collection features seven short films edited at WigglyWorld Studios, thanks to the studio's "Out of the Can" grant program. Serge Gregory's Flow is a brief montage of people entering Seattle; it's pleasant enough, and mercifully doesn't wear out its welcome. Jonas Batt's Balancing Pies is about a stand-up comic dealing with his dysfunctional family--and still it's really funny. Even funnier, because it's treading much sadder turf, is Matt Wilkins' Interior Latex, a nearly perfect look at a young man visiting his girlfriend's dad. Crime and Passion isn't that impressive, but hey, Cliff Schmidt used high-school kids as the crew, so cut him some slack. Also up: Joe Shlichta's The Joke, and Erik Maahs' Bluecoatedstory. Summer Shorts shows Thursday, June 17 at 8:00 p.m. only, followed by a panel discussion by all the filmmakers; on Friday, June 18 there are three showings, sans directors.

On Saturday, June 19, a WigglyWorld open house from 3:00 until 5:00 p.m. is followed by the 25th Annual Best of the Northwest. The three shorts (out of 10) I saw were all worth a look. From Portland comes Johnny Bagpipes, a cute look at a would-be rock-and-roll bagpiper by Todd Korgan. Meanwhile, Vancouver is the source of both Young Turkeys, Ian Barbour's clever, self-referential look at eating said birds, and Richard Raxlen's quite lovely deconstruction of an old Mutt 'N' Jeff cartoon, The Geometry of Beware, which gets extra credit for its goofy sound effects.

Then on Sunday is a screening of Gregg Lachow's debut feature, The Seven Mysteries of Life. Lachow, of course, is WigglyWorld's ace in the hole; his latest, Money Buys Happiness, sold out the Cinerama during the film festival. Certainly filling up the Little Theatre shouldn't be a problem.