`FIRED AGAIN' MAKES PARTING A SWEETER SORROW.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

Annabelle Gurwitch didn't just get fired. She got even!

OK, so she didn't exactly get even with writer/director Woody Allen who 86'd the former ``Dinner and a Movie'' host from his off-Broadway play, ``Writer's Block.'' Gurwitch did, however, get lots of sympathy. And plenty of stories from showbiz types and friends who had been terminated from jobs both suitable and unsuitable.

The stories are still coming in to Gurwitch's Web site, www.firedbyannabellegurwitch.com. She has published a selection of them in ``Fired: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed'' (Touchstone Books; $19.95). An accompanying stage presentation - ``Fired Again,'' featuring a rotating cast of celebrity fire-ees - plays the Skirball Cultural Center Wednesday through Sunday.

``Fired Again'' is Gurwitch's return engagement at the Skirball. Last season's ``Fired,'' also part of Los Angeles Theatre Works' ``The Play's the Thing'' live radio presentation, was a near sellout. Gurwitch also put together a documentary film based on firing stories she collected from people around the country.

That's the thing about being canned: People can relate.

``Unfortunately, the firing business is one of our few growth industries,'' says Gurwitch. ``I have found that, yes, at the moment you are fired, there's not a lot of humor to be had. But they've done studies on how many minutes it takes before the first joke appears. It's a coping mechanism.''

Clearly, Gurwitch and the ``Fired!'' fleet are coping nicely. ``Fired!'' the book is replete with tales of well-known actors, writers, comedians and a few noncelebs handed walking papers under outrageous, ironic and unfair circumstances.

Advertising executive Joyce Beber was fired three times by Leona Helmsley and once by Donald Trump. Tim Allen was sent packing from his job as a club DJ because his new club manager disclosed, ``I hate popular people. You remind me of all the things I don't do well.'' Paul Feig, the creator of ``Freaks and Geeks'' and a director of ``The Office,'' once spent a summer in a Ronald McDonald clown suit.

On it goes, along with assorted fired facts, sample form letters to former bosses and even the occasional recipe.

``We had a hard time keeping it down to the necessary page count,'' says Trish Todd, vice president and editor in chief at Touchstone Fireside. ``Everything about it was funny. Every story was an experience that people could probably use some cheering up about.''

Actress Tonya Pinkins, a Tony award winner for ``Jelly's Last Jam,'' wrote an entry for the book and will perform at the Skirball. Pinkins recounts being left behind when the seemingly snakebit production of ``Thoroughly Modern Millie'' went to Broadway with a different performer playing the role Pinkins originated during the show's out-of-town tryout in La Jolla.

``Not one of my finest hours,'' says Pinkins, who, by expressing her creative differences with ``Millie's'' creators, essentially fired herself. ``But it makes for a good story.''

``I was thinking about it myself,'' she continues. ``My clarity in what I'm able to do creatively is so clear. That just wasn't for me. What you feel and what creative people in power feel isn't the same thing, and unfortunately for an actor, you don't get a say.''

Following the embarrassment and humor of being fired, a person often gets perspective, says Gurwitch, who routinely hears from readers who take comfort in learning that being fired is a universal experience.

``No one wants to be fired, but if it happens, it can be an opportunity,'' says Gurwitch. ``In no way am I trying to make light of it, but is (being fired) the last chapter of your life or the first chapter of another part?''

Following a live ``Fired'' presentation last year, a woman in the audience recounted the story of being fired from her job as a receptionist because her boss thought she handled a crisis badly. The company she was working for was being robbed, and the woman had cried during the robbery.

``She went on to become a therapist who deals with crisis intervention,'' says Gurwitch. ``That story was so inspiring. It sent me off collecting stories.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

FIRED AGAIN

Where: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $25 to $45. $15 with a pink slip or proof of unemployment insurance. [phone] or www.latw.org.

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Annabelle Gurwitch: ``No one wants to be fired, but if it happens, it can be an opportunity.''