James Franco to make stage directing debut

NEW YORK -- James Franco is adding another notch to his expansive resume -- stage director.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater said Monday that Franco will direct Robert Boswell's world premiere play "The Long Shrift" from July 7 through Aug. 23. The off-Broadway job will coincide with Franco's current one on Broadway as an actor in "Of Mice and Men."

Franco has seemingly been dipping his toe into every element of show business, from acting in TV and films like "Pineapple Express" and "Spider-Man" to screenwriting and producing, or writing a novel and being an artist.

He made his Broadway debut this spring with Chris O'Dowd playing two tragic migrant workers trying to make their way through the aftermath of drought and the Depression in 1930s America. The play ends its run July 27.