This year, the Monterey County Film Commission Screenwriting Contest (can we just agree to call it the MCFCSC?) is including a new award in its annual competition. The "Monterey County On Location Award" will be given in recognition of an outstanding screenplay at least 50 percent of which is set in Monterey County.

Let''s think out of the box: A mob hitman...no, a Basque sheepherder, moves to Big Sur...no, to Marina, to start a new life. There he stumbles upon a plot between the Packard Foundation and the government...no, the Sheep Advisory Board, to turn the former Fort Ord into a vast grazing ground for future wool sweaters to keep MBARI marine biologists warm out on the Bay. Our gruff but kindly sheepherder is blackmailed into helping the villains shear sheep until the cows come home...no, until a brilliant, uh, newspaper editor uncovers the conspiracy.

You''ll have to take it from there. The deadline for the contest is Jan. 31. First prize is $1,500 clams and "valuable Hollywood contacts." Sounds like lunch to us. For more information on MCFCSC call the film commission at 646-0910.

Piano Is His Forte

It''s another leisurely Sunday afternoon. You''re nursing the sunburn you sustained yesterday at the beach, you''re tired of sitting around watching the Olympics (what genius decided that cycling was a spectator sport, anyway?), and you feel a burning desire to experience some real culture. Did somebody say the words "piano recital"?

This Sunday, at the eminently civilized hour of 3pm, William Riddlesburger, one of Pacific Grove''s favorite sons, will give a classical piano recital. Featured are the works of Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Liszt. Mr. Riddlesburger is a local piano teacher and is also well known as a coach and accompanist to area singers and instrumentalists. He has an illustrious background that includes stints at Cincinnati''s Conservatory of Music and at the Freiburg Conservatory in Germany, where he was a pianist with the Duesseldorf Opera.

The recital is at the Religious Science Church, 400 W. Franklin, Monterey. For tickets and more information, call Bookmark in Pacific Grove, 648-0508.

El

You can''t walk five feet around here without tripping over some kind of lavish extravaganza gala. But there''s one that stands out from the pack, because it really is special. El Teatro Campesino is celebrating its 35th anniversary this Saturday with an evening of dinner and dancing. And this ain''t your grandfather''s dancing: it''s the East L.A. group Quetzal. Also on hand will be the Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash.

Playwright Luis Valdez started El Teatro Campesino ("The Farmworkers'' Theater") in 1965, when he went to Delano, California to help Cesar Chavez organize farmworkers during the grape boycott. Three years later, the players won an Obie Award for "demonstrating the politics of survival." The rest is history. The event is at the San Juan Oaks Golf Club. If you want to help them celebrate 35 anos, call 623-2444.

A Certain Something

If you find yourself paying a visit to that Sand City temple of text, Borders Books, you''ll find a remarkable exhibit of photography up on the walls of Cafe Espresso. "Certain People" by Chrys Stone is a collection of street portraits that are striking in their immediacy, honesty and unexpected humor. Stone spent the past two years shooting and assembling the collection, and the faces she''s captured in her black and white portraits are, as she describes, "beautiful, romantic and unusual." The exhibit is up though November.

--Tai Moses