Lynne Taylor-Corbett has spent a fair portion of her career in the realm of song and dance. A former professional dancer, she’s created works for numerous companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Company and Pennsylvania Ballet. She directed and choreographed Broadway’s Swing! (receiving Tony nominations in both categories), set choreography for the films Footloose and My Blue Heaven, as well as Disney’s stage production of Aladdin and directed shows for a slew of singers and musicians. The production she’s currently directing -- a text-laden two-woman play -- is markedly different from her former ventures. Presented by Theatre Exile and featuring Sharon Talbot and Kelly Taylor, the piece is titled Natural Selection, but it could have been named Sister Act. Not that it has any relation to those Whoopi Goldberg flicks, but actors Talbot and Taylor, who also co-wrote the play, and director Taylor-Corbett are sisters.

It's the first time they've all collaborated, and the process of working with siblings has proven a unique experience. "On the positive side, there's a tremendous shorthand we have and a shared background which is really sort of a profound and complex background as a family growing up together," says Taylor-Corbett. "On the other side, it's a little harder to keep rigid rules, because we know each other so well."

Natural Selection is about two women who've worked together in a small room, putting lids on boxes, for 10 years. They pass the time by playing jokes on one another, telling stories and waxing philosophical. The women have completely opposite personalities, but they share the same fate of being trapped, both literally and figuratively. On one level the play is a riff on corporations, conformity and lives lived in isolation. It is rife with metaphors relating to our place in the cosmos. It is at times surreal. But mostly it's darn funny. Talbot refers to Natural Selection as "a madcap comedy" and that sense of silliness mirrors how the sisters relate to one another in real life.

"Our sense of humor is a little off-the-wall. Very funny, crazy and a little out there," notes Taylor. She adds that in terms of each writer's contribution to the text, "I liked [Sharon's] take and mine was certainly different, but since we're from the same family it was like Œoh I understand what that's about.' So we have a common background of a wacky sense of humor then in terms of the deeper, more serious issues, some were fabricated and some came directly out of our lives."

There's a bit in the play where Talbot's character, named Avis, talks about wanting to be the wife of Prince Charles, and it turns out that was a true desire of Talbot's when she was a young girl. Avis laments that her ex-husband left her for a man. Well, guess what, Talbot says, "In college I had a boyfriend who became gay."

Likewise, Taylor incorporated her own life experiences into those of her character. In both cases stories that have a basis in real life are made more fantastic for theatrical effect. Throughout the process Taylor-Corbett helped steer the action, shaping it as a dramaturg and "trying to work with the pacing and the arc of it."

This is a text-driven production, but the words often flow in rhythmic, melodic phrases. "We both have an ear for economy of language," explains Talbot. "It's a heavily verbal play, but we both look for the smoothest, most poetic way of saying something while also staying real."

All three struggled with the ending, which has been reworked several times. They had received feedback from an earlier version of the piece, which was presented as a reading, that the ending was too complicated. They've since streamlined the finale and the play receives its first real test when Natural Selection opens its Philadelphia run, the world premiere of the fully staged play. The trio is eager to see how this latest rendering of their sister act is received. Says Talbot, "We want our audience to have many cathartic experiences -- and end up feeling good."

Theatre Exile presents Natural Selection, May 8-25, $15-$20, The Walnut Street Theatre, Studio 5, 825 Walnut St., 215-922-4462.