This week’s plays take you on a trip around the globe, from Boston at Performance Network and the Ann Arbor District Library, to New York at PTD productions; from the Deep South at Ann Arbor Civic, to historic England at the New Theatre Project. Even our own Thunder Bay, Michigan is featured at Wild Swan this week.

Theater is always an adventure, for the mind and heart as well as the imagination. Exploring tender love stories, scorching dramas, and lighthearted comedies, the well-heeled theatrical traveler charts the waters of the soul. Whether the territory you discover is a new thought or a deeper understanding of another perspective, a mind-expanding experience is virtually guaranteed on your next trip.

Sit here, and go anywhere. No passport required, save a ticket to the theater.

Show: “Pulp” by Joe Zettelmaier, one-time event, March 13 at 7 p.m.
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity Staged Reading
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 E. Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: Los Angeles, 1933. PI Frank Ellery doesn't know it, but he's taken on the strangest case of his life. A literary agent has been gruesomely murdered. The 4 suspects: his remaining clients, all writers for different pulp magazines. Frank dives into the mystery, and his world turns upside down as life begins to imitate literature.
More information
Fun Fact: Presented in a staged-reading format as a part of the Fireside New Play Festival
For tickets and information: www.performancenetwork.org/, 734-663-0681

Show: “Boston Food: A New England Melting Pot” with cooking experts Marilynn and Sheila Brass, a background lecture for the current Performance Network show “Good People”, one-time event, March 14 at 7 p.m.
Company: Ann Arbor District Library and Performance Network
Type of Company: This is a lecture of background information on Boston and South Boston - the setting for the Performance Network’s March production of “Good People.”
Venue/location: : Ann Arbor District Library, 323 S. Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 13+
Description: AADL joins with Performance Network Theatre for a delightful evening of Boston lore and cooking tips with the return of the Boston television stars and heirloom cooking experts Marilynn and Sheila Brass. This event will also give insight into the food and lore of Boston - the setting for Performance Network’s March production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s award-winning play Good People. They will also discuss the area of South Boston - which is the setting of the play.
Fun fact: Marilynn and Sheila Brass (Boston’s Brass Sisters) are cookbook authors, television personalities, culinary historians, and home cooks with more than 120 years of combined home baking and cooking experience. They have hosted their own Holiday Special on the Cooking Channel and have won a Throwdown on the Food Network with Bobby Flay (with their heirloom recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake).
For tickets and information: aadl.org, 734-327-4555

Show: “Shipwrecked!” by Jeff Duncan, through March 16
Company: Wild Swan Theater
Type of Company: Professional, Family-Friendly Theater
Venue/location: Towsley Auditorium, Morris Lawrence Building, Washtenaw Community College
Recommended ages: 7+
Description: “Shipwrecked!” is an exciting sailing story set in 1893 that follows the travails of 12-year-old Aaron Buchanan when his family's schooner is caught in a fierce storm while he is at the helm. Young as he is, Aaron has sailed with his parents for years ferrying cargo from their home port of Detroit to ports through the Great Lakes. As the family is returning from Sault St. Marie on Lake Huron in November with a huge load of Christmas trees, they are caught in a ferocious gale that sweeps through Thunder Bay—infamously known as Shipwreck Alley. With assistance from the lighthouse keepers on Thunder Bay Island, a crew of surfmen from the lifesaving station brave 40 knot winds and sixteen foot waves to effect a daring rescue.
More information
Fun fact: Award-winning musician David Mosher has composed original music for the show as well as a soundscape of authentic sounds--timbers creaking, waves crashing, winds howling

For tickets and information: 734-995-0530, www.wildswantheater.org. Backstage touch tours and audio-description are available for blind theater patrons. These services are free but must be reserved by calling 734-995-0530.
Special ticket offer: Discounts available for groups of 10 or more; $3 lap passes available for kids under 2 years of age.

Show: "Talk Radio" by Eric Bogosian; through March 16
Company: PTD Productions
Type of Company: Pre-professional
Venue/location: Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti
Recommended ages: 14+ (Strong, adult language)
Description: Barry Champlain, Cleveland's controversial radio host, is on the air doing what he does best: insulting the pathetic souls who call in to sound off in the night. A national syndication deal is offered and the sponsors are listening. Does Barry tone it down or get even more outrageous? Come and find out! Directed by Joseph York.
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Fun fact: Eric Bogosian worked in talk radio before writing the show. He starred in the original production, which had a long run at New York's Public Theatre.
For tickets and information: 734-483-7345, www.ptdproductions.com Special ticket offer: Thursdays are pay-what-you-can. $4 discount for Haab's diners with receipts from day of show. Visit our website for group rates.

Show: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams through March 17
Company: Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
Type of Company: Community
Venue/location: The Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Ave, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 12+
Description: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is the story of a Southern family in crisis. The Pollit family throws a party to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter." All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware that Big Daddy is dying of cancer; they have lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare them pain on his birthday. The family is aware that favorite son Brick has not slept with his wife Maggie for a long time, who fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that they are left out of Big Daddy's inheritance. Over the course of one evening, the party devolves into a miasma of greed and mendacity that threatens to tear the family apart.
Preview from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: Charlie Sutherland, who plays Big Daddy in this production, also played Big Daddy in A2CT's 1994 production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
For tickets and information: www.a2ct.org, 734-971-2228

Show: “Edward the Second” by Jason Sebacher, based on the play by Christopher Marlowe, through March 31
Company: The New Theatre Project
Type of Company: Professional Non-Equity
Venue/location: Mix Performance Space, 130 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti
Recommended ages: 18+, Contains violence, strong language, sexual simulations, and nudity.
Description: A party boy, a loser, a pothead, a wastoid, now a king. Edward, not ready for the call of adulthood, crashes in his dad’s basement with his disreputable boyfriend, Pierce. His brother Kent lives under the burden of his beloved father, and his wife Isabel will only put up with it for so long before her ambitions get the best of her. The New Theatre Project’s first history play adaptation exists in the tensions between power and desire, pain and pleasure, and past and present. The classic love story--with its unforgettable, explosive ending--is about the impossibility of young love and the casualties of adulthood.
More information
Fun fact: Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Frederick Boas believes that "out of all the rich material provided by Holinshed" Marlowe was drawn to "the comparatively unattractive reign of Edward II" due to the relationship between the King and Gaveston. Boas elaborates, "Homosexual affection ... has (as has been seen) a special attraction for Marlowe. Jove and Ganymede in “Dido,” Henry III and his 'minions' in “The Massacre,” Neptune and Leander in “Hero and Leander,” and all akin, although drawn to a slighter scale, to Edward and Gaveston.”
For tickets and information: www.thenewtheatreproject.org

Show: “Good People” by David Lindsay-Abaire, through March 31
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity SPT
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 E. Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: When you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose - or so it would seem for Margie Walsh, a Dollar Store worker from Boston's Southie district, where this week's paycheck pays last week's bills, and a round of Bingo is a night on the town. Fired from her job and facing eviction, she reaches out in desperation to a high school boyfriend who has made it out, inviting herself to a chic cocktail party in his home. Once there, a series of awkward moments reveals a secret about their past, putting Margie in the driver's seat for the first time. This 2011 Tony nominee is a touching and funny look at America's great economic divide.
Review from the Detroit Free Press
Fun Fact: South Boston contains Dorchester Heights, where George Washington forced British troops to evacuate during the American Revolutionary War. For tickets and information: www.performancenetwork.org/, 734-663-0681