It’s an embarrassment of riches this week, from the daring musical “Spring Awakening” at the Walgreen Center (directed by Malcolm Tulip, this show is, not surprisingly, already sold out) to a quirky evening of one-acts by David Ives on the other side of campus at the Keene Theater.

Throw into the mix five (count ‘em) brand new scripts total, between the Fireside Festival of New Works and the New Theatre Project, and aficionados of new plays have plenty to be happy about as well.

Professional theater, educational theater, children’s theater, new play development —it’s all here, in a record breaking week for theater happenings in Washtenaw County. With cold weather in the forecast and a brief respite from sports before March Madness hits, there’s never been a better time to get out and see some theater!

Theater offerings for the week

Show: “Once Upon a Mattress” by Mary Rogers, Marshall Barer, Jay Thompson and Dean Fuller, through Feb. 11
Company: Burns Park Players
Type of Company: Community
Venue/location: Tappan Middle School Auditorium, 2251 E. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: Family
Description: This musical comedy, adapted from Hans Christen Andersen’s fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea," introduces us to silent King Sextimus and his awful, talkative wife Queen Aggravain, who decrees that only the princess who passes her test can marry her son—and that no one in the kingdom may marry before Prince Dauntless does. This presents a problem for Sir Harry and his fair maiden, Lady Larken, who is pregnant. Harry sets out to help the goofy, unrefined Winnifred the Woebegone win the Prince’s heart and pass the Queen’s impossible test, so that everyone can live happily ever after.
Review from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: Mary Rodgers' son Adam Guettel is a Tony Award-winning musical theater composer.
For tickets and information: 734-478-0449
Special ticket offer: Tickets for all AAPS teachers and staff are $5 Thursday, Feb. 9.

Show: “Ramona Quimby,” one-time event, Feb. 12 at 1:30 p.m.
Company: The Michigan Theater
Type of Company: Children’s Theater
Venue/Location: Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: All
Description: Ramona, the exasperating but lovable third-grader, has delighted young readers for over 50 years through the books of Newbery Medal-winning writer Beverly Cleary. Now, she comes to life on the stage in Ramona Quimby. While intended to tickle the funny bone, this play also incorporates issues that touch on the lives of real families.
Fun fact: Cleary's books appear in over twenty countries in fourteen languages and her characters, including Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, and Beezus and Ramona Quimby, as well as Ribsy, Socks, and Ralph S. Mouse, have delighted children for generations.
For tickets and information: Ticketmaster.com

Show: “Five by Ives” by David Ives, one-time event, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.
Company: Residential College Drama
Type of Company: Higher Education
Venue/location: Keene Theater, 701 East University Avenue, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 13+
Description: A compilation of 5 short plays by contemporary playwright David Ives, each of which looks at language and communication in a comedic and farcical way.
Fun fact: In the mid-1990s, after having been a contributor to Spy Magazine, Ives wrote occasional humor pieces for the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and other publications. In that same period, New York magazine named him one of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers”.
For tickets and information: 734-647-4354
Special ticket offer: Admission is free.

Show: Fireside Festival of New Works: “Bronzeville Gold” by Anetria Cole, one-time event, Feb. 12, 7 p.m.
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 East Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: Set in 1933 Chicago, this powerful family saga revolves around a “gambling numbers wheel,” and a young Mississippi newcomer as he and the entire African-American community chase the ever-elusive American dream. Willie Jenkins, a 22-year-old sharecropper, knows that living in Tupelo, Mississippi will not afford him many opportunities. When he meets a street numbers runner from south side Chicago named Cleveland, who promises him the “good-life,” Willie jumps on what he feels is his only escape from the south. Will he walk on “streets of gold” as Cleveland has promised him? Is Bronzeville really the land flowing with milk and honey? Or is it all just a dream?
Fun fact: The Fireside Festival is generously underwritten by Joseph C. Walters
For tickets and information: 734-663-0696, www.performancenetwork.org/

Show: Fireside Festival of New Works: “Lines” by Jeffrey Steiger, one-time event, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity (SPT)
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 East Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: Sara, a new university grievance investigator, is assigned a case that proves to be far more complicated than it appears. When a professor with a very unique expertise is accused of sexual harassment, tables turn, as the investigation becomes less about “he said/she said,” and more about Sara. "Lines" explores the division between thoughts, feelings, and action, and whether those borders are definitive or frighteningly blurry
Fun fact: Lines was featured in the 2010 Fireside Festival, and is being brought back after significant script changes were instituted thanks to the festival. Maybe your feedback is featured...?
For tickets and information: 734-663-0696, www.performancenetwork.org/

Show: Fireside Festival of New Works: “Look Away” by Robert Ford, one-time event, Feb. 14, 7 pm
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity (SPT)
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 East Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: After being accused of raping two white women, black teenagers Matty and Alonzo flee to a plantation home to escape a growing lynch mob. Convinced that the home’s sympathetic owners will help them avert danger, these cautious but hopeful boys revisit their past and plan their future as they await the morning sun that will bring with it their fate.
Fun fact: Performance Network Theatre is a member of The National New Play Network, an alliance of not-for-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production and continued life of new plays for the American theatre. PNT has been a member since 2001 and is Michigan’s only constituent member.
For tickets and information: 734-663-0696, www.performancenetwork.org/

Show: Fireside Festival of New Works: “Brill” by David Wells, music by Frank Allison, one-time event, Feb. 15, 7 pm
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity (SPT)
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 East Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 12+
Description: Set in Manhattan’s Brill Building during the summer of 1959, an aging Tin Pan Alley songwriter is forced to confront the inevitability of rock and roll when a young woman -- with a guitar and aspirations of her own—shares his office.
Fun fact: Located at 49th and Broadway, the famous Brill building was the epicenter of American popular music from the 1930s through the 1950s, described as the “most important generator of popular songs in the western world.”
For tickets and information: 734-663-0696, www.performancenetwork.org/

Show: “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, through Feb. 16
Company: Eastern Michigan University Theatre
Type of Company: Higher Education
Venue/location: Sponberg Theatre, EMU Campus, Ypsilanti
Recommended ages: Mature audiences only
Description: Q: When a dead man’s cell phone won’t quit ringing what should you do? A: Answer it. Follow one woman’s beautifully twisted adventure as she dares to answer the phone and jumps into a series of events that have her questioning life’s ideals and complications. This play contains material and language that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Preview from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: This production is running in modified repertory with “No Child” by Nilaja Sun.
For tickets and information: 734-487-2282, www.emich.edu/emutheatre

Show: “No Child...” by Nilaja Sun, through Feb. 19
Company: Eastern Michigan University Theatre
Type of Company: Higher Education
Venue/location: Sponberg Theatre, EMU Campus, Ypsilanti
Recommended ages: Mature audiences
Description: One teacher + determination + hope = change. Based on Nilaja Sun’s one-woman show, this production features a company of actors in the story of a guest teacher taking on the crisis of the American public education system. One teaching artist has big plans to use the arts to transform students at a New York City high school. Faced with the harsh reality of these students’ daily lives, she must search within herself to find the determination and hope to take a stand and make a difference.
Fun fact: This production is running in modified repertory with “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl.
For tickets and information: 734-487-2282, www.emich.edu/emutheatre

Show: "Spring Awakening" by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, based on the play by Frank Wedekind; through Feb. 19
Company: UM Department of Musical Theatre Studio Production
Type of Company: Higher Education
Venue/location: Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Ave., Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: This play contains mature content including partial nudity, sexual situations and strong language.
Description: Adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1891 expressionist play about the trials, tears, and exhilaration of the ten years, "Spring Awakening" traces the journey from youth to adulthood with power, poignancy, and passion.
Preview from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: Directed by Malcolm Tulip.
For tickets and information: SOLD OUT. Ticket wait list starts at the theatre one hour prior to showtimes. League Ticket Office 734-764-2538 or tickets.music.umich.edu

Show: “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, extended through Feb. 26
Company: Performance Network Theatre
Type of Company: Professional Equity (SPT)
Venue/location: Performance Network Theatre, 120 East Huron, Ann Arbor
Recommended ages: 16+, Contains adult themes and language.
Description: Boys will be boys, but adults will be worse! In this 2009 Tony-winner for Best Play, two couples meet at one of their homes to discuss a playground altercation between their young children. Hostility rumbles just under the surface, as their civilized battle of wits and words devolves into a hilariously chaotic evening, where nothing is safe, not even the furniture. This comedy of (bad) manners will change the way you look at polite conversation. Contains adult themes.
Review from Detroit Examiner
Fun fact: Reza’s 2007 work “L'Aube le Soir ou la Nuit” (Dawn, Evening or Night), the drama of Nicolas Sarkozy’s pursuit of the presidency, written after a year of following his campaign, caused a sensation in France.
For tickets and information: 734-663-0696, www.performancenetwork.org/

Show: “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, through Feb. 26
Company: The Encore Musical Theatre Company
Type of Company: Equity Special Appearance Contract
Venue/location: 3126 Broad Street, Dexter
Recommended ages: 8+
Description: Leiber and Stoller, as much as anyone, virtually invented rock ‘n’ roll, and now their songs provide the basis for an entertainment that illuminates a golden age of American culture. In an idealized 1950’s setting, the classic themes of love won, lost and imagined, blend with hilarious set pieces and slice-of-life emotions in this rocking musical revue.
Preview from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: While Leiber came from Baltimore, and Stoller from Long Island, they met in Los Angeles in 1950. Stoller played piano and Leiber worked in a record store and when they met they found they shared a love of blues and rhythm and blues. In 1950, Jimmy Witherspoon recorded and performed their first commercial song, "Real Ugly Woman."
For tickets and information: www.theencoretheatre.org, 734-268-6200

Show: “If You Start a Fire [Be Prepared to Burn], an Internet sex comedy for the Recession Generation”, by Kevin Kautzman, through March 4
Company: The New Theatre Project
Type of Company: Professional Non-Equity
Venue/location: Mix Performance Space, 130 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti
Recommended ages: 16+
Description: Lucy and Chris are typical American twenty-somethings struggling to survive the Great Recession with their dignity intact. They hate their jobs like most everybody else, but they need the insurance, and at least they have each other. Right? When Chris loses his job, he convinces Lucy they should launch a boutique sex website and sell the idea of her as an all-American girl next door, somehow both pure and hedonistic at the same time.
Preview from AnnArbor.com
Fun fact: Kevin Kautzman, originally from North Dakota, is pursuing his M.F.A. with a focus in playwriting and screenwriting as a Michener Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He began studying playwriting in London at the Royal Court Theatre, where he became a core writer out of the Young Writers Program.
For tickets and information: Call or text 734-645-9776, www.thenewtheatreproject.org

Show: “A Stone Carver” by William Mastrosimone, through March 10
Company: Purple Rose Theatre Company
Type of Company: Professional Equity SPT
Venue/location: Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park Street, Chelsea
Recommended ages: 13+
Description: “A Stone Carver” tells the story of a retired stonemason who clings to the past, and his son who refuses to look back. When Agostino, a seventh-generation stone carver is evicted from his home to make space for a highway he barricades himself in his house, determined to outlast the bulldozers. In a last-ditch effort to save his father from jail, Agostino’s only son Raff, arrives at the house with his new fiancée. A battle of wills ensues, putting their already-rocky relationship to the test. Can Raff convince his father to move forward before it’s too late?
Review from Heritage.com
Fun fact: The garden gate on the set was made especially for this production by Scott Lankton of Lankton Iron Works in Ann Arbor.
For tickets and information: www.purplerosetheatre.org or 734-433-7673