I've enjoyed every Prenzie Players production I've seen to date, but perhaps none more so than Pericles, Prince of Tyre. That's actually odd to say, since William Shakespeare's tale of the world's luckiest unlucky prince - a seafarer who really should just avoid the sea altogether - wouldn't necessarily be called "fun." Director Andy Koski and his cast, however, manage to find the humor in the script and bring it to the forefront, embellishing it and even adding quips of their own, and elicited lots of laughs from Saturday night's audience.

The Playcrafters Barn Theatre's take on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson adventure novel Treasure Island - adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig - certainly kicks off with a dynamic start. Director, lighting director, and set designer Jennifer Kingry's impressive recreation of a lightning storm is ominous and tense, as is the first scene aboard a pirate ship, and if the play's pirates portray any sense of threat, it is in these opening minutes, as they snarl at and descend upon a perceived traitor and treasure-map thief. The storm ends, however, as does the scene, and the rest of the play lacks the excitement set up at the start.

If not for Patrick Stinson's direction and the cast's performances (Cole Rauch's and Tanya Smith's in particular) adding an effectively creepy air, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Dracula would be a rather dull affair. Playwright Crane Johnson, it seems, would much rather describe vampiric events in his script than write so that anyone directing the play might show them. It's not nearly as frightening, after all, to hear someone tell of bodies found or women bitten in the neck as it is to see these events happen before your very eyes.

The language of playwright Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is loaded with layers of emotion underneath its dialogue. During New Ground Theatre's opening performance on Friday, a few actors neglected the dark undertones, reciting their lines as if Letts' words held nothing below the surface. Most, however, got to the heart of the script, impressively revealing the richness of the work through performances that ranged from subtle to over-the-top. While not perfect, the show deserved the standing ovation it got from the audience.