OPENING
THE ACTORS REHEARSE THE STORY OF CHARLOTTE SALOMON | Shakespeare and Company's "Diva Series" continues with Penny Kreitzer in the story of the German artist — best known for the epic Life? Or Theater? — who fled Nazi Germany in 1939 only to be apprehended in Vichy in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered, just 26 years old. Written by David Bridel, Kreitzer, and Jonathan Rest and directed by Rest, the work takes the form of a play within a play, as, back at the Jerusalem Festival in 1982, a group of actors (one of them Kreitzer) tries to present Salomon's story in the face of a differing version from her stepmother, Paula Lindberg. | Shakespeare & Company, Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St, Lenox | 413.637.3353 | June 3-14 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 3 pm Fri | 3 pm [June 7] or 8:30 pm [June 14] Sun | $16-$34; $11-$29 students, seniors; June 7 $34-$60
BEN'S TRUMPET | BalletRox and Wheelock Family Theatre team up to present BalletRox director Anthony Williams's take on the Caldecott Medal–winning children's book by Rachel Isadora in which a young boy in Harlem discovers hot jazz. The evening will also include presentations of Peter and the Wolf and La Favorita. | Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 the Riverway, Boston | 617.879.2000 | May 29–June 7 | Curtain 7:30 pm Fri | 1 + 7:30 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $20-$30
THE CHILDREN'S HOUR | Our Place Theatre Project's ninth annual African-American Theatre Festival continues with Lillian Hellman's 1934 play about a girl's boarding school and its two headmistresses. When one unhappy student runs away and is about to be sent back, she gets off the hook by declaring that the headmistresses are having a lesbian affair. Our Place artistic director Jacqui Parker is at the helm. | BCA Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | June 6-13 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $15-$35
DEAR MISS GARLAND | Local hero Kathy St. George channels her favorite movie star ("We are exactly the same height, 4'11" ") in the world premiere of a one-woman show that she wrote with Scott Edmiston. Musical director Jim Rice heads the seven-piece band. | Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main St, Stoneham | 781.279.2200 | June 4-28 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $40; $35 seniors; $20 students
DIVIDING THE ESTATE | Well, that's the question in the late Horton Foote's Tony-nominated play, whose production is moving to Hartford Stage after getting closed down on Broadway in January. Texas matriarch Stella Gordon wants to keep the 100-year-old family estate intact, even though its time seems to have passed. Her three children are more interested in the title activity. The production is directed by Hartford artistic director Michael Wilson (which is partly why it wound up in Hartford); Hallie Foote heads the cast. | Hartford Stage, 50 Church St, Hartford | 860.527.5151 | May 28–July 5 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues [June 2, 9, 16] | 2 pm [June 17, 24] or 7:30 pm [June 3, 10] Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs [no July 2] | 8 pm Fri [no July 3] | 2 pm [June 6, 27] + 8 pm [no July 4] Sat | 2 pm [no June 7] + 7 pm [May 31, June 14] Sun | $23-$68
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST | Wellesley Summer Theatre updates Oscar Wilde's essay on the importance of being something other than the offspring of a handbag to the Jazz Age, where Oscar himself would surely have had a swell time had he still been around. "Critically acclaimed members of the WST company" are promised for the cast; Nora Hussey and Valerie von Rosenvinge direct. | Wellesley Summer Theatre, Schneider Hall, Wellesley College, Wellesley | 781.283.2000 | June 4-28 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 3 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $20; $10 students, seniors
ON THE VERGE | "Machetes" are promised in this comedy (we think) show written by Eric Overmyer, directed by Wesley Savick, and presented by Nora Theatre. Also (seems to be a '50s theme) "Rock 'n' Roll. Burma Shave. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Discover the unpredictable land of Terra Incognita with three intrepid women explorers who can never be quite sure where — or when — their next steps will lead them. . . ." | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge |www.centralsquaretheater.org| May 28–June 21 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 pm Sun | $32; $22 seniors; $18 students; $12 students day-of
SERIOUSLY FUNNY | The students from the ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training make their contribution to the American Repertory Theatre's "Sex, Satire, Romance, and Ducks: A David Mamet Celebration" with this evening of short comedies by "friends and frequent collaborators" Mamet, Harold Pinter, and Shel Silverstein. | Zero Arrow Theatre, Mass Ave + Arrow St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | May 29–June 6 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | $10; $5 students, seniors
