MORE STORIES

• THEATER REVIEW | 4.48 PSYCHOSIS

  An engrossing march toward oblivion

  Something rare -- rare for South Florida theater, anyway -- is happening now at The Naked Stage. Most of the region's companies play it realistic and straight, producing scripts that tell clear stories from beginning to end. That can make for engrossing, satisfying drama, but audiences usually don't have to work too hard to extract the play's themes.

• PLACES

  Orlando gives fine arts a good ride

  Think ''Orlando,'' and what comes to mind? The muscle of the mighty Mouse, a sprawling Disney presence that draws millions each year? The screams of kids on the roller coasters at the Universal Orlando Resort?

• Critic's Pick | 'The Accomplices'

  What the United States did -- and didn't -- do to try to help Jews fleeing the Nazis is the subject of Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices, opening at 8 p.m. Saturday at GableStage. John Manzelli and Ursula Cataan, along with Howard Elfman, Scott Genn, Joel Kolker, Wayne LeGette, Jessica K. Peterson, Kevin Reilly and Gregg Weiner, tell a story of failure in the face of genocide. The play runs through May 25 at GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Weinraub, who...

• They're still angry, and thank goodness

  Good drama is good drama. Period. Plays that last for decades or centuries endure because they so accurately depict timeless feelings, behavior and basic human truths that they resonate with us, even if they were written long before we made our entrance into the world.

• THEATER REVIEW| FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

  Difficult script masterfully played

  Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland experienced enough drama in her 61 years of life to justify a dozen plays. Born into poverty in Greenwood, Miss., she never knew for sure who her father was. At 11, she was raped by a white man whose granddaughter she was baby-sitting. He gave her $5 and sent her home, her childhood stolen. She became a teen prostitute. Spent time in jail. Had a baby at 16. And then, after a chance encounter with a civil rights worker, she found herself again.

• THEATER REVIEW

  Clever production doesn't miss a beat

  When Richard Alfieri's Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks had its South Florida premiere at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in the spring of 2003, it boasted a pair of stars (Rue McClanahan and Mark Hamill), a crowd-pleasing Florida story and obvious ambitions for a commercial Broadway run. With Hamill and Polly Bergen, the play hit Broadway that fall, where it managed just 54 performances.

• THEATER REVIEWS

  'Morrie' holds lesson for us all

  Inspiring and tender-hearted, Tuesdays With Morrie is a story -- told as a memoir, a made-for-TV movie, a two-character play -- that has touched millions upon millions of people.

• We had a wonderful evening -- this wasn't it

  Remember Groucho Marx? Unless you're of a certain age, or unless you're a fan of the artfully anarchic black-and-white Marx Brothers movies, probably not.

• Critic's Pick | 'Tuesdays With Morrie'

  Mitch Albom was a workaholic sports columnist and television commentator before he reconnected with Morrie Schwartz, the man who had been his sociology professor at Brandeis University. Morrie was dying, but through weekly conversations, he helped teach his former student how to truly live.

• Critic's Pick | 'From the Mississippi Delta'

  The tough, inspiring journey of a young black girl from poverty in Mississippi to rebellion as a young woman to leadership in the civil rights movement is the subject of From the Mississippi Delta, a play that begins performances at 8 p.m. Thursday at M Ensemble, 12320 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami.

• THEATER

  Broadway hits hit Broward next season

  Two powerhouse ''jukebox'' musicals, the people-and-puppets musical Avenue Q, the recent revival of A Chorus Line, the fanciful Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a new show from the not-quite-family-friendly Dame Edna will make up the 2008-2009 Broadway Across America season at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Parker Playhouse.

• THEATER REVIEW

  Meandering 'Mission' often strains credibility

  During his long life, Jules Tasca has written more than 100 plays, taught playwriting at Oxford University, acted with a commedia dell'arte troupe in Italy, won a number of awards for his work. An admirable résumé, however, is no guarantee of a profound or even engaging result after a playwright turns out one more script.

• SOUTH FLORIDA THEATER

  'Inishmore,' 'La Mancha' top Carbonell Awards

  Six companies from South Florida's far-flung theater community rose to the top Monday when the 32nd annual Carbonell Awards for theatrical excellence were handed out in a glitzy ceremony hosted by Broadway star Christine Andreas at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

• THEATER REVIEW

  1980s themes in 'Beirut' still ring true

  Alan Bowne wrote Beirut, a play about government repression in the wake of a sexually transmitted disease, in 1987. In the raw, two-character drama, Bowne never calls the killer illness AIDS, but his subject is abundantly clear. It was AIDS that took Bowne's life when he was just 44, only two years after Beirut debuted.