Friday, June 24 — Almost as ubiquitous as "Our Town" on community and regional stages, "The Fantasticks" explores similarly timeless themes — and requires only the simplest of staging. With words and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, "Fantasticks" cleverly blends sentimental life lessons with satirical jabs at its own genre.

Friday, July 22 — From the ancient origins of contemporary words to modern slants on mythical stories, Lansing Community College's production of Mary Zimmerman's “Metamorphoses” brings vibrant physicality to classic Greek myths, with challenging and entertaining results.

Monday, Sept. 26 — Remember Sept. 11, 2001? Not the divisive rhetoric that tirelessly evoked the date for political evasion or justification, or the shameless merchandising that recently reached new lows (9/11 Merlot, anyone? Just $19.11), but where you were when you first heard the tragic news.Although the official 10th anniversary of the attacks has passed, Michigan State University's concurrent productions “What Happened?” and “Return To The Upright Position” recall that day with the dignity rarely seen in televised retrospectives.

Friday, Oct. 7 — It was the best of musicals, it was the worst of musicals — and it lasted two-and-a-half hours. As the debut production of upstart theater company Touch Your Soul Productions, the pop opera “Bare” deserves commendation both for its choice of topical material and also for its commitment to producing the entire project on a shoestring budget.

Wednesday, Dec. 14 — Watch out, Lansing: “Rock of Ages,” now at the Wharton Center, will unapologetically rock you with all of the hairspray and bad taste it can muster. This monster-ballad mash-up may have the polish of a Broadway musical, but its heart lies purely in the adolescent bedroom of the ’80s. Like watching back-to-back hair-band music videos — with far better dancing — “Rock of Ages” is at once a winking parody and an earnest ode to some of rock’s guiltiest pleasures.

Wednesday, Jan. 11 — No need to sing the blues when you can sing along to the ‘Honky Tonk Blues’ this weekend at Williamston Theatre, where Derek Smith is reprising his uncannily accurate portrayal of Hank Williams one more time to help raise revenue for the theater.

Tuesday, April 24 — Plants and produce filled tables Saturday afternoon instead of hardcover bestsellers inside the grandiose space formerly occupied by Barnes & Noble in downtown East Lansing.

Tuesday, Aug. 30 — Michigan State University’s Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center hosts the talents of three culinary experts as a part of its fall semester visiting chef series that kicks off on Sept. 21 and 22, and continues Oct. 19 and 20 and Nov. 9 and 10.

Somewhere between a Penthouse Forum story and a Swiftian journal entry (Taylor, not Jonathan) lies “My First Time,” a staged reading of stories culled from the aptly named website, MyFirstTime.com.

Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings was started by four friends who missed the intimate music style and smaller pieces of their college days. Since then it has grown into a collection of musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra who come together to perform and record chamber music.