One again, I’m going to have to miss in-town A&E because of out-of-town commitments.

While you enjoy any or all of the above (plus whatever you add to your list), I’ll be in Louisville at the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Not only will I be catching a half dozen or so plays, I’ll also have the honor of representing the American Theatre Critics Association in presenting the Steinberg and Osborn Awards to outstanding work that premiered in 2017 outside of New York.

So let me know what you got to see. Here’s hoping you find treasures.

“J. Eyre”

Paige Scott triple threats this contemporary Bronte adaptation as composer, lyricist and book writer. Wait, make that quadruple because she also directed. And she has corralled the talents of Tim Hunt (from the recent Zach and Zack “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”), Andrea Heiden (who you really should have seen at March’s Indy Actors’ Playground) and more. Abby Gilster plays the title role. April 5-16 at Grove Haus.

“Divos: The Men”

Dance Kaleidoscope turns much of the program for its latest production over to its male dancers, not as performers (although they do that, too) but as choreographers. If you attended DK’s show at Indy Fringe last summer, you got a sense of what they’ve got planned. I’ll have profiles of three of the dancer/choreographers in the April 6th Indianapolis Business Journal. Note: The program also includes a suite of dancers choreographed by David Hochoy to hits by Elton John. April 5-8 at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

“William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged)

We are getting to a point where it seems like there are more Shakespeare parodies and variants than actual productions of Shakespeare. And much of that has to can be traced to the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which had a runaway hit with its condensation spoof of the Bard and has spun that off into abridged histories of America, Comedy, and more which have been produced by theaters around the country. Bloomington’s Cardinal Stage is currently running “The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged)” featuring Frankie Bolda. Here, the Reduced Shakespeare Company itself comes to town for a one-night stand April 7 at the Schrott.

“The Death of Stalin”

Like “Veep”–with which it shares creators–this new satire is about political types trying to maintain dignity as situations spiral out of their control. Also like “Veep,” it features an outstanding cast. A third similarity: If you are watching with other folks, you are likely to all laugh at very different things. Pulling off such a layered comedy–particularly about a time, place, and culture unfamiliar to many of the potential viewers–is a huge challenge so I give this one credit not just for execution (pardon), but also for degree of difficulty.