This Week In Theater: A Heaping Plateful Of Everything

Unique and Short Runs: Let's shake things up a bit, and begin this week's menu with something a little offbeat: The Fisher Ensemble's latest offering, Psyche, the web opera, is a work crossing several disciplines and could only be viewed online, on their website. The work is based on the Ensemble's 2008 opera, Psyche, which is about the mortal whose beauty drives the Greek gods jealous and mad. They've taken that soundtrack and sent it to numerous independent film makers (Ryan K Adams, Ian Lucero, Luke Sieczek, and Jacob Snyder), who then created short films based on that music. The results will be webcast during the weeks ahead (here's the first installment). This is an effort to introduce opera to the uninitiated, by an internationally renown group whose work is worth seeking out. There is an ongoing live auction, the proceeds of which will go to support the ensemble.

Episodes appear periodically beginning today, and finishing on 6/17 // The Fisher Ensemble's Website // Free

For a man whose name is bandied about as if people everywhere were familiar with his work, there is remarkably little known about Thomas Paine, beyond his influence in establishing our republic. Ian Ruskin seeks to address this oversight with the world premiere of To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine, a solo performance piece about the life and times of, you guessed it, Thomas Paine. Ruskin's last monologue, From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, also had its premiere at the UW, was later filmed by none other than Haskell Wexler, and aired on PBS in 2010. One night only.

Tonight! at 7:30p.m. // Jones Playhouse, 4045 University Way NE // $8 - $15

Staying within the U-District, the Memory War Theater company present its debut production, Below U.S. -- a multi-media meditation on what it's like to be of mixed ethnicities in the US (or as they call it, 'hybrid identity'). The show mixes elements of documentary theater (text culled from interviews with the public), animation, and physical theater, both this company and this work holds promise.

Friday and Saturday at 8:00p.m. // UW Ethnic Cultural Center, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE // $5 - $12

Festivals: Live Girls Theater's Quickies Vol. 12 is an annual tradition, where LG gathers a number of short one-act plays written by women from across the country. There is usually a fair number of comedies presented during the evening, but they take great care in presenting other material, and in selecting a diverse amount of voices for these shows. This year, they are doing seven pieces, by playwrights like locals Joy McCullough-Carranza and Juliet Waller-Pruzan. Typically, this is a fun night out.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00p.m., June 3 - June 18 // Theater Off Jackson, 409 7th Avenue South // $5 - $18

Longer Runs Opening This Week: For the penultimate show of their season, Book-It Repertory presents their fourth Jane Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility, Austen's first novel. Though filled with many subplots, the narrative centers around the two Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, and their lightly comic struggles adjusting to love and its friction against the traditional mores they were raised in.

Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30p.m., Sundays at 2:00p.m.; June 2 - June 26 // W - Sa 7:30, Sun 2p (6/2- 6/26), $20 - $36 ($42 on opening night)

It seems to be the season for trying out new plays, including the world premieres listed above, we also have The Familiar running right now, while WET's Love Horse and The Satori Group's Fabulous Prizes will be closing this weekend. Joining the fray this week is Christi Stewart-Brown's The Gene Pool, produced by Arouet Productions. The story concerns a teenage boy who is eager-to-lose-his-virginity, and what happens when he starts asking his mothers uncomfortable questions about who his father is.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00p.m., June 3 through June 19 (matinee on Sunday June 19 at 2:00p.m.) // Annex Theatre, 1100 East Pike Street // $15 in advance, $18 at the door

Finally, we finish this week's offerings with a little cabaret...For the unfamiliar, generally, a cabaret is an excuse to throw together some loose black out sketches with some song and dance and a few other odds and ends like a tumbling act or acrobatics. It, along with burlesque, is a remnant of late 19th/early 20th Century theater, a contemporary of Vaudeville, and are meant as pure, easy and simple fun. ACT teamed up with Jayne Muirhead and John Engerman, both noted cabaret pros, in order to create It's In The Cards, a new cabaret showcase using a Tarot card influenced theme. ACT has a history of out doing themselves when it comes to producing genres like cabaret, burlesque and the type, and this looks to be more of the same.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00p.m., June 3 through June 11 // ACT's Bullitt Cabaret, 700 Union Street // $15 - $20