For many of us in Southwest Michigan, it’s simply not summer until The Barn Theatre in Augusta kicks off its season. And Michigan’s oldest resident summer stock theater’s 72nd season was shot out of a canon Tuesday with “The Civil War,” a wonderfully well-chosen and poignant vehicle for the talent in this year’s company that’s surprisingly relevant.

Broadway Grand Rapids presented opening night of “The King and I” at Devos Performance Hall Tuesday night. The full crowd was laughing and smiling all night at this hilarious musical with an exceptionally talented cast.

Southwest Michigan is host to a variety of wonderful theater — professional light-hearted summer fare, often of the musical variety, and edgy, boundary-pushing new work from small, pop-up new companies abounds. However, it’s rare to find new, deeply relevant work of a professional quality, and to come upon such a production is to realize one’s hunger for it.

Actors’ Theatre’s Living on the Edge playwriting festival is wrapping up this month with a final showcase of the top five scripts, written by local playwrights here in West Michigan. Each play, once fully staged, will last 8-15 minutes and they’re all written under one theme: (un)breakable.