At first, to Penelope Baxter Ragotzy, Barn Theatre was just a name on a T-shirt. Ragotzy was a student at San Jose State University, where she studied under Donnamarie “Dusty” Reeds. Reeds wore the shirt, which advertised a theater near Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Gene Wolfe wrote that an exaggerated solemnity always indicates a lack of faith. Such solemnity can often be found among pilgrims traveling to the highest slopes of Mount Art. 

My sainted mother has advised that, when her time to die comes, she will wander off into the woods in order to spare us distress. Never mind that we won’t know where she is until a bear is found holding aloft the remains of her head.

There are a few jukebox musicals that actually improve upon the songs that make up the score. Rock of Ages transforms the hits of ‘80s rock with delightful cleverness, stringing them together with a silly story and terrific arrangements.

I’ll say this for children: They’re terrible at pretending to have a good time. At least, mine are. So when Gemma (9) and Heidi (6) began singing along from their seats, I knew School of Rock was working.

Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Color Purple” begins as a series of letters written by its main character to God. She is repeatedly raped, beaten, emotionally abused, forced into domestic slavery, and her children and sister ripped from her. She has nowhere else to turn but to God.

As the summer season brings Michiganders beautiful, warm weather, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming concert series is making its triumphant return to the stage. 

Holland is the home of a celebration of live theater this summer, as the Hope Summer Repertory Theater (HSRT) celebrates its 50th year with a nine-show season that occupies four different venues all summer long. 

The opening night audience of The Barn Theatre’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was alive with children and their parents as well as those of us always eager to see the latest show.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”