It started with cans of tuna, corn and beans. Then Tom Kiefer saw the more touching items — clothing, Bibles, rosaries and family photos — tossed out as trash, and couldn’t let them be.

During the second movement of Aram Khachaturian’s Concerto for Piano, the Grand Rapids Symphony’s audience will hear a sound unfamiliar to many.

Ebony Road Players — Grand Rapids’ self proclaimed black theater — has two important, impactful shows for the community this month, Lines: The Lived Experience of Race and The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.

With adult actors playing tweens, Holland Civic Theatre takes on the comedy, awkwardness and anxiety of adolescence in its delightful fall musical.

Be prepared for some face-melting before you go see School of Rock.

The Gilmore kicked off its 2018-2019 season on Sunday evening with the first performance from its Rising Stars series. Italian concert pianist Luca Buratto impressed a near-full house at the Wellspring Theater in Kalamazoo with a century-spanning selection from his repertoire.

Go inside a teenage boy’s brain with the Michigan premiere of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” at Actors’ Theatre Grand Rapids. With their unique use of set pieces and props, sound and talented acting, this play is not one you want to miss this month.

Civic Theatre’s latest production, “Steel Magnolias,” highlights the eternal strength of women through life’s ups and downs. Set in Truvy’s Beauty Salon in late ’80s small-town Louisiana, the set, costumes and characters all reflect the time and place — from teased up hair held by hairspray, to blush pink carpets and strong southern accents.

The genius of the creative collaboration between composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins, two legends in their own right, is perhaps more lasting than love. That is, if we are to believe the larger theme of “On the Town,” the grand 1940s musical they created together based on their previous ballet, “Fancy Free.”

If there’s one thing anyone who’s ever been to The Barn Theatre in Augusta knows, it’s that they know how to do a killer rock musical. And anyone who’s had the good fortune of seeing shows there this summer certainly knows the 72nd season company of Michigan’s oldest resident summer stock theater is well-versed in brilliant, campy comedy.