Eastbound Theatre’s “Sylvia” sometimes whispered when it could have shouted and never quite lived up to its full potential. But nevertheless, it proved a good showcase for some talented community theater actors and the very supportive crowd was having a great time for a great cause.

The Opera House Players clearly dove into this production process with earnest joy and the best of intentions. It’s a shame that the musical takes such giant step backwards from the original film. For anyone considering this production as a lighthearted weekend activity, I encourage you to of course support you community theaters – but please, bring with you a discerning eye and critical lens. Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is always a delight, but unless we hold writers accountable for their questionable work, lines like those mentioned above are going nowhere.

Yale Repertory Theatre welcomes back Austin, Texas’ cutting-edge performance group, Rude Mechs, to perform their latest work. They have performed works at the Yale Rep before in their “No Boundaries” performance series. One of these pieces – The Method Gun – is about a production of A Streetcar Named Desire without any of its main characters. With Field Guide, the group takes on Dostoyevsky.

New Haven Theater Company’s “The Dumb Waiter” is a very good version of a work that I must admit to finding frustrating. I’ve never much cotton to plays that feel more like literary exploration than human narratives.

TheaterWorks presents the unconventional work, Constellations, by British playwright Nick Payne. This play takes the “boy meets girl” story and turns it on its head: what happens if the boy and the girl meet over and over with circumstances ever so slightly different? It’s a play exploring choice and destiny; of finding and losing love; and it is powerful, compelling stuff.

Long Wharf’s latest offering, Office Hour, is playwright Julia Cho’s third work to be produced at Long Wharf with a tough and timely subject: the eminent threat of a school mass shooting.  The 75-minute one act focuses on what happens (maybe) when a professor tries to reach out to a troubled student who may become the next Seung-Hui Cho.

As a little girl, I was entranced by the book (and film), From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The story is about two suburban kids, Claudia and Jamie, who decide to run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I thought it was a brilliant plan: living amongst the relics and artistry of ancient civilizations. Imagine my joy in hearing about Sharon Washington’s Feeding the Dragon, a solo work about “the little girl who lived in the library.” I knew about the apartments at the New York Public Library (I have friends on the inside), so I was excited to hear a first-hand account of someone who lived in one of these spaces.

If you’re looking for something to take the winter chill off this January, “Woody Sez” at Westport Country Playhouse is an excellent way to fend off the cold.