Had I gone by the sudden chilly weather, or the title of the play itself, I would have assumed I was on my way to a night of frights at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre. Despite its name and October debut, however, there were no scares to be had on Friday – unless, that is, you jump a little at the sight of the word “layoffs.” Skeleton Crew, written by Dominique Morisseau and directed here by Marquita Reynolds, is a solid stage experience and worth seeing.

Murder for Two, now playing at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, is incredible. It’s fast, frantic, and fun, and it’s also the hardest I’ve laughed in I couldn’t tell you how long. My first draft of this review was simply “Go see this show” copied-and-pasted a few hundred times. In lieu of a lackluster Shining reference, take this instead;: A shining review.

I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at the Timber Lake Playhouse on Saturday evening. I’d never seen 9 to 5 before, be it movie or musical, and outside of “Jolene” and the show's titular song, I could not name you a single song by Dolly Parton. Yet none of this got in the way of me enjoying a perfectly fine night of theatre helmed by director Tommy Ranieri.

My exposure to Alfred Hitchcock's work has been fairly minimal, and aside from seeing a few clips, my total time spent with his films is close to zero. But several years ago, I did attend a stage version of Hitchcock's movie The 39 Steps, a play adapted by Patrick Barlow from John Bucan’s novel. And this past Friday, I caught in another in director James Beaudry's Timber Lake Playhouse’s production, which was largely a fun romp in the woods.