Grant Alexander Brown and Charles Benson in Big RiverIt struck me, during Saturday's matinée performance of Big River at the Timber Lake Playhouse, that theatre is my church, considering I repeatedly wanted to raise my hands in praise and shout "Amen!" at various points, and in ways I used to while attending Sunday services in my younger years. Theatre, for me, is a spiritual experience, and this Big River served as a big-tent revival that reminded me of that truth.

Karl Hamilton, Paige ManWaring, and Matt W. Miles in Big FishThough I've watched the film version several times and viewed a staging of its musical earlier this summer, the Timber Lake Playhouse's production of Big Fish still had me choking back tears despite my (over-)familiarity with the material. That's in no small part due to the magic in director James Beaudry's staging, the cast's endearing rendering of the supporting characters, and Karl Hamilton's captivating charm as Edward Bloom, the father at the center of this tale of tall tales.

Sam Leicht, Rosie Upton, Eli Emmit, and Amelia Jo Parish in HairsprayGood gawd is the Timber Lake Playhouse's Hairspray fun. I went into Saturday's matinée with eager anticipation and left with a sense of thrilled enjoyment, floating on a cloud of happiness. Director Lili-Anne Brown's production of this musical based on John Waters' 1988 film is not only a helluva good time for us, but a rockin' wild ride for Amelia Jo Parish's Tracy Turnblad, as Hairspray's lead goes from overweight sideliner to local-dance-show star to racial-integration crusader in 1960s Baltimore.

Danielle Brothers, John Chase, and Grant Brown in An Inspector CallsPrior to last Thursday, I had seen 40 productions at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, and somehow, during all those visits, I had never been there when it rained. Yet rain it did on Thursday, and it rained hard, and I couldn't imagine more fitting weather for the venue's opening-night performance of An Inspector Calls, an eerie, succulent psycho-drama (with laughs) that made the literal storm clouds a spectacular match for the figurative ones on-stage.

Melissa Weyn in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatFewer than 90 minutes after it began, the Timber Lake Playhouse's season-opening production of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ended, appropriately, with a blast of exuberant, life-affirming color. Yet at the curtain call for this fantastically well-sung presentation of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's and lyricist Tim Rice's beloved biblical musical, it became clear that the stars of the show weren't the gifted performers portraying Joseph, the Narrator, or any of director James Beaudry's 19 other cast members. The real stars, it turned out, were the streamers.