The Miracle Theater opens a two-week only run of El Ultimo, an original bilingual ecodrama about a logger whose plans to start a sustainable logging community on a Patagonian island are disrupted by forest spirits and vengeful environmentalists. (Please, let no one ever accuse this company of playing it safe).

Artists Rep has sucked incrementally less this season than last; time, and their new production of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, will tell if the trend is going to continue. I sincerely hope it does, if only because I'd hate to see their resident actors Todd Van Voris and Michael Mendelson misused.

And brand-new company Lucky Apple Productions throws their self-respect hat into the ring with a production of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig, about a man whose friends try to peer pressure him out of dating a fat girl. And am I immature for finding it funny that one of the company's mission statements is to "always stay hungry"? Yes.

Complete performance listings here. (And hey, theater companies, if your show isn't listed or if any information is incorrect, please be sure to contact me and let me know.)