"The 39 Steps," at Proctors through Sunday, is more than an extended comedy sketch than a play, but, for sure, it is a big, fat homage to Alfred Hitchcock's movies and the suspense genre in general.

Actors engage themselves with exercises and theater games to assist with line memorization. One of these drills is to sit in a circle, usually facing each other, while running through the text of the play as fast as they can.

There are few visions as exquisite as brightly clad Ukrainian women tiptoeing, arm-in-arm, in unison, as if they were finely carved porcelain. And there is hardly a more invigorating sight than a mass of Ukrainian men who bend deep into the floor and bound up again in one graceful sweep of power and endurance.

The Alan Ball comedy “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress”, Albany Civic Theater’s current stage offering, brings five bridesmaids together in the bedroom of the bride's self-loathing little sister.

Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 play, “Driving Miss Daisy,” currently offered by Latham’s Curtain Call Theater, has all the formulaic plot points of a made-for-television movie.

There is something rather eerie about attending a menacing musical that takes place in 19th century London in a small ornate music hall from the same period. It adds a certain authenticity and a bit of good-natured fear. "Sweeney Todd" is the piece and the Cohoes Music Hall is the place.

New York State Theatre Institute's "A Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an intricately spun tapestry of Americana. If a few threads are still showing, you’ll nevertheless appreciate the big picture.

As presented by Schenectady Civic Players, the size and sweep of Daphne du Maurier’s masterwork “Rebecca” is best represented by Mary Kozlowski’s gorgeous set.

Over the past several years, Schenectady Light Opera Company, one of the city’s oldest and most respected artistic institutions, has been actively engaged in finding itself a new home.

Capital Repertory Theatre is offering yet another superlative “Irish” experience with their production of “The Seafarer” by Conor McPherson. The play is a dark comedy that gives strong actors the opportunity to display their talents in riveting monologues and comic interchanges. It is compelling theater.

There is a quiet moment near the end of the musical “The Color Purple” when Miss Celie is alone on Proctors’ enormous stage. It is an introspective, reflective moment of self-discovery. In the hands of actress Kenita R. Miller that moment delivers everything “The Color Purple” should be.

American Ballet Theatre has returned to the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in what looks like it might be an annual October event. Lucky for dance lovers as ABT ranks up there as one of the best in the world.

Artistic director Laura Margolis has done a superb job of collecting a roster of short plays for Stageworks/Hudson’s annual Play by Play.

The popular “Moonlight and Magnolias,” the play about the struggles preceding the making of “Gone With the Wind,” is The Theater Barn’s final offering of the season. Talk about going out with a whimper.

Walter Lanier “Red” Barber has been a person of note who has lived on the periphery of my awareness.