That Alberta Theatre Projects' newest production watches and feels like an art-house film is no coincidence. Two years after its stage debut, The Shape of Things was adapted for the screen, starring the original cast and premiering at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Six years earlier, playwright-cum-filmmaker Neil LaBute, who penned the scripts for both the play and the film, received acclaim with his film debut In the Company of Men.

She's the embodiment of North America's media culture--an obsessive, hyper-human consumer. She's the gross product of dangerous ignorance, peering at the world through large, school-girl eyes. She's Citizen Pochsy, star of Head Movements of a Long-Haired Girl.

Sometimes life can feel menacing, almost predatory. The people in our lives tear us in a thousand different directions while the world we live in makes demands of us we can't hope to fulfil. We are consumed by our consumer culture and digested in a mix of gender roles and social expectations. Little wonder Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman has become so successful.

In Provenance, puppeteer Ronnie Burkett is faced with a complex task. Not only does he have to create an interesting story and believable characters, both through a powerful script and talented acting, but he has to do so through inanimate objects.

Given the subject matter, this is no easy task.

Looking to indulge your lust for the dark and twisted? Mob Hit Productions has just the thing to whet your carnal appetite. From Wed., Mar. 31 through Sat., Apr. 10, the company will present The Ugly Man, a tale of sex, lust and revenge by Alberta playwright Brad Fraser.

Nellie McClung is a name synonymous with the women's rights movement in Canada. You might remember her from your grade 10 Social Studies class, a Canadian Heritage commercial on CBC, or maybe you've seen her statue gracing Olympic Plaza or Parliament Hill. History has made McClung the poster girl for the women's suffrage movement in Canada. Sometimes people seem to forget McClung wasn't the only women fighting for equality at the turn of the 20th century, and hers isn't the only name that deserves to be in the history books.

In the world of marionettes, everything is smaller. The sets, the costumes, the players--everything, that is, except the characters.

Provenance, Ronnie Burkett's newest production since his acclaimed Happy took the stage in 2000, follows Pity Beane, a young, naïve Canadian art student. After becoming obsessed with Tender, a mysterious boy whose portrait catches her eye, she undergoes a search that explores the nature of beauty. This search leads her to the unlikeliest of settings: a Vienna brothel.

When I was younger, a friend of mine had the greatest toy. It was a fully functional Millennium Falcon--the doors opened, the guns aimed around, and to top it off, the lights flashed and the engine sounded. Going over to his house just down the block was the best thing I could possibly think of.

School is back and after a crazy summer of parties and road trips it's good to get back into a routine. But wait! Your entertainment scene doesn't have to be as mundane as your classes--mix it up with some live entertainment courtesy of Alberta Theatre Projects.

Engaging theatre at its best, Bubonic Tourist's newest presentation of innovative theatre encompasses movement, images and a soundscape.