Broadway star Lauren Kennedy returns to her native Raleigh to direct Sam Shepard's combative "True West." But the production at Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy lacks tension.

In the Wings:ADF plans a free outdoor show, dance fans flee "some kind of hell," ArtsCenter stages short-play fest, PlayMakers and Walltown score NEA grants and playwright Ed Bullins comes to Manbites Dog.

Dance Review:In a moody American Dance Festival program that explores shadowy recesses of the psyche, Pilobolus takes its popular morphing silhouettes seen on car commercials and expands the technique exponentially.

Pilobolus teams with puppet artist Basil Twist on a new dance that plays with light and shadows.

In the Wings:Two brothers tackle Shepard's "True West" and each other, a real-life couple perform in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (will they last?), "A Christmas Carol" finds a second home, ADF presents a Paul Taylor demo, "Wicked" star Idina Menzel comes to Cary, and more.

Neil Simon's comedy “Rumors” flickers rather than shines in the first of six productions for Raleigh's Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy.

In a wedding season marked by swooning sighs of "I do," "Fistful of Love" fights back with a belligerent "I won't" at Manbites Dog Theater.

The puppets of Broadway's Tony-winning "Avenue Q" may look like "Sesame Street" Muppets, but they don't act like them. They curse, drink, surf for Web porn and have one-night stands. The irreverent but tender show is in Raleigh through Sunday.

In the Wings:News about Theater of the American South's Lee Smith stage adaptation, a new Charles Mee adaptation, director Karen Dacons-Brock and DSI Comedy Theater.