American Dance Festival wraps up its 75th season with a two-part Japanese Festival today through Saturday.

Sprinkle on a little fairy dust, and prepare to think happy thoughts when you see N.C. Theatre's production of "Peter Pan."

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.

At its best, Sarah Ruhl's Pulitzer-finalist play is a peculiar, surreal and sometimes poignant look at the ways we contend with love, jealousy, mortality and our own inconvenient compulsions. At its worst, it's a self-consciously quirky study in how context is the key to everything.

You needn't be a Python devotee to appreciate this self-described ripoff of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." But if you relish silliness, Broadway's King Arthur will surely reign.

Preconceptions about adult subjects will keep some theatergoers from Theater in the Park's "Angels in America." That's a pity, as it demonstrates what theater does best: provokes debate, challenges assumptions and seeks truth.

Faith & Ethics:Cast members draw on their own experiences as they perform in a musical about churchgoers and their hats.