This is anexciting month for theater folk, meaning practitioners and patrons. As one troupe after another announces its upcoming schedule, we look forward to the return of talented veterans and the rise of hot, new blood. From beloved old "war horses" to the cutting edge of 21st-century playwriting, it all looks amazing from this side of the calendar.

Leading the fall lineup is Tacoma Little Theatre's reprise of last season's Shakespeare Abridged, with Blake York stepping in for South Sound émigré Alex Smith. Volcano critic Joann Varnell called the original run "sublimely silly" with "guaranteed laughs." The company's October show is the beloved Southern dramedy, Steel Magnolias, guaranteed to attract a stellar distaff cast.  In the meantime, Lakewood Playhouse serves up Arsenic and Old Lace, a reliable comedy about a pair of murderous senior citizens, plus H.G. Wells' chilling radio version of The War of the Worlds. Tacoma Musical Playhouse sings "Damn Russell Crowe, full speed ahead!" with its production of Gallic masterpiece Les Misérables.

Nov. 8 brings three new shows. Dukesbay prsents Driving Miss Daisy. Lakewood Playhouse gets its Austen on with Pride and Prejudice. Tacoma Little Theatre tells Irish ghost stories in Conor McPherson's chilling The Weir. Nov. 29, aka Black Friday, marks one of the most epic collisions in local theater history, when five plays open the same night in Tacoma and Oly. (Woe to us critics; felicitations to you.) Annie promises the sun'll come out at Tacoma Musical Playhouse, and TLT heightens our optimism, insisting It's a Wonderful Life. Lakewood Playhouse warms the long December nights by passing The Chronic - what?-cles of Narnia.

Mid-January brings the fiery actors' showcase Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at LP, plus the girl-group harmonies of Shout! The Mod Musical at TMP and an all-too-timely courtroom drama, To Kill a Mockingbird, at TLT. March 14 brings Neil Simon's pre- and post-honeymoon comedy Chapter Two at LP and the (literally) quixotic Man of La Mancha at TMP. A week later, LP reintroduces us to 12 Angry Men, followed by Simon's The Odd Couple in April.

Come May, TLT waves Bye Bye Birdie, while TMP bids bonjour to La Cage Aux Folles. The summer months are all about the movies, from Monty Python's Spamalot at LP and TLT's insider drama Moonlight and Magnolias to Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein at TMP. With live entertainment like that, who needs a sticky-floored cineplex?