I'm usually not one for recounting tales of great shows seen (memory is fickle, and mendacious), but in 1996 I found myself at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a production of Eugene O'Neil's Long Day's Journey into Night that insinuated itself into the way I see life. It's a tough pill to swallow, this story of a family in thrall to addiction, bitterness, and the ash-end of great passion, but it's told with astonishing depth of feeling, and a sense of a great talent throwing all caution to the wind (it was never published during O'Neil's life, per his wishes, so intense were the truths it contained about his own life). This Theatre in the Round production features Maggie Bearmon Pistner in the role of Mary, the drug-addicted mother of the Tyrone clan, with direction by Lynn Musgrave. — Quinton Skinner

The Arizona/Mexico border is a wild, controversial, and sometimes dangerous place; particularly for a young girl following in the footsteps of her immigrant parents. The two-time Ivey award-winning troupe Off-Leash Area tells her story through movement, ritual, and puppetry, along with a text by Anishinaabe playwright Marcie Rendon. Composer Ben Siems offers an original score that provides the haunting soundtrack for the Sonoran Desert where the heroine discovers her strength in the midst of the national, cultural, political, and personal influences that define the region. The experiences described in "Border Crossing" are the product of a recent research trip that included meetings with small-town Tucson snowbirds, Latino border patrolmen, and Native social workers, among others. — Caroline Palmer