This new Austin theatrical tradition started last year with Forever Plaid and continues with Blood Brothers. Blood Brothers is a rag-to-riches haunting musical of our times. Set in Liverpool, this is a story of twins separated at birth. Mrs. Johnstone, left by her husband with seven mouths to feed, gives one of a set of twins to Mrs. Lyons. The boys grow up streets apart, never learning the truth but becoming firm friends. Their lives become more entwined as they fall in love with the same girl. How these lives play out is the sometimes funny, always poignant and moving musical that was nominated for 6 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

 Sanity versus insanity might describe the Magrath sisters. The scene is Hazelhurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazelhurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future - but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the lights have dimmed.

 Life versus death is only one of the many conflicts in this greatest of all Shakespearean tragedies. The Danish King Hamlet has died. In less than two month his brother, Claudius, marries the dead king's wife, Gertrude, and seizes the throne. The dead King's son, Hamlet, is upset by his mother's hasty remarriage and Denmark becomes a prison to him as his melancholy deepens. Add to this a visit from his dead father's ghost, a suspicion of murder, and a torrid love affair and you have a tragedy that immediately absorbs the problems of our time. This edited version of the most performed of all tragedies will be sure to entertain and enlighten.

 East versus West makes for a dramatic, richly textured and ultimately uplifting tale of enormous fascination. It is 1862 in Siam when a British widow, Anna Leonowens, and her young son arrive at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, having been summoned by the king to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be barbarian by those in the West and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image, if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and, eventually, respect one another, in a truly unique love story. The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes many favorites of the musical stage, including "Getting to Know You," Hello, Young Lovers," "I Whistle a Happy Tune" and "Shall We Dance".

 Man versus man, or child versus child, and a boy's love for his dog all make up an average day in the life of Charlie Brown. A day made up of little moments picked from all the days of Charlie Brown, from Valentine's Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed in with the lives of his friends (both human and non-human).