The New Electric Ballroom

Opening: Frank Theatre goes back to the rich work of playwright Enda Walsh with this area premiere. The troupe won an Ivey last year for its staging of Walsh's "Misterman." "Ballroom," set in the western coast of Ireland, mixes memory, myth and fantasy as aging sisters re-enact a rock 'n' roll night from the 1960s. Virginia Burke, Katherine Ferrand and Melissa Hart are in the cast. Wendy Knox directs. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & Thu., 2 p.m. Sun., ends Sept. 28, New Century Theatre, 615 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., $27, 612-455-9501 or www.franktheatre.org)

Lake Untersee

Opening: This is a new play by Joe Waechter, a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center. It's being produced by Workhaus Collective and Illusion Theater. Jeremy Cohen, who heads the Playwrights' Center, directs a cast that includes Jennifer Blagen, Michael Booth, Adelin Phelps and Michael Thurston. Waechter's play is about a teenager who wants to leave his dysfunctional parents. Flights of imagination take him to a frozen lake in Antarctica. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & Thu., 7 p.m. Sun.-Mon., ends Sept. 27, Illusion, 528 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.; $18, 612-339-4944 or www.workhauscollective.org.)

Nature

Opening: Last time we saw Tyson Forbes, he was the very picture of a struggling addict in "Detroit" at the Jungle. Now, he heads a cast that performs this "walking play" based upon the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The audience will follow scenes around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Forbes plays Emerson, and John Catron portrays Thoreau. There will also be music by composer Dick Hensold with an ensemble cast that includes Norah Long, Mark Rosenwinkel and Kimberly Richardson. (5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Thu., 1 p.m. Sat.-Sun., ends Oct. 12, 3675 Arboretum Dr., Chaska, $15-$25, under 12 free, 952-443-1411 or www.tigerlion.org.)

The Rainmaker

Opening: The old N. Richard Nash classic comes to life as Yellow Tree opens its season in Osseo. Craig Johnson is directing a cast that includes Yellow Tree founder Jason Peterson, Dawn Brodey and Peter Christian Hansen as Starbuck. This play comes out of that 1950s school of realism that produced some of the American theater's great works. Starbuck visits a drought-stricken farm and revives the spirit of a woman who has been ground down. Johnson excels at finding the heart of this kind of stuff. (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & Wed-Thu., ends Oct. 12, Yellow Tree, 320 5th Av. SE., Osseo, $15-$25, 763-493-8733 or www.yellowtree theatre.com.)

Middle Brother

Opening: Eric Sharp, an actor and marketing director for Mu Performing Arts, puts his pen to work here with a world premiere about the Korean adoptee experience. Sharp also performs in the play, which is being directed by Robert Rosen, an artistic leader with the old Theatre de la Jeune Lune. The story has the main character reconciling his modern American life with his Korean past. (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & Thu., 2 p.m. Sun., ends Sept. 28, Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Av. S., Mpls., $22, www.muperformingarts.org.)

Graydon Royce