This is your last opportunity to reserve tickets for Free Night of Theater 2009. This year, 25 Dallas-area theaters are participating in the program.

This is the second year for the ticket giveaway, which is run through the Dallas Office of Culture Affairs.

On Mondays, you will be able to reserve tickets for shows coming up the following weekend. For shows beyond that weekend, you will need to wait until the Monday before those shows to reserve those tickets. Tickets will be available on five consecutive Mondays.

If you would like to reserve tickets, log on to the Free Night of Theater Web site at noon on Monday to make your picks.

We’ll be doing our best to help you chose the show that’s right for you. We’ve asked participating theaters to send us a guide to the shows that they are offering, and we’ll post them in this space as they come in.

Here is a list of shows opening this week. After that, you’ll find guides to future shows.

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS

Show: Blue Beach
Theater: Teatro Dallas
Free Night date(s): Nov. 5 at 8:15 p.m. and Nov. 6 at 8:15 p.m.
The story: In celebration of Days of the Dead and Halloween, we are presenting Blue Beach, a play that takes place in an unkempt old hotel in the Southern coasts of Mexico. The father of a family, an engineer and a politician, has invited his family to inform them of a problem that affects both the hotel and the family. When he presents them with a plan to save them and the hotel, this invitation opens doors that will reveal some of the family’s darkest secrets. Blue Beach is presented in English.
Back-stage access: Blue Beach is a work of fantasy, a mystery reminding us of the haunting literature of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo.
This show’s for you if you like: Mystery, suspense and stories about the underworld.

Show: Premiere!
Theater: Rover Dramawerks
Free Night date(s): Nov. 5, 6 and 7 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.
The story: A comic look at the petty tyranny of fame from the creator of one of the most famous of petty tyrants. Gil is the comedic playwright of his day, doomed to hit after hit, when he just wants to be taken seriously, darkly, academically. Like…dare he say it? The Bard. A hilarious series of events leads to the discovery of a “new” long lost tragedy by, ahem, William Shakespeare. When does a forgery become art itself? Is truth absolute or a function of aspiration, democracy … and marketing?
Back-stage access: This script mirrors the convergence of real issues and events in Wasserman’s life, especially as it neared its end. Best known for the Tony Award-winning Man of La Mancha, a musical so popular that several productions are running worldwide right this moment, he saw that work as well as most of his other successes as the virtue of the individual against the system, the state, the church and even against fate itself. Usually it’s easy to sympathize with the poor, struggling and failed. So imagine the irony of having lunch with one of the most successful comedic writers of all time 25 years ago to find out he felt trapped and a failure, unable to produce “serious, impacting works.” We’d promised to protect the writer’s name until Martha Wasserman, the playwright’s widow, gives the “ok” – but three Broadway hits in a row kind of narrows it down, eh? To think of this successful writer as trapped is staggering. And there’s only one more powerful name in the world that could do it. Yep, The Bard Himself.
Back-stage access 2: Our leading man has just appeared on the back page of Parade magazine on behalf of Nutrisystem!
This show’s for you if you like: Intelligent comedy with fun characters. And you Don’t need any Cliff’s Notes about Shakespeare either!

Show: Talk Radio
Theater: Upstart Productions in conjunction with Project X: Theatre
Free Night date(s): Nov. 5, 6, 7 and 8
The story: Barry Champlain is Cleveland’s most popular and controversial talk radio host: the outspoken pundit everyone loves to hate. Every night, he holds the looking glass up to the listeners of Night Talk, exposing America’s flaws and blemishes with stinging indictments of the status quo, much to the entertainment of his audience and the corporate brass at Metroscan Broadcasting, who want to bring his show into national syndication. Nominated for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and revived with great success on Broadway in 2007, this is a scathing look at contemporary American culture that is as shocking and compelling today as it was two decades ago.
Back-stage access: Following the performance – an Upstart Productions exclusive screening! Talk Radio: Life After Death: The 25th Anniversary of the Assassination of Alan Berg, an Interview with Judith Lee Berg and Stephen Singular, author of Talked To Death: The Murder of Alan Berg and the Rise of the Neo-Nazis, the book that inspired the 1988 film Talk Radio directed by Oliver Stone.
This show’s for you if you like: Network with Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway; Bill Maher; Alex Jones; Michael Moore; Larry King; Howard Stern; Reality TV