THE LOF/T Local wordsmith and performance lecture artist Ric Royer sent out an e-mail announcement last week trumpeting the semi-official opening of the Load of Fun black-box theater--the LOF/T, for short--which he will program. With a 150-person seating capacity and a goal of an event per week, it's a welcome intimate, multi-purpose performance space in town, the ideal venue for the recent Sam McPheeters spoken-word stop on his tour with opening performance art from Stephanie Barber and Lauren Bender's poetry-qua-video installation. Royer hopes to keep the programming nimble and varied--as he put it, to make the LOF/T a "comfortable and reliable home for the experimental, the weird, the indefinable, the unspeakable, the smart and the stupid"--as well as a film series and a "show and tell" series already in the planning stages. The IE Reading Series has made the space its new home, making its first stop there Feb. 7 at 8 p.m.
OPENINGS The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival presents its sixth annual Teen Performance Program with The Tempest Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. at St. Mary's Outreach Center; it runs through Feb. 15. Lynn Nottage's Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine officially opens Feb. 3 at Center Stage at 8 p.m. and runs through March 8. And if you need a little more generic pizzazz, Jesus Christ Superstar hits the Lyric Opera House Feb. 6 and 7.
LAST CHANCE The Vagabond Players' two one-act musicals, Romance/Romance, concludes this weekend, with shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday night and a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.
