Weekend events, Nov. 8-11

I'll be spending most of this weekend at the MSU Arena theater watching Fantastical Friends, a new production by the MSU Family/Community Theatre. It's an organization started by Bill Gordon. Actually, he started it last year with Lansing Civic Players and they put on such shows as Orphan Train and others.

That was a mating that didn't last. The official version is that LCP wished to go in a different direction and all the rest is gossip.

The show that they're doing is one in which the Book Mistress takes a young boy who doesn't like to read on a tour of several great literary classics. Embedded in the performance of the play are glimpses of Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Dracula, and The Monkey's Paw.

My son is performing in it and I'm looking forward to seeing him play a rather fun role. I enjoy watching a show repeatedly and seeing how the actors grow over the course of it. I am, however, going to have to miss at least one of his performances because next weekend is already packed full and two of the shows that open this weekend don't have Sunday performances next weekend.

Other shows opening this weekend include:

• Peppermint Creek's "I Am My Own Wife"
• Starlight Dinner Theatre's "Amy's Wish"
  

And while I'm still trying to figure out how to get to the Detroit Rep's Doubt, it may have to be Thanksgiving weekend. Next week will be:

• MSU's Arts and Crafts on Thursday
• Amy's Wish on Friday
• Rossini's Cinderella an opera at MSU on Saturday
• Waverly's Little Shop of Horrors on Sunday