Critic’s Picks

They did Miami in “Radio Mambo.” Then the Latino troupe Culture Clash, three strong and brave and true, went to San Diego to research (and eventually perform) “Bordertown,” about the obvious and subtle tensions along that particular stretch of two countries. Starting June 11, “Bordertown” relocates north for a month’s worth of performances at the Actors’ Gang in Hollywood.

Featuring a rangy cast including Richard Thomas, Kelly McGillis and David Dukes, Sir Peter Hall’s productions of “Measure for Measure” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” open June 20--compromised nuns in the afternoon, Puck and the gang at night--hosted by the Ahmanson Theatre. Could Hall’s pickup repertory company be, as Sir Steve Allen once wrote, the start of something big?

Across yon concrete glen at the Mark Taper Forum, Al Pacino makes his local stage debut June 27--though it’s not his first time in the driver’s seat of this particular Eugene O’Neill vehicle--with “Hughie.” It’s a short but challenging two-hander (nearly a monologue) in which a sodden Broadway sport, played by Pacino, spills his guts to a hotel night manager (Paul Benedict).

Founded by Bertolt Brecht, the formidable Berliner Ensemble has reached the end of a 50-year era. Its stewards are dismantling the company as they know it, remaking it into something new while widening its repertoire. Meantime, if I were you--and I’m not, but if I were--I wouldn’t miss the June 7-11 UCLA Freud Playhouse engagement of Brecht’s “Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” which marks the ensemble’s American debut. And the end of an era.

After which some romance might be in order. The U.S. premiere of the musical “Jane Eyre,” eyeing Broadway, opens at the La Jolla Playhouse on July 25, after a Toronto tryout.