There’s nothing like live theater, is there? Whether you are an audience or cast member it is a most stimulating experience – for different reasons, of course.

Behind the curtain there’s a buzz, excitement – and often fleeting sensations of nausea! The ensemble of performers have been busy creating their characters and rehearsing to transport every audience to another place and time, inviting them to leave the real world behind if only for a few hours.

In November there are some super shows going up! Over at the Poe Theater where magic always happens – hey, it’s Heartwood – it’s the 16th collaboration between the theater company and Lincoln Academy (LA) with “Man of La Mancha.” I’ve always loved the character Don Quixote, alter ego of Alonso Quijano, the 50-ish, voracious reader whose departures within the pages of so many books have sent him over the edge, or kind of crazy. The subsequent fantasies of love in a royal court to chivalrous acts to his being a hopeless romantic (this part I can identify with).

Oh, and did you know that nowadays research has shown that the brain doesn’t distinguish between what we experience reading a book and what we physically,actually experience? Maybe this should be called the “Alonso Quijano effect”!

The Heartwood-LA show sold out for three shows – Oct. 26, 27 and Nov. 4 - by Oct. 24! There are still seats for the Nov. 1-3 shows at 7 p.m. Call 563-1373 for reservations and tickets. Tickets are also available at www.heartwoodtheater.org

The curtain at the Lincoln Theater goes up on Lincoln County Community Theater’s (LCCT) “Crimes of the Heart” Nov. 15-17, directed by John Mulcahy. Cast members in this comedy include Soren Barker of Boothbay Harbor as a doctor and Roosevelt (Robo) Bishop of Boothbay as an awkward lawyer in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters - Jennifer True, Nanette Fraser and Christina Belknap - have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Check out the full PR on the show on the Boothbay Register website and the theater’s www.atthelincoln.org

The Theater Company over Brunswick way (14 School St.) is presenting the Bard’s “As You Like It,” Nov. 1-11. I don’t know about you, but Shakespeare is definitely “where it’s at!” I saw it in Stratford, Connecticut (as I wrote about in a previous column) at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater. This is another of Shakespeare’s versions of a “romcom” – but it’s the dialogue you’ll fall for. The play follows Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. Rosalind and Orlando become entangled in an amusing tale of love, desire and … mistaken identity.

Here’s a real plus for those of us with very little, what’s it called? Oh, yes, “disposable income”: top level seating in the theater is always Pay-What-You-Want! Tickets are available anytime at www.theaterproject.com or through the box office: 729-8584.

River Company ushers in the holiday season with “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” Nov. 23, 24, 30 and Dec. 1 and 2 at Skidompha in Damariscotta. The show, directed by Ellie Cade Busby, has a cast of 40 or so kids and adults. Four performances will benefit the backpack food programs for kids on weekends in Lincoln County. Busby has directed this show before for River Company – many, many holiday moons ago! She says most of the kids from the first time have kids of their own now. Watch for ticket info!

Comedies, Shakespeare and the man from La Mancha … quite the “play bill” for November! Get thee to these the-ah-ters ... after all, we all require a departure from reality now and again!