Playing rough CSU Summer Stages.

Brian Marshall is managing artistic director of Mercury Summer Stock. His brother Dan is its associate artistic director. And for Mercury's next production, the pair, both accomplished Equity actors, will be playing brothers in its version of the long-running British musical Blood Brothers. Since the two work closely together, they'll obviously have to draw on those acting skills to play the separated-at-birth twins whose lives go in radically different directions, ultimately dooming both. Despite its dark material, the popular show has been running in London's West End since 1988 and casts have featured various British celebrities including Petula Clark playing the key role of the boys' birth mother, Mrs. Johnston. Here the role will be played by Jennifer Myor with Amiee Collier playing adoptive mother Mrs. Lyons. It's directed by Mercury's founder/artistic director Pierre-Jacques Brault who is a busy boy this summer; he also directed The Wiz at Cain Park. Blood Brothers opens at 7:30 tonight at Parma Little Theatre (6285 W. 54th St.) and runs through July 26. Tickets: $12-$15. Box office: 216.771.5862. — Anastasia Pantsios

THURSDAY, JULY 10

Summer Stages

Most repertory companies juggle two shows at once. Cleveland State University's Summer Stages, returning for its second year to the Factory Theatre (East 24th and Chester Avenue), has upped the degree of difficulty, presenting three plays at the same time with the same cast. The marathon starts at 8 tonight with the Tom Stoppard farce Rough Crossing and concludes (as the cast collapses breathlessly) with Dark of the Moon Aug. 10, with performances of Two Gentlemen of Verona - The Musical intermingled. As he did last year, CSU Chair of Dramatic Arts Dr. Michael Mauldin has invited some of his professional friends from Broadway, TV and movies to perform alongside students from several area colleges and universities. And just in case the actors didn't have enough to do, Summer Stages this year includes weekly 10:30 p.m. cabaret shows following Friday and Saturday performances with dessert, drinks and an hour of Broadway-themed material for a suggested $10 donation. Tickets for all shows are $15; a pass for all three is $30. For schedule and tickets, call 216.687.2109 or go to csuohio.edu/theater. — AP

FRIDAY, JULY 11

Cain Park Arts Festival

And the Lord said, Let the Mark of Cain be upon you! In the shape of jewelry, painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, glass, leather, fiber, you name it. Lo, all can be found for sale at the annual Cain Park Arts Festival, the popular juried fine arts and crafts showcase, this year welcoming 150 artisans to the Cleveland Heights park at 14591 Superior Rd. Music and refreshments from local restaurants are part of the appeal all three days. The band lineup ranges from the Swamp Boogie Band to the zydeco and Cajun styles of Terrance Simien to the Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Project. Hours: 3-8 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. tomorrow and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. It's free tonight, $2 other days. For info phone 216.291.3669. — Charles Cassady Jr.

Tremont Art Walk

Seriously, your car most likely won't get stolen. So come on down to Tremont on a nice (hopefully) summer night for the monthly Tremont Art Walk, where you're sure to see something (or someone) of interest. Among this month's highlights: the fourth annual invitational at Asterisk Gallery (2393 Professor Ave.) featuring 19 artists including Robert Banks, Joan of Art, Craig Lucas, Robert Thurmer and Dan Tranberg; "Distant Is Recovery" by Shawn Mishak, a multimedia work exploring aspects of recovery, opens at the Brandt Gallery (1028 Kenilworth, 216.621.1610). Most gallery receptions are scheduled from 6-11 p.m. but the partying often goes on later. — AP

Blood Brothers At Mercury Summer Stock, Friday, July 11

Novelists reading

Author Sean Carswell not only founded his own publishing company Gorsky Press, but also punk-rock 'zine Razorcake. So he brings some of that unbridled underground spirit to the readings of his novels such as his new Train Wreck Girl, books which give a ground-level view of working-class lives with all their difficulties and comforting distractions. Joining him on part of his current book tour, which stops at Mac's Backs (1820 Coventry Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216.321.BOOK) at 7 tonight, is Mickey Hess, author of Is Hip Hop Dead? and the two-volume encyclopedia Icons of Hip Hop, underlining his work with a different musical sensibility. He's promoting the re-publication of his working-class fantasy Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory. The evening is rounded out by Wred Fright of Lakewood, who, keeping with the edgy music theme, will read from his 2006 novel, The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, about a garage band. It's free. — AP

Polish Joke

David Ives' 2001 comedy Polish Joke, about a young man trying to make peace with his Polish roots, isn't really that controversial despite a minor kerfuffle and disclaimers issued when Beck Center presented it three years ago on the heels of the death of Polish Pope John Paul II. But it's really an affectionately humorous look at the travails of Jasiu Sadlowski who's been told since childhood that Poles are the rightful butt of ridicule. It's thought-provoking but still safe enough for community theaters such as Chagrin Valley Little Theatre (40 River St., Chagrin Falls) which opens its production at 8 tonight. Tickets are $8. The shows run at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 26. Box office: 440.247.8955. — AP

SATURDAY, JULY 12

Cleveland Orchestra

Tonight familiar, beloved composers will be center stage, tomorrow equally beloved Broadway composers, when the Cleveland Orchestra is at Blossom Music Center (1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls) this weekend. At 8 p.m. Rossini's Overture to Semiramide kicks things off, followed by Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Kirill Gerstein making his Cleveland Orchestra debut. Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and Rimsky-Korsakoff's Capriccio espagnol wrap things up. At 7:30 tomorrow, those preferring lighter fare can submerge themselves in a program of tunes from musicals of mainly the last 30 years (Cats, Wicked, The Lion King, Rent) with members of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and soloists Susan Egan, Rob Evan, Capathia Jenkins and Doug LaBrecque joining the orchestra. Tickets: $20-$40. Box office: 216.231.1111. — AP

Porch Stories

Hudson's Actors' Summit is still trying to work out where it will be performing its next season, having been recently evicted from its home. No such worries for its upcoming one-day-only production, Porch Stories, for which the whole town of Hudson is its stage, or rather the porches of some of its grand old homes. The audience will tour Hudson's historic downtown as the actors mount the porches and tell first-person stories about local history, researched and written by Hudson's Sky Writers group. The hour-long tours start at 3 p.m. and leave every 15 minutes until 8 p.m. Tickets are $12, students $6. Call 330.342.0800. — AP