Businesses have popped up that ostensibly sell other things—juice, t-shirts, backpacks, art—and tack on a little nugget of appreciation, all claiming to be Initiative 71-compliant.

“Reefer gets you raped. And you won’t care!” Such is one of the hilariously overwrought statements blasted across the screen, 30s public service announcement-style, during Studio Theatre’s hysterical production of Reefer Madness: The Musical. Based loosely upon the 1938 anti-marijuana propaganda film of the same name, the show’s setup involves a high school theater troupe dramatizing the devastating effects of reefer, using the tale of one high school sweetheart couple’s demise as its center….

Thank god for the Capital Fringe Festival. The event, now in its second year, makes sure that our July isn’t totally barren when it comes to edgy, exciting theater. We’ll be giving you a more detailed report on what the Fringe has to offer this year (hint: Avenue Q and Harry Potter parodies, Chocolate Jesuses and an operatic Lysistrata are among the choices), but here’s what the less fringified theaters around here will be up…