August was once a comparatively quiet month on the Denver theater calendar as metro companies go quiet to gear up for their traditional fall season openers. But this year is different. Theatregoers not only have plenty of options – they have plenty of quality options. Here is just a representative sample:

Shakespeare in the Wild

This fourth annual, completely free outdoor offering has quickly established itself as a quintessential Colorado August outing for families in Littleton’s majestic DeKoevend Park. Last year, 2,200 came out to enjoy “As You Like It.” (I liked it.) This year, Leigh Miller & Company are presenting Shakespeare’s most beloved tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet” – kindly abbreviated to 90 minutes on a glorious stage hand-crafted between two majestic, divinely-placed trees.

Performances run through Aug. 31. Fridays through Sundays are outdoors at 6315 S. University Blvd. in Centennial. Thursdays and rainy nights are indoors at nearby 6707 S. Vine St. No reservations are required but you’ll want to RSVP so you can be updated if the weather is wonky. Info at shakesinthewild.com.

‘Cry it Out’

The sleeper hit of the summer, and quite likely the entire year, is this modest but fully affecting play now being presented by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company through Aug. 24 at the Dairy Arts Center. Playwright Molly Smith Metzler presents three vastly different new mothers who are navigating the transition to infant caregiving along archetypally different ways.

What might be a paint-by-numbers story in lesser hands is nothing short of brilliant here thanks to the sharpness of Metzler’s dialogue and a cast that delivers the goods in an uncharacteristically believable way. (That’s Noelia Antweiler, MacKenzie Beyer, Erika Mori and Marco Alberto Robinson, directed by Candace Orrino.)

I haven’t felt in such safe hands at a play in a very long time. Info at betc.org.

‘Assassins’

Every theater company that produces anything – whether brand new or 400 years old – finds an often disingenuous way to sell it on its “urgent relevance.” It’s almost infuriating to have to say here that the Miners Alley Performing Arts’ current staging of Stephen Sondheim’s controversial 1990 musical “Assassins” is nothing if not, urgently relevant.

The musical centers on nine actual or would-be presidential assassins, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley Jr. These killers interact with one another and their intended targets as they vie for their place in history.

“Assassins” does not in any way aspire for you to sympathize with these freaks and losers. But when you consider Thomas Jefferson and his promise of “the pursuit of happiness” – we want what we want, when we want it – it becomes easier to grasp why some might come to believe that one of our inherited inalienable rights is to revolt against the government when it fails to fulfill its promises. If so, can these killers be seen as unnerving participants in an upside-down version of the American Dream?

Frankly, I am not jonesing to see “Assassins.” But as a participating member of society, I am compelled to go – safe in the knowledge that the buzz on this particular staging is off the charts, and that the cast assembled by Warren Sherrill is one of the best any of us will see on any Colorado stage this year.

A special Monday night performance (Aug. 18) offers tickets normally priced at $47 for just $25. Proceeds benefit the Denver Actors Fund, and, full disclosure – that’s my own nonprofit. Info at minersalley.com.

‘Pippin’

Every summer, the disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company stages a big Broadway musical at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. This year, that’s “Pippin,” the classic story of a company of eccentric circus performers who tell us the coming-of-age story of a young prince on a vain and self-absorbed search for a fulfilling life.

Any musical takes on heightened significance and meaning when considered through the Phamaly lens, and this one will hit you on several different levels. It’s anchored by a remarkable performer named Emma Maxwell as the Barnum-worthy ringmaster. Through Aug. 24 at the Kilstrom Theatre. https://phamaly.org/show/pippin/

Historic Elitch Theatre

The 134-year-old Elitch Theatre, now 38 years removed from being fully operational, returned to staging bona-fide theater productions last summer – but with very limited production values, and only for one- or two-day runs. This year, those noble souls still desperately trying to save Denver’s most significant cultural shell are offering “Murderers,” by Jeffrey Hatcher. That’s a  true-crime comedy that could not be more simply told or staged: Three residents of a fictional Florida retirement community (Troy Lakey, Mary Campbell and Mari Geasair) take turns confessing their salacious crimes in wildly entertaining ways. Audiences love it. It’s Saturday (Aug. 16), one-night only at 4600 W. 37th Place. Info at historicelitchtheatre.org.

‘Sweet & Lucky: Echo’

The Denver Center captured the fancy of adventurous theatregoers in 2016 with “Sweet & Lucky,” which at the time was both the venerated company’s first foray into immersive theater, and the largest physical undertaking in its then 40-year history.

“Sweet & Lucky” took place in a 16,000-square-foot RiNo warehouse where a mysterious antique store served as a gateway into a labyrinth of dreamlike encounters. Audiences were broken into intimate groups of 12, and the unusual experience sold out nearly every performance of its four-month run.

Now, Off-Center (the Denver Center’s adventurous programming wing) is revisiting all of that, once again in collaboration with New York-based Third Rail Projects (founded by Boulder’s Zach Morris).

Creators say of this new companion piece: “You’ll follow performers through a warehouse of memories, where vignettes of a couple’s life materialize out of thin air – like pages of a scrapbook springing to vivid life. In the space between love and loss, remembering and forgetting, we’ll uncover their most tender moments: Falling in love. Building a home. Weathering storms. Together, we’ll remember.”

“Echo” is now open through Oct. 5 at newly named facility called Broadway Park, 407 S. Broadway. Info at 303-893-4100 or denvercenter.org

More where that came from

There’s a lot more going on, especially if you venture out of the metro, and you can find a comprehensive list of all of them at onstagecolorado.com/full-calendar.