Dawn M. Simmons

Speakeasy Stage kicks off the fall theater season with a tender tale of hope, change and kindness: “Primary Trust,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth that examines how fruitful unexpected changes can be when we have the courage to face them.

Who doesn’t know the story of Cinderella, the unloved stepdaughter used by her relatives as their maid until by magical intervention she finds true love with a prince? In the new Boston Lyric Opera production of “La Cenerentola,” Italian for Cinderella, kindness and wisdom, instead of a glass slipper, guide the heroine to her prince.