By Wendell Brock

For the AJC

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when summer was the fallow season of Atlanta theater. This is no longer true. The city’s lively drama scene has blossomed into a year-round affair.

Georgia Shakespeare and Theater of the Stars, longtime players in the hot-weather market, have been joined by Atlanta Lyric Theatre and Essential Theatre. Upstart ensembles in need of a space have rushed in to fill vacation vacancies at dark playhouses. And over the next week, we will witness the arrival of three new companies, from Duluth to Palmetto to Midtown.

So what’s in the wings? How about a site-specific “Jungle Book” perched in a tree house tucked deep inside the woods of the Serenbe community. Or Neil LaBute’s edgy dark comedy “reasons to be pretty,” which will lurk underground at the Alliance’s Hertz Stage. There are new plays by Georgia writers Gabriel Dean and Peter Hardy, and a new musical based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s icon of wholesomeness “Little House on the Prairie.”  Shakespeare musicals? We’ve got two: New American Shakespeare Tavern’s “Hamlet! The Musical!” and Georgia Shakespeare’s “Shrew: the Musical.”

Here, then, is a look at some noteworthy summer offerings:

Meet the newbies

Serenbe Playhouse. This bucolic boutique destination on the southside offers fine dining, a stylishly secluded inn and a tony mix of shops, galleries, a spa and a sweet shop. Now you can stay and catch a show.  Brian Clowdus, founder and director of the theater in Palmetto, is using the pristine natural setting for an inaugural season that includes a family-appropriate “Jungle Book” (June 11-July 17); the contemporary two-person musical “John & Jen” (June 25-July 4) and an all-male telling of “Shakespeare’s R & J” (July 16-25). “People don’t really do theater outside anymore," says Clowdus, an enterprising and adventurous University of South Carolina grad student.  “I love the idea that crickets and frogs kind of become your soundscape and you get to look up at the stars.” 1-800-838-3006, serenbeplayhouse.com

Red Phoenix Theatre. Duluth has taken the wrecking ball to a good chunk of downtown’s Red Clay Theatre to widen a highway and increase the historic district's visibility, but that has not deterred a trio of troupers from opening a professional playhouse in the building. The Red Phoenix Theatre is the handiwork of middle-school teacher Eric Michael Bragg, seasoned thespian Jeffrey Scott Bailey and techie Stephanie Darlene Wallace. Bragg directs Ken Ludwig’s “Moon Over Buffalo” (June 10-26), and Bailey will stage a concert version of “Once on This Island” (July 16-17). In the fall, the two will play brothers in Sam Shepard'’s “True West.” 678-614-6994, redphoenix.org

Pinch n’ Ouch Theatre. Grant McGowen and Bree Dawn Shannon, Atlanta natives who have trod the boards of New York, were surprised to discover that any number of important new plays have fallen through the cracks of the local theater scene.  “I feel like a lot of theater companies are doing what’s safe,” says McGowen, a Norcross High School graduate, explaining the decision to bring his 2-year-old New York theater to Atlanta.  Thus, Pinch n’ Ouch (the name comes from a phrase coined by legendary acting teacher Sandy Meisner) makes its Atlanta debut on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage with Neil LaBute’s “reasons to be pretty” (June 9-27),  a dark comedic meditation on our culture’s obsession with body image. McGowen says the nomadic company will stage Kenneth Lonergan’s “Lobby Hero” in the fall but hasn’t settled on a venue yet. 404-733-5000, woodruffcenter.org

Bring on the musicals

Theater of the Stars. Atlanta audiences are already on friendly terms with Miss Celie (“The Color Purple”), Maria and her singing brood (“The Sound of Music”) and the misunderstood man in the mask (“Phantom of the Opera”), all of whom return for Theater of the Stars’ summer season at the Fox Theatre. While “Phantom” makes its farewell stop (June 30-July 18), “Little House on the Prairie” has its Atlanta debut (June 15-June 20).  Former child star Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the beloved TV series for more than a decade, takes on the role of Ma. The show's creative team is impressive, from Broadway director Francesca Zambello (“The Little Mermaid) to book writer Rachel Sheinkin (“The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”). Oh, yes, "Color Purple” returns Aug. 18-22 and “The Sound of Music” runs Aug. 24-29. 404-252-8960, theaterofthestars.com

Atlanta Lyric Theatre. Housed in the historic Earl Smith Strand Theatre on the Marietta square, the Lyric is the only local theater devoted exclusively to musical theater. Somehow, the lyrics of  “Comedy Tonight”  (“something familiar, something peculiar”) seem a perfect mantra for its summer offerings: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (June 11-27 ), based on the ancient Roman comedy by Plautus, is paired with “Hairspray” (July 23-Aug. 8), based on the John Waters movie about a plus-size teen who wants to integrate “The Corny Collins Show” on Baltimore TV. 404-377-9948, atlantalyrictheatre.com

“King Lear,” “Shrew: the Musical” and a Rita Dove play

Georgia Shakespeare. Would you believe Kate and Petruchio are now dancing like Fred and Ginger in glittery Palm Beach, Fla., circa the 1930s? Yep, the Oglethorpe University-based theater is bringing back the most popular show of its 25-year history,  “Shrew: the Musical,” starring real-life couple Park Krausen and Joe Knezevich as the tantrum-ess and the tamer. Also in the summer repertory: “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” billed as a Shakespeare sitcom, and “King Lear,” the tumultuous tragedy about a raging king (Tim McDonough) and his three daughters. For families, there’s a new adaptation of T.H. White’s “The Legend of the Sword in the Stone.” June 6-Aug. 7. 404-264-0020, gashakespeare.org

Essential Theatre. Camping out at Actor’s Express for the summer, Peter Hardy’s Essential Play Festival brings Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate of the United States, to town for a July 8 reception marking the opening of her play “Darker Face of the Earth” (July 7-Aug. 7), which re-sets the tale of Oedipus on the plantation soil of the Old South. After that comes Hardy’s  “Sally and Glen at the Palace” (July 14-Aug. 8), about a pair of friends working at a ‘70s movie theater in a Southern university town, and Gabriel Dean’s “Qualities of Starlight” (July 21-Aug. 6), about an astronaut who returns to his North Georgia hometown to discover his parents are meth addicts. 404-558-4523, essentialtheatre.com