It's not only the fall concert season that's heating up - the curtains are parting on the autumn theater and dance front, too.

Following is a look at what's being staged between now and year's end at area theater and performing arts venues.

National tours

• Sept. 11: Staggering Toward America, 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.; one-man show by Rik Reppe based on his post-9/11 eight-week tour of America, Millikin University Albert Taylor Theatre.

• Sept. 18: Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, 7 p.m.; Mexico's national dance company, with 60 pairs of feet; U of I Krannert Center.

• Sept. 19 and 21: N*GGER W*TBACK CH*NK, 7:30 p.m.; real-life experiences of racism transformed into "a fast, physical, comic slam"; U of I Krannert Center.

• Sept. 20: Gypsy, 7:30 p.m.; Stephen Sondheim's classic Gypsy Rose Lee bio-musical; U of I Assembly Hall.

• Sept. 21: Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, 7:30 p.m.; see Sept. 18 listing; Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

• Sept. 25: Tango Buenos Aires, 7:30 p.m.; the dance company devoted entirely to the smooth moves of Argentina; U of I Krannert Center.

• Sept. 30: Hairspray, 7 p.m.: the stage musical derived from the 1988 John Waters movie that inspired the current film edition; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Oct. 3: Georgian State Dance Company, 7:30 p.m.; straight from the former Soviet republic of Georgia; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Oct. 5-6: Defending the Caveman, 8 p.m. (Oct. 5-6) and 5 p.m. (Oct. 5); the Rob Becker battle-of-the-sexes comedy that became Broadway's longest-running solo show; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Oct. 6: Bunraku National Puppet Theater of Japan, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6; Japan's pre-eminent puppet-theater troupe in its first full-fledged U.S. tour; U of I Krannert Center.

• Oct. 7: Gypsy, 2 and 7 p.m.; see Sept. 20 listing; Peoria Civic Center.

• Oct. 8: Annie, 7:30 p.m.; the sun comes out again for this perennial family favorite; U of I Assembly Hall.

• Oct. 9: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, 7:30 p.m.; the legendary choreographer's latest work, "eyeSpace," equips each audience member with individual iPods programmed with different music; U of I Krannert Center.

• Oct. 12: Cashore Marionettes, 7 p.m.; internationally acclaimed puppetry fusion of theater and illusion; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Oct. 12-13; The Tempest, 7:30 p.m.; the innovative AandBC Theatre Company staging that has been performed everywhere from castle courtyards to the middle of a rain forest; U of I Krannert Center.

• Oct. 23: Stomp, 7:30 p.m.; the popular anything-for-a-percussive-sound extravaganza returns; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Oct. 24: Georgian State Dance Company, 7 p.m.; see Oct. 3 listing; U of I Krannert Center.

• Oct. 29-30: Annie, 7:30 p.m.; see Oct. 8 listing; Peoria Civic Center.

• Nov. 5: Gypsy, 7:30 p.m.; see Sept. 20 listing; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Nov. 8-10: Epic Family Epic, or The Hell Family Supper, 7:30 p.m.; Ain Gordon's tale of holiday family dysfunction performed by a mixed cast of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing actors; U of I Krannert Center.

• Nov. 9: Diavolo, 8 p.m.; new wave dance troupe mixing choreography, acting and gymnastics; U of I at Springfield Sangamon Auditorium.

• Nov. 10: Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight!, 7:30 p.m.; the longest-running one-man show in American theater history returns with its creator intact; Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

• Nov. 13: Savion and Friends, 7:30 p.m.; former dance wunderkind Savion ("The Tap Dance Kid") Glover, now all grown up, hoofs again; U of I Krannert Center.

• Nov. 29: Hairspray, 7:30 p.m.; see Sept. 30 listing; U of I Assembly Hall.

• Dec. 10-11: Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, 7:30 p.m.; the Russian troupe passes through Central Illinois with its trademark rendition; Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

• Dec. 15: Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, 3 and 7:30 p.m.; see above; Millikin University Kirkland Fine Arts Center.

Community Players

• Sept. 7-22: Mr. Roberts, the classic service comedy about naval life in the Pacific backwaters of World War II.

• Nov. 2-18: Fiddler on the Roof, the musical about the dairyman and his five eligible daughters in Tsarist Russia.

Conklin's Barn II Dinner Theatre

• Sept. 6-Nov. 4: Will You Still Love Me in the Morning?, a Brian Clemens-Dennis Spooner farce about three sets of couple interfacing in a single house.

• Nov. 8-Dec. 31: Two Into One, Ray Cooney's prequel to his "Out of Order" brings back the scandal-prone Sen. Richard Willey for more trysting.

Eureka College

• Sept. 5-7: The Curious Savage, John Patrick's comedy about a multimillion dollar inheritance, Pritchard Theatre.

• Oct. 30-Nov. 4: R.U.R., Karen Capek's 1921 saga of Rossum's Universal Roberts, Pritchard Theatre.

Heartland Theatre Company

• Oct. 4-21: The Wrong Turn at Lungfish, the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz comedy about the relationship between a blind college prof and the young woman who volunteers to read for him.

• Nov. 29-Dec. 16: The Dining Room, A.R. Gurney's hit about the dying lifestyles of the wealthy WASPdom as practiced in the family dining room.

ISU Theatre

• Oct. 5-14: The Who's Tommy, a full-sail rendition of the classic rock opera, ISU Center for the Performing Arts.

• Oct. 10-14: One Flea Spare, Naomi Wallace's drama, set during the Black Plague and dealing with four characters trapped in a house; Westhoff Theatre.

• Nov. 7-11: Relatively Close, a world premiere production of ISU Theatre alum James Sherman's dysfunctional-family comedy about three grown sisters struggling over the family property, ISU Center for the Performing Arts.

• Nov. 8-10: A Midsummer Night's Dream, a mid-autumn staging of the classic, Allen Theatre.

• Dec. 5-9: Unnatural and Accidental Women, Marie Clements' dramatization of a 30-year-old case involving murders in Vancouver's Skid Row district, Westhoff Theatre.

• Dec. 6-8: ISU Dance Theatre Fall Concert, featuring works by faculty and guest artists, ISU Center for the Performing Arts.

IWU Theatre

• Sept. 20-22: The Man Who, the Peter Brook-Marie-Helene Estienne adaptation of Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," a collection of case histories about the neurologically impaired; E. Melba Kirkpatrick Johnson Laboratory Theatre.

• Oct. 2-7: The Broken Jug, John Banville's free adaptation of the Heinrich von Kleist comedy about a corrupt magistrate presiding over a trial for a crime that he has committed; McPherson Theatre.

• Nov. 15-Dec. 2: Scrooge! The Christmas Musical, a song-and-dance rendition of the Dickens classic, McPherson Theatre.

Prairie Fire Theatre

• Oct. 12-14: The Story Goes On, an original musical look at the stages of fatherhood by Prairie Fire artistic director Robert Mangialardi, IWU Westbrook Auditorium.

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Box offices

Following are box office numbers for the venues mentioned in the accompanying fall theater preview:

• Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, Bloomington: (866) 686-9541

• Community Players, Bloomington: (309) 663-2121

• Conklin's Barn II Dinner Theatre, Goodfield: (309) 965-2545

• Eureka College Pritchard Theatre, Eureka: (309) 467-6363

• Heartland Theatre Company, Normal: (309) 452-8709

• ISU Theatre Box Office: (309) 438-2535

• IWU Theatre Box Office: (309) 556-3232

• Millikin University Kirkland Fine Arts Center, Decatur: (217) 424-6318

• Peoria Civic Center, Peoria: (309) 673-3200

• Prairie Fire Theatre, Bloomington: (309) 454-5500

• Sangamon Auditorium, Springfield: (800) 207-6960

• U of I Assembly Hall, Champaign: (217) 333-5000

• U of I Krannert Center, Urbana: (217) 333-6280