Aspen Fringe Festival

Comedian and playwright Mike Daisey—the monologist behind The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs—took on Donald Trump last year with a new piece, The Trump Card. At the Aspen Fringe Fest, actor and festival founder David Ledingham will perform a two-night run of an updated version of Daisey’s one-man show skewering the unlikely president and chronicling his rise to power. Running June 10 and 11 at the Aspen Black Box Theatre. aspenfringefestival.org

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet

 By turns exuberant, ironic, and dark, choreographer Cherice Barton’s Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) debut, Eudaemonia, wowed in its premiere in February, before the company took it on a national spring tour. An exploration of happiness and the quest to find it, the ballet is a moving crowd-pleaser with music from Jimmy Durante, Nick Cave, and Warren Ellis (and a star turn from ASFB dancer Pete Leo Walker). The company brings it back to Aspen for performances at the Aspen District Theatre on July 8, July 20, and August 18. Those evenings will also showcase a new work by choreographer Fernando Melo, the young Brazilian behind the 2016 ASFB gem Re:play. French-tinged ballet takes center stage in ASFB’s guest companies this summer. In the French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi’s What the Day Owes to the Night, 12 dancers from Algeria and Burkina Faso will perform an innovative, hour-long piece that integrates hip-hop and modern dance with acrobatics (July 26). The following weekend (Aug 4), Montreal-based Compagnie Marie Chouinard will present The Rite of Spring and 24 Preludes by Chopin, accompanied by live orchestration. aspensantafeballet.com 

Thunder River Theatre Company

Thunder River Theatre Company is closing its 2016–17 season with Shelagh Stephenson’s tragicomedy of memory and family, The Memory of Water, in what promises to be a meaty must-see for theater lovers. It runs June 16 to July 1 at the Lon Winston Theatre in Carbondale. thunderrivertheatre.com