On stage in May

Constellation Theatre puts on the colorful epic "The Ramayana" this month. (Tracy A Woodward/The Washington Post)

Adventure is the name of the game on local stages this spring: Jules Verne's globe-spanning journey gets a madcap makeover at Round House, Constellation Theatre takes on an Indian epic that's colorful in more ways than one, and Arena Stage offers up the most confounding expedition of all -- a voyage into the mind of Renaissance man Buckminster Fuller.

Local actor Edward Gero can't seem to get enough of the criminal life. Fresh off a stint at Signature portraying murderous barber Sweeney Todd, he is set to star in Studio Theatre's "American Buffalo," David Mamet's 1975 play about foul-mouthed thieves plotting to steal a coin collection.

Mitchell Hebert, who just earned raves in "Clybourne Park" at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, is wasting no time getting back on stage. The actor will star in "Around the World in 80 Days," a fast-paced, zany take on the Jules Verne novel with five actors portraying 39 characters.

Constellation Theatre is at it again, mounting an imposing epic in the bare-bones Source theater space. Indian classic "The Ramayana" follows the blue-hued hero Rama as he attempts to save the world and rescue his wife from demon king Ravana.

Recent Pulitzer Prize finalist and rising playwright Rajiv Joseph has a knack for infusing dire situation with wry comedy. See his deft hand at work in "Gruesome Playground Injuries," which spans 30 years in the lives of an injury- and illness-prone man and woman who meet in their grade school infirmary.

"Sycamore Trees," the second play to come out of Signature Theatre's American Musical Voices Project (after last season's "Giant"), has its world premiere this month. The musical memoir is based on the upbringing of Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer behind "Dream True" and the celebrated opera version of "The Grapes of Wrath."

Synergetics, dymaxion designs and ephemeralization are just a few of the mystifying concepts that might blow your mind during "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe." The one-man show starring Rick Foucheux as Bucky offers insight into the inventor of the geodesic dome whose cerebral gears seemed to turn at the speed of light.

-- Stephanie Merry