It's time for a little spring cleaning, which means out with the old and in with the new for this week's performing arts events. Jobsite Theater opens Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a quirky alternative perspective of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's bumbling best friends and two of theater's most underappreciated characters, explain what really happened behind the scenes in Denmark while Hamlet pops in for the occasional soliloquy. Stoppard — who cowrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for that ultimate Bard-inspired chick flick, Shakespeare in Love — brings humor and wit to Shakespeare's most tragic tale. TheaterUSF produces another adaptation of a classic, Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, a modernized version of Roman poet Ovid's classical tales of Greek mythology. Among the familiar myths are Midas' golden touch and Aphrodite's curse, with each story revolving around a pool of water that reflects the turbulence and serenity in both the natural and emotional worlds of the characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, April 3-20, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun., Shimberg Playhouse-TBPAC, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, $24.50, 813-229-7827, tbpac.org; and Metamorphoses, April 3-6, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., and April 9-13, 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., USF College of Visual and Performing Arts-Theater II, 4202 E. Fowler Ave, $12 general/$6 students and seniors, 813-974-2323, arts.usf.edu.
