The stage is a dinner table. As audience members enter the theatre they are encouraged to sit in the first few rows and be guests at the table. Then, as the performers guide the audience through five stories, the table transforms into a highway, a parking lot and even an ocean.

The show is called Who’s Hungry and it was performed at the Yard last Friday and Saturday night. It is a collage of puppetry, movement, audio recording, visual arts and live discussion all coming together to reveal the isolation and hopelessness of not having enough to eat.

The Yard expands its reach in the community with special performances aimed to raise awareness of food insecurity and hunger on the Island and beyond. This weekend the Yard in Chilmark presents and puppet theatre with a cause. Who’s Hungry? employs the talents of Dan Froot and Dan Hurlin as they weave together dance, music, puppetry and text sharing testimonies of five Americans facing food insecurity. According to the Yard’s press information, in Massachusetts the food insecurity rate has risen by more than 43 per cent since the start of the 2008 recession.

Director Kevin Ryan stands inside the Performing Arts Center at the regional high school rehearsing for the Island Theatre Workshop’s latest production.

“Munchkins!” he calls to the group of children sitting the front row of the theatre. The kids talk and giggle and tick-tock their feet.

“Does everyone have a hat tonight?” Mr. Ryan asks. “We’re going to start in a minute.”

Hundreds of people raised their glasses and funds for the Vineyard Playhouse at a gala at Blue Heron Farm, President Obama’s former Chilmark vacation home, on Saturday.

The fundraiser was hosted by new Blue Heron Farm property owners Lord Norman and Lady Elena Foster, as well as Playhouse patrons Friederike and Jeremy Biggs.

Artistic director MJ Bruder Munafo said the event raised more than $125,000 for the ongoing capital campaign to restore and renovate the historic Vineyard Playhouse building in Vineyard Haven.

The Tisbury Amphitheatre sits nestled in the woods just off State Road, by the Lake Tashmoo overlook. It’s well hidden, unless you know where to look. Follow a narrow path into the woods and soon you will encounter a clearing. At the foot of the hill, 11 actors in simple costumes stand ready to begin their production of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV. The dirt stage is bare, save for a picnic table and a few wooden crates. There are not nearly enough actors to play all the roles in the show. It is a simple production, and that’s just how director Scott Barrow wants it.

Built on Stilts is the Vineyard’s homegrown dance festival and it takes root this summer from August 8 through the 11 and again from August 17 through the 20 at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Choreographers from Martha’s Vineyard and visiting artists from off-Island join creative forces to bring the performances to life. The program is always free and changes each night. Each night begins with a drum circle starting at 7:30 p.m. The Dance program follows at 8 p.m.