theater

Bad Dates Yes, this one-woman show sounds slight, especially as the debut production of the new Copaken Stage's first full season. In three long scenes, waitress and single mother Haley Walker — played with tireless invention by Rebecca Dines — bustles about her too huge (but wonderfully designed) New York apartment, dishing and dressing as she preps herself for imminent dates. The result, though, is funny and affecting, a finely constructed contemplation of what matters, sugared up as girl talk. The show is slight the way a crescent moon is: just a sliver's worth of glow, but if you look closely, you can make out all the substance of the full. Through Oct. 21 at the Copaken Stage in the H&R Block Building, 13th St. and Walnut, 816-235-2700. (Reviewed in our October 4 issue.)

CounterClockwise Comedy and the Fakers This Saturday, a pair of daring, newish area improv groups stake their ground with full-length shows. First up, at 7, is CounterClockwise Comedy, whose cast boasts the gifted Keith Curtis, Tommy Todd and Wade Meredith. For your $10, this variety show will also feature sketch comedy, stand-up and something the trouple calls "a bit of  adult-contemporary and hip-hop fusion." At 10, $8 gets you the promising Fakers, a young but quick-witted group also rounded out by Tommy Todd. Finally, as if to prove once again that he's the busiest comic in Kansas City, Todd will actually squeeze in a third performance when his two-member Poke opens for the Fakers. Last weekend, Poke went toe-to-toe and laugh-for-laugh with Chicago pros, proving that KC's best can stare down anyone. Saturday night at the Westport Coffee House, 4010 Pennsylvania, 816-678-8886.