Spend a December weekend with the A.R.T.

Mad crazy for theater or Shakespeare or the cutting edge in general? or just want something very different for your next weekend trip? Well, there's no better way for you to spend Dec. 4-6 than to come to Boston for the American Repertory Theater's Shakespeare Exploded! Festival Weekend. A little background: The A.R.T.'s Shakespeare Exploded! season now underway is the brainchild of new artistic director Diane Paulus, full of daring reinterpretations of Shakespeare plays. Daring in that they hardly use any of Shakespeare's actual words. Uh huh, that's right. But the public has pretty much gone nuts over the first two productions of the season, with most critics right behind. And the weekend is a chance to catch it all in one fell swoop.

You can flash back to the mirror-ball '70s with "The Donkey Show," a disco adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that's an immersive nightclub fantasy. Dive into the demented dreamworld of "Sleep No More," a surreal "Macbeth" adaptation by the British company Punchdrunk, which takes over an entire school building and turns it into a haunting dreamscape. "Sleep No More" may be the only play ever to come with both a warning about nudity and a recommendation of sensible shoes! Finally you can celebrate the holidays with "Best of Both Worlds," a new R&B and gospel musical loosely based on "The Winter's Tale." The weekend also includes a reading of Robert Brustein's new play "Mortal Terror" and a panel discussion about Shakespeare's impact on contemporary culture with Paulus, Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and others.

You can create your own trip, but premium Weekend Packages that coordinate accommodations, dining, and all weekend activities are available here.