Flappers and wise guys festooned in feathers, spats, vests and beads showed up for the revels at the ’20s-themed block party on Fourth Avenue, celebrating the grand reopening of Downtown’s long-closed Balboa Theatre. Also along to lend historical authenticity were Alonzo Horton, John D. Spreckels and U.S. Grant, Jr. (well, OK, people dressed like them).

Scattered around were period autos such as a fabulous green Fantasy Auburn, a 1935 police paddy wagon and several other period police cars.

Guests munched on tasty offerings from Rei do Gado, the French Gourmet, Bandar and Napa Valley Grille, among others, and the Balboa Serenaders kept the joint jumpin’ with jazzy big-band favorites.

The official relighting of the Balboa’s blade sign sparked confetti bombs and signaled attendees to enter the theater for the gala show, which included a historical slide show presentation narrated by “Mr. About San Diego,” Ken Kramer. Kimberly King from KNSD-TV and local boy and “Dancing with the Stars” veteran Mario Lopez hosted.

Jung-Ho Pak conducted the San Diego Chamber Orchestra in the “Musical Journey Through Time” show, featuring music of the decades since the Balboa’s construction in 1924. The orchestra was joined by dancers from California Ballet, singers from San Diego Lyric Opera, Jeff Nevin’s Mariachi Champaña Nevin, Southwestern College’s Mariachi Garibaldi, the Grupo Folklorico from the school of creative and performing arts at Chula Vista High School, the U.S. Navy Band Southwest and the Heatwave Swing Dancers.

The featured singer was San Diego’s own “Jersey Boy,” Steve Gouveia, who sang “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” “Unchained Melody” and the finale, a medley of “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Celebration,” backed by singers from the San Diego Men’s Chorus, the La Jolla Symphony Chorus and the St. James Sacred Nation Concert Choir.

Balboa Theatre, with its Spanish revival architecture and tiled dome complementing the California Tower in Balboa Park, was first used as a vaudeville stage. In the show representing that period was the vaudeville act of Hank and Petey.

In the ’30s, the theater was closed and fitted for sound, to reopen as Teatro Balboa, playing Spanish language films. During World War II, the theater was appropriated by the Navy as living space. From the ’50s to the mid-’80s, the Balboa was a second-run movie house.

Named for explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa (the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean in 1513), the Balboa Theatre (declared a historic site in 1972) was slated for demolition when Centre City Development Corporation acquired it through eminent domain in 1985. Now, more than 20 years and $26.5 million in restoration and enhancements later, the Balboa is ready to join the ranks of publicly-owned theaters.

San Diegans don’t like fixing things, as anybody who drives, has weathered a water main break or waited decades for a new public library can tell you. But sometimes when the city does fix something, it does it up right.

This year’s festival features four full productions of plays by older teens and three readings of works by younger writers. Plays by Young Writers ends this Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Lyceum Theatre in Horton Plaza.

Step by Step portrays the lives of foster teens. Seventeen-year-old playwright James Monroe places Guy (Jake Ewald) in a group foster home setting, where the pain of abandonment and his need to find his birth mother isn’t mitigated even by the possibility of romance with fellow resident Davina (Carolyn Ryan). Counselor Chris (Elzie Billops) offers to find her; the question is whether that will help.

In Hawaii, 17-year-old playwright Justin Kuritzkes reveals the emotional chaos created when families combine.

Nicole (Jess Jacobs) and Rob (Trevor Bowles) are in a Maui resort for the wedding of Jess’ father and Rob’s mother. Nicole, on edge throughout but struggling to maintain control, finally reveals her insecurity when Rob asks pointedly, “Who protects you?”

In Mister Wade is Dead, 17-year-old playwright Niv Brook gives us a Three Stooges-like farce about Wade (Anthony Misiano), a talented but underappreciated artist whose wife Jessie (Kristie Kahlweiss) comes up with a scheme to declare Wade dead and collect his insurance to pay the back rent. Along the way Brook inspires giggles by satirizing the art world.

Find You in the Forest, the third script by William Alden staged by Young Writers, is the most polished offering. A lyrical, even poetic elegy to the pain of gradually losing a mother to the dreaded Alzheimer’s, Alden uses pedaling through a forest as metaphor for daughter Savanna’s attempt to reach her beloved mother, whose mind is slipping further and further away. It’s a lovely piece, movingly played by Jyl Haruye Kaneshiro as Savanna and Dana Hooley as her mother.

Young writers are the future of the theater. These young playwrights deserve our support.

Plays by Young Writers plays through Feb. 10 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Program varies nightly and there are matinees. For tickets call (619) 544-1000 or visit http://playwrightsproject.org/PBYW.htm.

It’s no secret that writers are under suspicion in many parts of the world, but playwright Martin McDonagh brings home the point with a punch to the gut in the setting of his 2003 The Pillowman. It opens in the interrogation cell of an unnamed totalitarian state, where detective Dupolski (Matt Scott) and policeman Ariel (Jamie Effros) are questioning short story writer Katurian K. Katurian (Jeffrey Jones) for undisclosed reasons.

Katurian’s (and your) natural assumption is that his writings have somehow transgressed politically – after all, the cops have collected all 400 of his stories in a box on the floor. And, as Dupolski says, “We like executing writers … you execute a writer, it sends out a signal, y’know?”

When he hears screams from an adjoining cell and recognizes the voice of his developmentally disabled younger brother Michal (John Polak), Katurian is both angry and terrified that Michal is being tortured.

But nothing is quite as it seems in this fascinating, horrifying, thought-provoking, vulgar and oh yes, extremely funny play, on the boards through Feb. 16 at ion theatre, directed by local master of the macabre, Claudio Raygoza.

With dialogue reminiscent of Mamet and Pinter (but funnier and darker), McDonagh explores writers and responsibility, reality and fantasy, horror and crime, the permanence or evanescence of art. It’s a tour de force script unlike any I can name, and this production would be worth seeing if only for that.

But there is much more to be impressed with. Raygoza’s taut direction, the clever but appropriately shabby set and, most of all, carefully prepared actors keep the audience off balance, alternately laughing at the pitch black gallows humor and horrified at the grotesque situations described in Katurian’s stories.

Jones is pitch-perfect as Katurian – alternately scared, angry, bewildered, hopeful, belligerent and ultimately resigned, but determined both to keep his brother safe from harm and to see that his stories survive. Polak’s Michal is a sweet, vulnerable soul, but he can also get in an occasional zinger. These brothers bring to mind George and Lenny of Of Mice and Men.

Scott and Effros are funny and terrifying and utterly convincing as the good cop-bad cop dynamic duo. Also impressive in smaller but just as twisted roles are Bill Dunnam, Kim Strassburger, Zev Lerner, Ari Lerner and Jessalyn Hernandez.

If you’re in an adventurous mood, The Pillowman will reward you with a unique theater experience. And if by chance you want more McDonagh, check out his new film called In Bruges, opening in San Diego Feb. 8.

ion theatre company’s production of The Pillowman plays through Feb. 16 at The Lab at the Academy of Performing Arts. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m. For tickets call (619) 374-6894 or visit www.iontheatre.com

It’s 1982 in the messy upper West Side New York apartment of 22-year-old petty drug dealer Dennis Ziegler (Joshua Everett Johnson). A knock on the door brings 19-year-old Warren Straub (Tom Zohar), college dropout and disaster-prone lost soul looking for someone to be, or at least to emulate.

Both Dennis and Warren are trying to escape their families; neither seems able to decide what to become. Dennis, son of a well-to-do artist and a social worker, has thus far avoided the real world of regular work by selling drugs. His father just wants him out of the way.

It’s Kenneth Lonergan’s 1996 play This Is Our Youth, in its San Diego premiere and playing through Feb. 17 at New Village Arts in Carlsbad. Francis Gercke directs.

Warren, son of an abusive and shady lingerie tycoon (“My father’s not a criminal. He’s just in business with criminals.”), has just lifted 15 large from the old man and now seeks refuge with Dennis.

Warren has developed a crush on Jessica (Rachael VanWormer), the third prong of this triumvirate, and we get to watch his stumbling attempts at romance with her.

Jessica is fun to watch, partly because VanWormer is always a joy onstage and partly because Lonergan gives her some great, argumentative lines.

Will these three grow up and learn to navigate the Reagan era? Will Warren ever get laid? Will Dennis get a real job?

I’ll never tell. Despite my inability to work up any empathy for or interest in these poor little rich kids, Gercke has coaxed about as fine a set of performances as you’ll see for this “lost sheep” tale.

This Is Our Youth plays through Feb. 17 at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday at 3 and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (760) 433-3245 or visit www.NewVillageArts.org.