The Holocaust separated and destroyed thousands of Jewish families, including that of Mordechai Weiss (Ralph Elias), who fled to New York City in the ’30s with 4-year-old daughter Rose (Christy Hall). Older daughter Lusia had scarlet fever at the time and stayed in Poland with their mother. Mama died in the camps, but Lusia and childhood friend Hanna (Maya Baldwin) survived.

One morning in 1946, Mordechai visits Rose to tell her that not only has he found Lusia, but that she will be in New York in three weeks and will move in with Rose. Rose demurs – she’s happy with her life as is, and after all, Lusia is practically a stranger – but Papa will have none of it: “When such a miracle happens and you got now a sister, you don’t say the word ‘but.’”

Barbara Lebow’s A Shayna Maidel plays through March 23 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, directed by David Ellenstein.

A few weeks later, a stooped and exhausted Lusia walks in wearing tattered clothes, carrying not just a cheap suitcase but also the weight of the suffering and loss of millions.

Lusia looks haunted and Rose uncomfortable as the two family strangers begin their journey back to closeness and ease. At first, it’s all they can do to make themselves understood – Lusia’s heavily accented and badly broken English a challenge to Rose; Rose’s fast, colloquial speech largely a puzzle to her sister.

A Shayna Maidel isn’t about the awful event that separated the Weiss family. It’s about how that event shapes what comes after, and whether and how the healing process can take place. Haunted by lost possibilities, survivor’s guilt and the degrading experience she has come through, Lusia is visited by ghosts of people from her happier past: Mama (D. Candis Paule), Hanna and Lusia’s husband Duvid (Christopher M. Williams), of whom she has lost track. She still hopes to find Duvid.

The most affecting scene takes place when Papa and Lusia compare their respective lists of family members and what each knows about their fate: murdered, escaped, killed in war, disappeared. Lusia is matter-of-fact about all the names except the one Rose wants most to know about: Mama. Neither Lusia nor Papa will tell her what happened to Mama.

John is a riveting and heartbreaking Lusia whose every movement seems apologetic and whose voice betrays a psyche that expects nothing. The contrast with her “American” sister Rose, with her optimism, easy smile and expectation of good, makes John’s performance all the more poignant.

Elias makes the most of his role as the autocratic Mordechai. Baldwin, Paule and Williams are also excellent in smaller roles.

Ellenstein carefully avoids melodrama in this, his second outing with A Shayna Maidel. Marty Burnett’s set and Jeanne Reith’s period costumes set the scene perfectly for this lovely and moving production.

A Shayna Maidel plays through March 23 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.; select Wednesday evenings and Saturday matinees. For tickets call (858) 481-1055 or visit www.northcoastrep.org.

Experts tell us we should do something difficult or different every day. They probably don’t have in mind taking in a roommate who threatens to turn your life upside down.

Quiet, unassuming, play-by-the-rules painter Cecilia (Jennine Marquie) meets burn-the-rule-book Karen (Chrissy Burns) when she rolls in on skates to rent Cecilia’s spare room.

It’s an “odd couple” matchup of the female sort when Karen, a boisterous beer-for-breakfast rollergirl, announces, “Pussy Avenger – that’s my competitive name. We’re loud, tough and obnoxious. What’s not to like?” (We’re talking about roller derby – remember that? Well, it’s back, with leagues and everything.)

Rhubarb, or How to Play with a Rollergirl, the debut play by local award-winning director Esther Emery, plays through March 9 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. The Moxie Theatre production is directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.

With the help of two oracles and Karen’s world-shattering ’tude, Cece finds her muse and her sexual identity, despite her repeated insistence that “I’m not currently developing my social life.”

Marquie is adorable as the straight-arrow Cece; Burns terrific as the overpowering bigger-than-life Karen. Punk rock, oracles who despair of this uncooperative girl who asks not for change but for a muse (“that’s another office,” she is told), and vegetables figure into this fanciful tale.

Rhubarb, providing slight drama but a fun night in the theater, is in a short run and closes Sunday. Hurry down if you’re in the mood for an amusing counterculture clash with societal norms.

Moxie Theatre’s production of Rhubarb or How to Play with a Rollergirl plays through March 9 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (619) 544-1000 or visit www.moxietheatre.com.

It’s tough to work up a lot of empathy for a guy kvetching about turning 30, but that’s our hero Jon (Jim Chatham).

Like a woman who wants to be a mother, Jon hears “ticking” in his head. But this ticking is related to his lack of success as a musical-theater composer.

Jon’s actor roommate Michael (Eric Vest) doesn’t help Jon’s psyche – he’s already given up and sold out to the corporate world, and is beginning to reap the financial rewards. Even Jon’s dancer girlfriend Susan (Briona Daugherty) settles for teaching ballet to “enormously untalented kids” and is making sounds like she’d gladly trade a career for a dishwasher. Should Jon follow his dream or sell out?

If this sounds a little like Rent, there’s a reason: the book, music and lyrics are by one and the same Jonathan Larson, who in the late 1980s wrote and performed tick, tick … BOOM! as an autobiographical solo piece.

Larson’s life was snuffed out by an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35, just before Rent became an overnight Broadway sensation and won him a Pulitzer Prize.

In 2001, Larson’s friends, including Proof playwright David Auburn and orchestrator/arranger Stephen Oremus, made a three-character play out of his solo show. Stone Soup Theatre Company presents the local premiere of tick, tick … BOOM! through March 30 at the LAB at the Academy of Performing Arts, directed by Lindsey Gearhart. This is Stone Soup’s first venture into musical comedy.

It’s as successful as it could be under the circumstances. The LAB is a room with metal doors, too small for a rock musical, and though I suspect the four musicians try to keep the decibel level under control, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s loud. Whether that’s a problem probably depends on your age.

As drama, tick, tick … BOOM! is slight and suffers from being patched together and expanded by someone other than the original writer: it isn’t quite a cohesive whole.

Musically, the influence of Stephen Sondheim isn’t just heard, it’s actually in the script. The best song was written specifically with Sondheim in mind: “Sunday,” a description of how Jon pays the rent – serving brunch to grumpy yuppies (“In the blue-silver chromium diner sit the fools who should eat at home …”).

And there’s “No More,” Michael’s hymn to his new apartment and moving up: “No more walking 13 blocks with 30 pounds of laundry.” And “Sugar,” a Calypso-inspired paean to the sweet stuff, especially Jon’s weakness, Twinkies: “She’s got the power to soothe my soul for half an hour.”

Gearhart has a top-notch cast. Chatham seems the best actor, but that’s because the other parts are underwritten add-ons (though Daugherty does a great turn as Jon’s agent from hell). All are terrific singers. Kudos to the band as well.

If you’re a Sondheim (or a Rent) fan, you’ll like tick, tick … BOOM!

Stone Soup’s production of tick, tick … BOOM! plays through March 30 at the LAB at the Academy of Performing Arts. Shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. For tickets call (619) 287-3065 or visit www.stonesouptheatre.net.