What: Getting to play Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House is a career milestone for actresses, right up there with the murderously tweaked Lady MacBeth and southern belle-come-undone Blanche DuBois. Nora's reality-slap arc from duped, sheltered and subjugated housewife to liberated woman offers one of theater's most nuanced character studies, and Ibsen's play is at once timeless and a century before its time. No doubt it's in capable hands at American Stage — recent recipient of an all too rare five-star review from Mark Leib for its recent production of Wit. Katherine Michelle Tanner rocks the starring role, and Christopher Swan plays Torvald. Steve Garland, Danielle Calderone, John Woodson and Colleen Cherry costar. Seth Gordon directs. —Julie Garisto