Boston Bits ~ Insiders’ Tips -- our monthly journal of things Bostonian, to give Boston Your Way site visitors a sense of our city.

Theatre in Boston is Special
Maybe this is not the best time to be promoting Boston’s local stage scene, as the Spring season wraps up. But there are several strong productions playing now that remind us that visitors should pay attention to our regional companies and leave the tired road shows of Broadway hits to the less sophisticated tourists. Boston is the home of excellent repertory theatre, and several are offering well-reviewed plays.

At the SpeakEasy Stage Company through June 10 is Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change.” www.bostontheatrescene.com

The Marivaux comedy, “Island of Slaves,” is being presented by the American Repertory Theatre in Harvard Square until June 11. www.amrep.org

Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” finishes the season for the HuntingtonTheatre Company main stage at the B.U. Theatre, also til June 11. www.huntingtontheatre.org

Boylston Street and Small Pox
When Dr Zabdiel Boylston dared in 1721 to test a radical treatment for smallpox on his own son, Boston was not ready to accept the ancient African practice of inoculation, despite recurring epidemics of the disease that took many lives. Boston’s most prominent minister, Cotton Mather, learned about the promising treatment from his slave, Onesimus, who had been inoculated as a child in Africa; that is, he had been injected with a small amount of the smallpox pus, and he never contracted the disease.

Dr. Boylston was attacked by mobs and forced to hide in his home for his courageous act. Fortunately, his son survived and other doctors began the practice. The death rate from the disease dropped dramatically. Today the disease is prevented by inoculation and is virtually wiped out.

Boylston Street, a main boulevard in the Back Bay, is named for the physician.

Zapatos
The world is coming to Zapatos, or so it appears. The tiny shoe-warehouse on Albany Street that sells great top-named shoes at not-to-be-believed prices has been around for ages but hidden in the Albany Street industrial area, across from the Flower Exchange. Now that the “hip” South End neighborhood is spreading eastward, it is bringing a new clientele to the bargain shop. It is hard to share a favorite secret.

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