This year, Valley theaters took even more than their usual quota of risks, staging adventurous pieces in provocative ways and, in many cases, unusual places. Herewith, a dozen shows that tested limits, challenged expectations—and surprisingly often, came in threes.

Ambush on T Street, poetic psychodrama with music by a trio of real-life veterans of trauma.

Back to Back, three plays, two productions each, all in the same evening at A.P.E. Gallery.

Everyman, a journey to heaven through the hallways of the UMass Journalism Department.

The Firebird, myths, movement and music from Russia and the world, all over the Double Edge Farm.

Gone: A Play On Words, the August Company’s potpourri of mini-dramas lifted from literature.

Hard Headed Heart, Blair Thomas’s virtuoso trilogy of pocket-size tales at Sandglass Theater’s Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival.

Henry V, the ultimate macho war play with an all-woman cast at Smith College.

Loup Garou, the destruction of the Louisiana Bayou by nature and greed, told by a werewolf with a field for a stage at the Ko Festival of Performance.

Mayflower Plantation, Pauline Productions’ historical travesty, outdoors at Historic Northampton.

Melancholy Play, in which one woman upsets her friends by getting happy and another turns into an almond by getting sad, at Pittsfield’s WAM Theater.

The Nibroc Trilogy, an intimate season-long epic at Chester Theatre Company.

Rescuing Persephone, Survivor Theater Project Surviving and Transforming Sexual Violence.

24-Hour Theater/Play in a Day, the instant playmaking adventure times three, at Smith College, UMass and Northampton Center for the Arts.