(FORTUNE Magazine) – Ever since the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis opened 25 years ago with a production of Hamlet, regional theater has been a powerful cultural force in America. Such hits as Agnes of God, Crimes of the Heart, and Children of a Lesser God opened in the boonies, not on Broadway, and Meryl Streep and William Hurt are just two of the superstars who did their early work in the provinces. Today, well over 200 professional theaters exist beyond the Big Apple, some known internationally. Attending a performance at one can mean discovering a future Pulitzer Prize-winning play or watching the revival of a Greek, Shakespearean, or American classic that the exigencies of profit-making would prohibit on Broadway. For someone contemplating a job transfer or relocation, the vitality of the local theater can provide a clue to the quality of the civic amenities that await. Regional theaters are also audience-friendly. Unlike the three-tiered Edwardian-style houses typical of Broadway, most are spacious and modern, with thrust stages that jut out into the auditorium and bring the actors almost within touching distance. Though the major theaters are heavily subscribed, seats are usually available on the day of performance and are a steal compared with the Great White Way, ranging in price from about $10 to $25. Except where noted, the theaters are open every day but Monday. All have full bar service, and many have restaurants on the premises or nearby. Boston's American Repertory Theatre, which actually makes its home at Harvard's Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, 15 minutes from downtown Boston, is easily the most controversial of the regional theaters, specializing in new plays and in idiosyncratic revivals of European classics. ART's aim, says artistic director Robert Brustein, is ''to unsettle,'' and to do this it hires the world's leading directors, among them Jonathan Miller, Andre Serban, and Robert Wilson. This year Brustein has secured the services of Soviet exile director Yuri Lyubimov to present his adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. It will run from May 15 to July 16. The current season lasts through July 19 (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge; 617-547-8300). The Arena Stage in Washington is famed for establishing theatrical milestones. It originated the production of The Great White Hope, was the first American regional company to tour the Soviet Union, and was the first to employ Lyubimov. The Arena includes four separate theaters; it takes its name from the main stage, a true arena surrounded on all sides by seats. In the remainder of this season, which ends July 12, it will present plays by David Mamet, George Bernard Shaw, and Arthur Miller (6th and Maine Avenue S.W.; 202-488-3300). This year's eclectic array of plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville began with Luigi Pirandello's The Rules of the Game and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman; still to come are Agatha Christie's Murder on the Nile and The Little Shop of Horrors (book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken). ATL's spirit reveals itself fully in the annual dramafest known as the Humana Festival of New American Plays, an event that attracts critics from around the world to see new works presented in the theater's two auditoriums. Plays that have emerged from past festivals include The Gin Game and Extremities. The theater's restaurant, Downstairs at Actors, offers a set three-course meal every night. The regular season ends May 31 (316 West Main Street; 502-584-1205). Rarely innovative but always adventurous, Houston's Alley Theatre has become a magnet for theatergoers in the South. Paul Zindel's The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds premiered here, and the company has made a specialty of producing the mordant English comedies of Alan Ayckbourn. These performances were so successful that the Alley has participated in an exchange program with Ayckbourn's own regional theater company in Scarborough, England. The rest of this season, which ends July 5, includes Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind and Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit (615 Texas Avenue; 713-228-8421). Birraporetti's restaurant, adjacent to the theater, offers a light dinner menu of veal, salads, and pasta dishes. The Mark Taper Forum, one of the elegantly spare modern buildings that constitute Los Angeles's Music Center, excels by drawing on the city's vast pool of acting talent to perform significant new works. It brought the curtain up on Children of a Lesser God and The Shadow Box. A few years ago Mark Taper audiences saw Anthony Hopkins as Prospero in The Tempest, a performance New York and London theatergoers have yet to witness. This season the company presented the English-language premiere of Joshua Sobol's haunting drama with music, Ghetto. A new play by Jean Claude van Itallie and a new musical called Roza, directed by Hal Prince and based on a novel by Romain Gary, remain to be seen before the season ends August 23 (35 North Grand Avenue; 213-410-1062). Otto Rothschild's, a large, bustling restaurant with an extensive menu, is on the ground floor of the Music Center building. Going to the Geary in San Francisco to see an American Conservatory Theatre production is not much different from going to the theater on Broadway: The house has a proscenium arch and three tiers of seats. But unlike New York's diffident ushers, some of those at the Geary are volunteers who are willing to answer all manner of questions about the ACT and San Francisco. European and American classics are ACT's forte -- its production of A Christmas Carol is an annual event on cable TV's Arts & Entertainment Network -- but it also presents several modern plays each season. This year it was the first company outside New York to stage Woody Allen's The Floating Lightbulb. Also on the playbill this season, ending May 16, are Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Nagle Jackson's Faustus in Hell. A basement restaurant serves light meals of cheese and cold cuts. The theater is closed Sundays (415 Geary Street; 415-673-6440). The Guthrie in Minneapolis is one of the largest regional theaters, with 1,441 seats arranged in a steep arc around a thrust stage, and it remains one of the most prestigious. The Guthrie stages ancient and modern classics and offers at least one Shakespearean production a year. The theater shuts down at the end of March, but the 1987-88 season begins in June and includes Moliere's The Misanthrope, Euripides's Bacchae, and Shakespeare's Richard III (725 Vineland Place; 612-377-2224). Chicago's 683-seat Goodman Theatre has been filling the gap between the tried and the new for the past 61 years. This season's lineup, which runs until July 26, typifies the balance between classical and contemporary plays the Goodman aims for: Brecht's Galileo; Shakespeare's The Tempest; Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George; a new play by Michael Weller, who wrote the screenplays for Ragtime and Hair, called Ghost on Fire; and a collage of words, images, and music by Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, and Virgil Thomson titled She Always Said Pablo. Before the curtain, you can dip into an elaborate buffet of hot and cold dishes at Carlyn Berghoff's at the Goodman. The theater is closed Mondays and Tuesdays (200 South Columbus Drive; 312-443-3800).