It’s a few minutes before noon, and I’ve just emerged from the theater. The Playground Theatre, that is. There’s nothing like watching a full-length play on a weekday morning to make you feel like the city is alive with culture. No matter how many Sleepless Nights we spend, we just can’t pack all the art in on the weekends, after dark.

Of course,  the  house on this first day of Playground’s sixth season was fillled with fourth and fifth graders from North Glade Elementary — school outreach is part of the formula that has kept this repertory company playing.

I sat in the back, so I not only had the fun of watching the kids giggle and wave their programs at the fog, but I also had the pleasure of watching director Stephanie Ansin (who co-wrote the play with Fernando Calzadilla) and aerial choreographer (yes, some actors fly in the show) Ileigh Reynolds of Animate Objects write notes, iPods casting light on their notepads.

I missed the debut of Inanna and the Huluppu Tree  last season. But the joy of repertory theater is that it all comes around again. Based on an ancient Sumerian myth, the play has plenty of squabbling divinities to keep the kids laughing along with Playground’s impeccable production values to keep teachers, parents, and even critics engrossed too.

In the past six years, Playground has put together an impressive repertoire of original plays based on literary classics, with a premiere of a new play every year until now.

“This year we have our ‘recession production,'” Ansin, who is also the company’s artistic director, explains. Rather than launch a whole new play, the company is revamping one of their first shows, The Love of Three Oranges, by adding original music and three more actors.

Missing from the line-up this year is the popular and lavish Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. That production made novel use of video  to set the scene, which Ansin reveals required renting rather expensive projectors. “We’re taking a year off [producing that play] to figure out another solution,” she said.

But if Playground is feeling any economic pinch, it does not show onstage. Inanna’s temple, her beloved town’s river of tears, and the Huluppu tree she believes can wash them away are as lush and magical as ever.

Inanna and the Huluppu Tree runs at 10am, Tuesdays through Fridays from and at 2pm on Sturdays and Sundays from November 12 through December 20 at Playground Theatre, 9806 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33138; 305-751-9550, ext. 232; www.theplaygroundtheatre.com.