Ann Arbor's Blackbird Theatre — previously located in the Children's Creative Center at 1600 Pauline — has encountered difficulties while trying to relocate downtown, so currently, the independent theater company is still looking for a new place to call home.

The company has pursued 5 separate buildings since beginning its search in the summer of 2009. “We fell in love with various properties,” said Blackbird co-founder Dana Sutton in a prepared statement. “A theatre has very specific needs, and for one reason or another, each of these beautiful buildings hasn’t been quite right. It’s hard when you get your heart set on one location. But we have to pick up and move ahead as a company.”

With this in mind, the company has decided to move ahead and take its productions to other locations, both in Ann Arbor and Detroit, while the Blackbird continues its search for a new nest.

The company's "Raw Weekend" — happening April 8-10 at 8 p.m. at the Sh\Aut\ Gallery and Cabaret, at 325 Braun Court — will feature fully staged readings of 3 works by Michigan playwrights. The lineup, as described by the theater:

On Thursday, April 8, Barton Bund's "The Sleeping Giant" will offer a humorous look inside the world of competitive eating. A former world champion eater takes a young apprentice under his wing. But they are soon foiled when “The Jackal” lands on the scene — a professional eater with freakish abilities. The three contenders go for the gold at Nathan’s Famous annual hot dog eating contest, in a battle of wills and appetites that will leave them all changed forever. Directed by Michael Williams.

On Friday, April 9, Margaret Edwartowski's Old West thriller "Snowbound" — a recent late-night smash hit at Hamtramck’s Planet Ant Theatre — tells the story of a young woman, stranded in a cabin on a frozen mountainside, who finds a chance for escape into a new life. But when her plan is revealed, she is forced to make deadly choices. Directed by Emily Wilson-Tobin.

On Saturday, April 10, Kim Carney's "Elizabeth the Beautiful" takes the stage. In the play, it’s 1978, and Elizabeth Taylor is in rehab. When Richard Burton appears like The Ghost of Husbands Past, the two take a journey through her life and her loves. She was the world’s most beautiful woman, and now that she is fading into obscurity, she finds new meaning in her life. Directed by Austin Tracy.

Tickets for Raw Weekend are $10 each and available at the door.

Meanwhile, Bund's "Patty Hearst: The New Musical" will play June 3-12 at the \Sh\Aut Gallery and Cabaret, as well as the Boll Family YMCA, at 1401 Broadway in Detroit, June 17-26. All performances start at 8 p.m.

Kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, heiress Patricia Hearst became a bank robber, violent revolutionary and urban terrorist, and her story is told in this controversial new musical. (This show contains violence, coarse language and sexuality, so it's for mature audiences only; no one under 17 admitted.)

Tickets for "Hearst" are $10-$20, available at the door and at www.blackbirdtheatre.org.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.