Founded 31 years ago "to preserve African-American artistic expression and to enlighten, entertain and enrich a diverse community," the Ensemble Theatre gets better each season, and this year was a banner one. The stage fare was distinctly varied and indefectibly produced with the company's usual high polish and downtown sass. There were two wonderfully different musicals: Christmas is Comin' Uptown (Dickens goes to Harlem — with attitude) and Get Ready (old smoothies stage a comeback); the civil rights dramedy Waiting to Be Invited; August Wilson's classic Joe Turner's Come and Gone; Lorraine Hansberry's mother of all black family dramas A Raisin in the Sun; and the wacky One Monkey Don't Stop No Show. The talent on display is prodigious, the works are given definitive productions and all that's needed is your presence. You can reach Ensemble by our beloved Metro light rail — the stop's right across the street — how convenient is that for great, enlightened theater?