Chicago News Desk - Page 6

Set in the present-day DRC, Ruined is the captivating story of Mama Nadi (Ekulona), the owner of a canteen who serves up everything from a cold beer and a warm meal-to the company of a woman. Through the eyes of this savvy businesswoman who both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds, Nottage captures the constantly shifting allegiances and tragic absurdity that marks the civil war in the DRC. Ruined, rendered with Nottage's trademark humanity, clarity and surprising humor, gives a glimpse of a country that has suffered immeasurable losses since the beginning of this war that has raged for more than a decade.

New Millennium Theatre Company (NMTC) presents The David Bowie Hepzikat Funky Velvet Flarney Solstice Spectacular, Live... From Space! (David Bowie's Christmas Special 1977)

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce Jean Genet's The Maids directed by Jimmy McDermott. The production runs November 18, 2008- April 5, 2009, at Writers' Theatre, 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The official press performances are December 3 and 4, 2008, at 7:30 p.m.

At Large! is a brand new one-woman show that tackles weight issues head on. Playwright and actress Keri Marcouillier interviewed many plus-size woman, as well as drawing on her own experiences, to write this show in the style of 'The Vagina Monologues'.

TimeLine Theatre Company announces the 2008-09 season of its TimePieces Play Reading Series, a series of one-night-only readings designed to offer Chicago audiences a chance to hear new and rarely produced plays and to extend TimeLine's mission of presenting stories inspired by history that connect to today's social and political issues.

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. will present the US Premiere of Our Bad Magnet at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan. It will open Monday, November 17, 2008 at 8 p.m. and run Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 on Thursday and Sunday, $20 on Friday, and $22 on Saturday. There will be previews on November 13-16 at 8 p.m. Tickets for previews are $10. Performance closes on Sunday, December 21, 2008. There is parking available in the Mobil Gas Station across from the theater at a fee determined by Mobil Gas. For more information and reservations call (773) 871-0442.

Every December, the residents of Deer Run Lane, a tiny cul de sac in Elk Woods Village, get together for their annual holiday party. The games, refreshments, and carols are all the same but this year the neighborhood party goes awry.

Queen Elizabeth's Dwarf, a unique solo performance by Chicago actress and little person Kathyrn Jones exploring the personal relationship dwarves and other people with disabilities played in the queen's court and during the Renaissance, is the kick-off presentation for the Victory Gardens Access Project 2008-2009 Crip Slam series.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD'S STAGE SERIES PRESENTS MULTILINGUAL 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Director Tim Supple's Adaptation-a Vivid Dream from India featuring Acrobats, Dancers, Martial Artists and Musicians. November 25 through December 7, 2008

Signal Ensemble Theatre continues its sixth season with John Guare's 'Six Degrees of Separation,' directed by co-artistic director Ronan Marra. Ouisa Kittredge read somewhere that 'everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people.' When Paul, a young victim of a knife attack, seeks assistance at her family's upper-class New York home, she discovers how true that statement really is.

Torben Betts' The Unconquered is a fast-moving satirical portrait of patriarchy, political indolence and over-reaction. The laughs begin when the 're-liberation' knocks on the door of your average upper-middle class family after aggressive revolutionaries have overthrown the government. Strange and unsettling, their new found freedom provokes the parents to reminisce about the comfort of life under the previous aristocracy while their spirited daughter criticizes her parent's banal and conforming attitudes with great, yet impotent, ferocity. The piece is a reflection of war's long-reaching effects on the domestic front, demonstrating the encompassing ambiguity of a public out of touch with reality. With great wit, poetics and charm, Betts sketches the self-hypocrisy that materializes during times of opaque identity and societal partition.

Court Theatre continues its 2008/09 season with SITI Company's Radio Macbeth adapted from the play by Shakespeare and co-directed by SITI Company Artistic Director Anne Bogart and Darron L. West. The production will run November 6, 2008 - December 7, 2008 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. The press opening will be Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.

The first 50 people to arrive at The Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport, to see the acclaimed drama THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on Friday, October 31 at 8 p.m. will receive a festive goody bag filled with fall treats from Wrigleyville's gourmet candy shop Candyality.

Broadway In Chicago encourages all Chicagoans to vote and then celebrate the election of the 44th President by offering theater patrons $44 tickets on Election Day, November 4, 2008, to the international stage hits DIRTY DANCING, Jersey Boys and WICKED. Election returns will be announced during intermission and at the close of the show.

Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans announce the Chicago premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical Grey Gardens, book by Doug Wright, lyrics by Michael Korie and music by Scott Frankel. The production, directed by BJ Jones with musical direction by Doug Peck, choreography by Marla Lampert and featuring Hollis Resnik, Tempe Thomas and Ann Whitney, has already been extended and will now run November 12-December 28, 2008, at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie.

'Rosie! A Tribute' is a loving and well-told musical adventure spanning the 40 year career of the great Girl Singer, Rosemary Clooney. Heather Moran has deftly created a musical tapestry from the colorful life of Clooney, spanning from her birth in Maysville, Kentucky, through her nervous breakdown in the late 1960's, her mid 1970's comeback, all the way to her death in 2002.

Profiles Theatre continues its 20th Anniversary Season with the OBIE Award-winning dark comedy The Thugs by Adam Bock, directed by Profiles Artistic Director Joe Jahraus. The production runs October 29-December 14, 2008, at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway. The play will run in repertory with Profiles' production of Men of Tortuga, playing through December 7, 2008. The press opening for The Thugs is Wednesday, October 29, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.

Philadelphia wants to build its new American Museum of Liberty on the grounds of George Washington's home and slave quarters. Soon a conservative academic star and a liberal political activist are confronting each other with polarizing questions of African-American identity and legacy. Elegantly juxtaposed with this contemporary conflict is the true story of one of Washington's slaves as she contemplates escape. The result is a thought-provoking drama that asks vital questions about race in America, both where we've been and where we go next.

'MARTIAN INVASION! DECODING THE WAR OF THE WORLDS,' a special live edition of the cult sensation Radio Lab, will take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, on Sunday, October 26 and Monday, October 27 at 7:30 pm. This special event, ideal for getting into the Halloween spirit, is presented as part of Victory Gardens' new Fresh Squeezed series of late night shows, out-of-the-box performances and edgy social events showcasing fresh talent from Chicago and around the country, targeting younger, culturally adventurous audiences.

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, in association with Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT), presents the Chicago premiere of Margaret Garner, a new American opera based on one of the most significant and controversial fugitive slave stories in pre-Civil War America. The opera will be directed by Kenny Leon, whose recent Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning A Raisin in the Sun; Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. Margaret Garner features music by Grammy Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour and a libretto by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, a novelist noted for her poetically charged and richly expressive depictions of the African American experience.