There’s a theatrical cachet to bragging, ‘I saw it first in Chicago,’ especially if you caught shows like August: Osage County, Adding Machine and The Strangerer before they wowed them in New York. In that same tradition, consider this alphabetical list of completely new works whipped up first for Windy City stages.
Pictured: Angelus Novus. Photo by Yi Zhao
—Angelus Novus; National Headquarters at AV-aerie, 2000 W. Fulton, 312-850-9729; Oct. 1-12. This new movement-based theater company creates a work based upon sources as divergent as a Paul Klee painting, German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s writings and cable TV news. It could be utterly pretentious or an ultimately prescient look at the trying times we live in today.
—Dracula; The Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter, 312-491-1369; through Oct. 18. Chicago-area stages are bursting with Bram Stoker’s infamous bloodsucker this season. But this home-grown adaptation promises to be different as a physical theater piece inspired by silent films and graphic novels.
—Get Right; Thirteen Pocket at Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green, 312-733-6000; through Oct. 19. Actor Stephen Louis Grush (Good Boys and True) also shows he’s a playwright with this drama set in his hometown of New Orleans. Though it takes place in the days before Hurricane Katrina, don’t expect things to go well when a heroin addict makes an unsavory pact with his dealer. Let the good times roll.
—Kafka on the Shore; Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, Chicago, through Nov. 16. Director Frank Galati had a great success adapting Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake short stories for the stage. Now Galati tackles an entire Murakami novel filled with phantasmagorical pop culture characters like Johnny Walker and Col. Sanders in what he calls an ‘Oedipal comedy.’ 312-335-1650
—Kyta y Fernanda; 16th Street Theater at Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th, Berwyn, 708-795-6704; Sept. 25-Oct. 25. New works exploring social issues of our day continue to find a berth at this ambitious Berwyn theater. Teatro Luna’s Tanya Saracho’s latest drama looks at class, immigration and friendship on an intimate level between two Latina girls living in the same Texas household.
—Land of the Free; Babes with Blades at Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western, 773-296-6024; Sept. 20-Oct. 26. You’ve got to admire this largely women’s company that creates new works to suit their bad-ass skills of swordplay and stage combat. Expect plenty of high jinks in Mark Burns’ partisan election farce set in 2004, which features characters ranging from venomous conservative author Ann Coulter to deceased aesthete playwright Oscar Wilde.
—The Medium at Large; Village Players Theatre, 1010 W. Madison, Oak Park, 866-764-1010; Oct. 17-Nov. 16. Not to be confused with Menotti’s similarly named 1950s opera, this new musical comedy by Julia Cameron and Emma Lively features Tony Award-nominee John Herrera (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) playing a medium who is a matchmaker between people in this world and the next. Talk about bad set up for a blind date.
—Odin’s Horse; Infamous Commonwealth Theatre at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, 312-458-9780; Sept. 20-Oct. 19. Who knew there was a national EcoDrama Playwrights Festival competition? Obviously Chicago playwright Robert Koon did, since he won it with this drama of an author who visits the redwood forests of northern California and befriends a beleaguered tree-sitter.
—Ten Cent Night; Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago, 312-663-0630; through Oct. 26. Always expect something fresh and new from this company of resident Chicago playwrights. This time around, Marisa Wegrzyn serves up a new play that promises to be a rip-roaring fight. Find out what happens when Texas twins fight over the legacy (and more importantly, the royalties) of their successfully suicidal country star father.
—Turn of the Century; Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800; Sept. 19-Nov. 2. This musical written by the authors of Jersey Boys should have it all: Time travel, time-tested tunes and direction and choreography by nine-time Tony Award-winner Tommy Tune. There’s also some serious star power with Jeff Daniels (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Dumb and Dumber) and Broadway veteran Rachel York (Victor/Victoria, City of Angels). It’s enough to almost make you forget that it’s yet another jukebox musical.