New China Festival, Silk Road Rising. Aug 4-18. The three-week fest features three staged readings, beginning Aug. 4 with Ruoxin Xu’s Speaking As Then, a family drama set in China on (Chinese) New Year’s Eve. Week two is Gao Xingjian’s Dialogue & Rebuttal (Aug. 11-12). Closing weekend brings Stan Lai’s Sand on a Distant Star (Aug. 18-19). Tickets are super-cheap ($10 each!), so get there! CES
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Red Theater Chicago at the South Shore Cultural Center, Aug. 7-10. Red Theater’s Jeff award-winning production of Kristoffer Diaz’ scathing social commentary on the contradictory world of pro wrestling returns to the ring for five performances only. MSB
Everybody, Brown Paper Box Company at the Pride Arts Buena, through Aug. 12. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins deconstructs 1495’s hit Morality Play to answer the question of what, in our increasingly complex race/gender-inclusive universe, we can take with us into the afterlife. MSB
—By Barnidge and Sullivan