Theater events: Experience Theater on Your Feet in Elgin

Walk about Elgin

Janus Theater, Nothing Special Productions, Guild Theater and the Great American Artistic Consortium perform adaptations of short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe as part of Elgin's fifth annual Walkabout: Theater on Your Feet. Performances take place at various downtown locations in this environmental theatrical work.

Tours run at 15-minute intervals beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, July 27; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, July 28; and 2 p.m. Sunday, July 29. Tours start at the Elgin Public House, 219 E. Chicago St., Elgin. $15 (cash only). Reservations required. (847) 841-1713 or www.elginwalkabout.com.

Second City in the 'burbs

The Second City returns to the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre with its comedy revue “Girls' Night Out,” chronicling everything from in-laws to chocolate binges. The show is part of Metropolis' ongoing comedy series.

Opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2, at 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights. Tickets cost $28.50. (847) 577-2121 or metropolisarts.com.

Shylock's turn

First Folio Theatre presents a companion piece to its current production of Shakespeare's “The Merchant of Venice.” Maurice Schwartz's “Shylock and His Daughter” examines the reasons behind Shylock's acquisitiveness, that he wants to raise money to fight the Inquisition's treatment of Jews. Michael Goldberg and Cassidy Stirtz reprise their roles as Shylock and Jessica in director Alison C. Vesely's staged reading.

8:15 p.m. Thursdays, July 26, and Aug. 2, 9 and 16, at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook. $10. “Merchant” runs at 8:15 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays through Sundays through Aug. 19. (630) 986-8067 or firstfolio.org.

Other theater events:

Ÿ Salsation Theatre Company debuts its new sketch comedy show “Daylabor Dreamin',” examining employment from a Latino perspective, on Friday, July 27, at Skokie's Gorilla Tango Theatre, 7924 N. Lincoln Ave. The show, written by Skokie native Eric Scott Curtis, runs through Thursday, Aug. 16. (773) 598-4549 or gorillatango.com or salsation.org.

Ÿ The Neo-Futurists offer students enrolled at Chicago-area colleges a $5 discount to their long-running “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes” on their school's dedicated weekend. Truman College students receive the discount from Friday to Sunday, July 27-29. Illinois Institute of Technology students receive the discount Friday to Sunday, Aug. 3-5. Shows are at 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday, at 5153 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago. (773) 275-5255 or neofuturists.org.

Ÿ Victory Gardens Theater opens its 2012 Ignition Festival featuring in-development staged readings of new works by playwrights of color, on Sunday, July 29, at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The featured plays include: Kirsten Greenidge's “The Curious Walk of the Salamander,” about a woman forced into therapy following a breakdown who reveals the reasons for her wealthy family's demise and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' “Appropriate” about adult children who come together to liquidate the estate of their long-dead, compulsive hoarder patriarch. Also featured during the two-week festival is A. Rey Pamatmat's “The Shotgun Message” about a reporter whose teenage source for a story about online pedophiles goes missing, and Lauren Yee's “Samsara” about an infertile American couple who go to India to “rent out” a surrogate. (773) 871-3000 or victorygardens.org.

Ÿ DePaul University religious studies professors Scott Kelley and James Halstead participate in a talk-back following the 1 p.m. Sunday, July 29, performance of “Freud's Last Session,” at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. (773) 325-1700 or mercurytheaterchicago.com.

Ÿ The Utter Shambles Theater Collective presents 10 short plays by Paul Barile from Monday, July 30, to Wednesday, Aug. 1, at the Viaduct Theater, 3211 N. Western Ave., Chicago. See viaducttheatre.com for more information.

Ÿ Finalists for Stage Left Theatre's DrekFest 2012 — showcasing the nation's worst 10-minute plays — will be presented in staged readings beginning on Tuesday, July 31, at The ComedySportz Theatre, 929 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. They includes Mauro Flores' “A Streetcar Named Sigmund on a Jung Tin Roof;” Jake Lindquist's “Abortion Carnival of the Juggalos;” Peter Papachronopoulos' “Pretentious Title That Makes You Hate This Play Before It Has Even Begun” and Kate Black Spence's “Women Are People Too.” A trio of judges will determine the worst play winner. All the finalists receive cash prizes. (773) 883-8830 or comedysportzchicago.com or stagelefttheatre.com.

Ÿ Theater on the Lake concludes its 60th season on Wednesday, Aug. 1, at the theater at Fullerton Avenue and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, with The Building Stage's production of “Moby Dick,” adapted from Herman Melville's novel about obsession. The show runs through Sunday, Aug. 5. (312) 742-7994 or chicagoparkdistrict.com.

Ÿ Trap Door Theatre's production of “Smartphones: a pocket size farce,” an absurdist comedy by Spanish playwright Emilio Williams about three friends waiting for a fourth to show up. Williams directs the world premiere, which continues through Saturday, Aug. 18, at 1655 W. Cortland Ave., Chicago. (773) 384-0494 or trapdoortheatre.com.

Ÿ Citadel Theatre Company announced its 2012-2013 season, which begins Sept. 29 with Jerry Sterner's “Other People's Money,” about a corporate raider who falls for the attorney trying to block is takeover. It's followed by a new adaptation of Luisa May Alcott's “Little Women.” Next up is Yasmina Reza's examination of parents behaving badly, “God of Carnage” (Feb. 8-March 10, 2013). Concluding the season is Matthew Barber's “Enchanted April” (April 26-May 26, 2013), in which four British women examine their lives during their stay at a remote Italian villa. Performances take place at 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest. Subscriptions are available. (847) 735-8554 or citadeltheatre.org.

Ÿ Kelli Strickland, Raven Theater's director of education and outreach and creator of the solo hit “We've Got a Badge for That,” is among 10 arts professionals worldwide to receive the nine-month DeVos Institute Fellowship for midcareer arts professionals at The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Also Raven welcomed 11 new ensemble members, including Strickland, actors Michael Boone, Jason Huysman, Sophia Menendian, Antoine Pierre Whitfield and Kristen Williams. Other new members include stage managers Cathy Bowren and Jen Short; directors Williams, Cody Estle, Teri McCaskill and writer John Weagly.

Ÿ The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded Writers' Theatre and the village of Glencoe a $100,000 Our Town grant to support the design of the company's new theater in Glencoe, which is being designed by Jeanne Gang and Chicago's Studio Gang Architects. “To have this important project recognized by the NEA, and to be working with such wonderful partners toward our new theater center is truly an honor,” said Writers' executive director Kathryn Lipuma in a prepared statement.

Ÿ TUTA Theatre Chicago co-founder Zeljko Djukic has received a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach modern American drama at Belgrade, Serbia's Drama Arts School for the 2012-2013 academic year. As a result he will take on the new role of founding director, leaving co-founder and longtime ensemble member Jacqueline Stone to assume the role of artistic director beginning Sept. 1. “I could not be more honored and exhilarated to step into this enormous role. I have spent the last 18 years artistically and organizationally collaborating with Djukic, my mentor and friend, and I feel a strong passion to carry on his tradition of taking risks with our artistic collaborators,” said Stone in a prepared statement.

Ÿ Bailiwick Chicago announced that Brian LaDuca will step down as executive director and that Kate Garassino will take his place. After two years with Bailiwick, LaDuca is moving to Ohio to become the director of ArtStreet, a learning and arts complex on the University of Dayton campus. A founding member of Bailiwick Chicago and Joseph Jefferson Award recipient, Garassino has worked as the marketing manager at BoHo Theater Ensemble.