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Theater events: House Theatre revives Jeff Award-winning 'United Flight 232'

'United Flight 232'

The House Theatre of Chicago remounts its Joseph Jefferson Award-winning production of "United Flight 232" from 2016. Adapted and directed by Vanessa Stalling from Laurence Gonzales' book, the docudrama chronicles the United Airlines flight that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, while en route to O'Hare International Airport in July 1989. Lombard actor Carlos Olmedo joins original cast members Brenda Barrie, Elana Elyce, Johnny Arena and Alice da Cunha in the production. Previews begin at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago. The show opens Sept. 10. $15-$45. (773) 769-3832 or thehousetheatre.com/.

Female power

Babes With Blades inaugurates its 20th anniversary season with the world premiere of "The Invisible Scarlet O'Neil," about one of the first female comic strip superheros, who uses her power of invisibility to help others. Inspired by the 1940s and 1950s comic strip written and drawn by Russell Stamm, the story centers on Scarlet's efforts to preserve her late father's reputation after his former lab assistant attempts to sell the mind-controlling lipstick she created to the KGB. Former suburbanite Leigh Barrett, a graduate of Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, directs. Previews begin at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at the Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St., Chicago. The show opens Sept. 9. $15-$25. See babeswithblades.org.

Comic thriller

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble opens its season with "The 39 Steps," the farcical whodunit adapted by Patrick Barlow from John Buchan's 1915 novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film. Ensemble member Bryan Burke plays Richard Hannay, an unassuming man living in London who gets seduced by a woman who winds up dead. Suspected of her murder, he flees to Scotland where he attempts to clear his name with help from a cool blonde. Ensemble member Kurt Naebig directs the four-person cast, who play about 150 characters in this cinematic sendup. The preview is at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. The show opens Sept. 8. $37. (630) 942-4000 or atthemac.org.

Other theater events

• 19th-century Irish playwright John Millington Synge drew upon his country's legends for the love story "Deirdre of the Sorrows," about a girl promised in infancy to marry the King of Ulster, who subsequently rejects the arrangement and runs away with her lover. City Lit Theatre's revival, which begins previews on Friday, Sept. 1, is reportedly Chicago's first staging of the drama since 1917. Kay Martinovich directs the production, which opens Sept. 10 at 1020 Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago. (773) 293-3682 or citylit.org.

• Rivendell Theatre Ensemble premieres its adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel "Alias Grace," about one of Canada's most notorious murders. Ensemble member Ashley Neal plays 16-year-old Grace Marks who, in 1843, was imprisoned for four years for murdering her boss and his housekeeper. Rivendell co-founder Karen Kessler directs Jennifer Blackmer's adaptation. Previews begin Friday, Sept. 1, at 5779 N. Ridge Ave., Chicago. The show opens Sept. 13. (773) 334-7728 or rivendelltheatre.org.

• Beginning Friday, Sept. 1, six playwrights, six directors and 18 actors will create and perform six new 10 minute plays, which will premiere 24 hours later as part of Nothing Without A Company's fifth 24-Hour Fest. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at the Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago. Tickets are $15 online and pay-what-you-can at the door. See nothingwithoutacompany.org.

• Redtwist theatre ensemble members Jacqueline Grandt, Brian Parry, Adam Bitterman and Johnny Garcia are among the actors appearing in the company's season-opening production of "Our Town," Thornton Wilder's homage to small-town America set in the fictional Grover's Corners around the turn of the last century. Associate artistic director James Fleming helms the revival, which begins previews Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago. The show opens Sept. 9. (773) 728-7529 or redtwist.org.

• iO Chicago, 1501 N. Kingsbury St., Chicago, hosts the next installment of "Electrodide: Ancient Electronic Goddess" an interactive "electric-beatboxing funk-opera. It runs Wednesdays, Sept. 6-27. (312) 929-2401 or ioimprov.com/chicago.

• Previews begin Thursday, Sept. 7, for Court Theatre's season-opening production of "Five Guys Named Moe," a revue showcasing Louis Jordan's music about a young man nursing a broken heart who's cheered by five guys who emerge from his radio to offer consolation. The musical, directed by resident artist Ron OJ Parson, opens Sept. 16 at 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago. (773) 753-4472 or courttheatre.org.

Actor/playwright Michael Milligan stars in "Mercy Killers," part of a double bill titled The American Mercy Tour: "Mercy Killers" and "Side Effects" at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Courtesy of Marcus Kyd

• The Greenhouse Theater Center in association with Poor Box Theater and Taffety Punk Theatre Company present the Chicago-area premiere of The American Mercy Tour: "Mercy Killers" and "Side Effects," a pair of one-act plays about patients and physicians written and performed by Michael Milligan. "Mercy Killers" centers on auto mechanic Joe, whose beloved wife's illness has pushed him to the financial brink. "Side Effects"chronicles the efforts of a family physician to balance the art and business of medicine or risk losing his practice. Performances run Thursdays, Sept. 7 through Oct. 8, at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. (773) 404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org.

Darren Jones, left, plays Dred Scott and Lawrence Grimm plays Abraham Lincoln in Shattered Globe Theatre's "The Heavens are Hung in Black." Courtesy of Joe Martinez Jr.

• Shattered Globe Theatre ensemble member Louis Contey directs its season opening, Chicago-area premiere of "The Heavens are Hung in Black," James Still's interpretation of Abraham Lincoln's state of mind in the months leading up to his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lawrence Grimm stars as Lincoln in the production, which begins previews Thursday, Sept. 7, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. The show opens Sept. 10. (773) 975-8150 or theaterwit.org or shatteredglobe.org.

• Previews begin Thursday, Sept. 7, for Steppenwolf Theatre's Chicago-area premiere of "The Rembrandt," Jessica Dickey's rumination on creative expression in which a museum guard is transported across time after he touches a masterwork. The production, directed by Hallie Gordon, opens Sept. 17 at 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago. (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org.

• "Confessions of a Mormon Boy," three one-man, autobiographical plays by Steven Fales about coming out and reconciling with his family, plays Pride Arts Center in advance of its off-Broadway opening next year. The show, which ran at Bailiwick Arts Center in 2005, runs Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 7-10, at 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago. (800) 737-0984 or pridefilmsandplays.com.

• Erasing the Distance, an ensemble that uses performance to educate people about mental health and mental illness, debuts SPARKfest, a mini-festival comprised of three world premieres addressing such issues as addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and issues associated with aging. Performances run Thursday, Sept. 7, through Sept. 24 at Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. The plays include: "Breath With Me" by Millie Hurley and Maura Kidwell; "Walk a Mile," a one-woman show by Stacy Stoltz; and "The Lies We Tell" by Charlotte Drover, Mariana Green and Adam Poss. Tickets range from $13 to $20. A three-show pass is $33. See erasingthedistance.org.

• There's still time to register for the third annual Chicago Theater Bike Ride to benefit The Actors Fund and The Chicago Emergency Aid Fund. The event begins with a ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, followed by the 12-mile ride beginning at Foster Beach, 5200 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Suggested donation is $25. Register at lovehardbikeride.org.

• Writers Theatre has extended its premiere of the musical "Trevor" based on the Academy Award-winning short film about a 13-year-old boy struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. Performances continue through Oct. 1 at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe. (847) 242-6000 or writerstheatre.org.

• Broadway in Chicago announced theatergoers can enter the lottery for $10 "Hamilton" tickets through a new app available at hamiltonbroadway.com/app. Theatergoers can also register online at hamiltonbroadway.com/lottery. "Hamilton" is scheduled to run through next April at The PrivateBank Theater, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago.

• Eta Creative Arts Foundation salutes Chicago writers during its 2017-2018 season, which begins Oct. 20 with "The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves" a musical by Nora Brooks Blakely and Valerie King based on a Gwendolyn Brooks poem about Taji, a tiger who feels inferior to the other animals. That's followed on Feb. 9, 2018, by the musical "Eye of the Storm" by McKinley Johnson, Marshall Titus and David Taylor based on civil and gay rights activist Bayard Rustin. "Comfort Stew," Angela Jackson's drama about a couple coping with a missing child, runs April 13 through May 13, 2018. The season concludes with Reginald Edmund's "Junteenth Street" (June 8-July 8, 2018) about a clergyman who inherits a church in a dying neighborhood in Houston, Texas. Performances take place at 7558 S. South Chicago Ave., Chicago. (773) 752-3955 or etacreativearts.org.

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