Theater events: E. Faye Butler plays Mama Rose in Porchlight's 'Gypsy'

• Previews begin Friday, Oct. 12, for Porchlight Music Theatre's revival of "Gypsy" starring multi-Joseph Jefferson Award-winner E. Faye Butler as Mama Rose, the stage mother determined to make her reluctant daughter Louise (Daryn Whitney Harrell) a star. Porchlight artistic director Michael Weber helms the production of the musical by Arthur Laurents, composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The show opens Oct. 16 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. (773) 777-9884 or porchlightmusictheatre.org.

• Improv Playhouse, 735 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville, hosts its Female First Funnies featuring all female performers at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12. Tickets are $20 for the BYOB show. (847) 968-4529 or improvplayhouse.com.

• Laurel Zoff Pelton examines her non-monogamous attraction to men and women in her adults-only solo show "Queer Little Hamster" running at 10:30 p.m. Fridays, Oct. 12-26, at iO Chicago, 1501 N. Kingsbury St., Chicago. A portion of the ticket proceeds benefits Howard Brown Health, an organization providing health and social services to members of the LGBTQ community. Also at the iO Theater, Improvised Jane Austen, whose all-female cast improvise sketches in the style of the 18th-century writer. The group performs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Oct. 30. (312) 929-2401 or ioimprov.com.

• The Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers and Sideshow Theatre host CLLAW XXXI: Fall Brawl on Friday, Oct. 12, at the Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie Ave., Chicago. In addition to arm wrestling, the evening includes live music and a cash bar. Doors open at 9 p.m. for the adults-only event. Tickets are $20. Proceeds benefit the theater and GirlForward, an organization that assists female refugees. See cllaw.org.

• Naperville's BrightSide Theatre hosts its annual benefit from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St., Naperville. The Dream I Dream: A Musical Revue features BrightSide actors performing show tunes from Broadway roles they've dreamed of playing. The event also includes cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a silent auction. Tickets are $45. Proceeds benefit the theater. (630) 447-8497 or brightsidetheatre.com.

• See it while you can. Hell in a Handbag Productions remounts its adults-only, Halloween edition of its popular spoof of TV's "The Golden Girls" for 10 performances beginning Saturday, Oct. 13, at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. "The Golden Girls: Bea Afraid!" centers around the girls' efforts to rid Sophia of a demon possessing her. Performances run through Nov. 3. (773) 327-5252 or handbagproductions.org.

• Haven Theatre hosts its fourth Directors Haven, a showcase of three up-and-coming Chicago-area directors that runs Monday, Oct. 15, through Oct. 31 at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Charlotte Drover directs Madame Rachilde's "The Crystal Spider," a surreal horror tale about a young person plagued by social and sexual pressures and terrorized by mirrors. Airos Sung-En Medill directs Josefina Lopez's "Simply Maria, of The American Dream" about a family's migration to the U.S. from Mexico. Dani Wieder directs "People in the Wind," William Inge's precursor to "Bus Stop," about a girl traveling cross country by bus who senses something is not right and asks the patrons of a roadside diner for help. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at haventheatrechicago.com.

• Remy Bumppo Theatre and Music Box Theatre team up for a screening of the 1931 film "Frankenstein" starring Boris Karloff followed by a discussion of "The Faces of Frankenstein: Depictions of Frankenstein's Creature From Mary Shelley to Benedict Cumberbatch." The panelists include Remy Bumppo ensemble members Nick Sandys and Greg Matthew Anderson, who alternate playing the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature in the company's upcoming production of "Frankenstein"; Essaka Joshua from the University of Notre Dame; DePaul University directing and cinema professor Andrew Stasiulis and Remy Bumppo ensemble member Peter A. Davis. "The Music Box has been a cornerstone of culture and entertainment on the north side for decades," said Remy Bumppo managing director Margaret McCloskey in a prepared statement. "We are delighted to join such a venerable institution for this program." The screening is at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. Tickets are $12. (773) 871-6607 or musicboxtheatre.com.

• Chicago Dramatists continues its Monday Night Drama Series consisting of public readings of in-progress plays at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at 1105 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago. Next up is resident playwright Kristin Idaszak's "Tar and Feather." See chicagodramatists.org.

• Previews begin Wednesday, Oct. 17, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, for Theater Unspeakable's "The American Revolution," a brisk, humorous retelling of the fight for independence. The Chicago run follows performances at the Kennedy Center and precedes performances in Washington, D.C., and California. Theater Unspeakable is a physical theater whose ensemble members use their voices, bodies and pantomime to tell the story. The show opens Oct. 20. (773) 404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org/theamericanrevolution.

• TUTA Theatre Chicago presents the U.S. premiere of Maxim Dosko's "Radio Culture," which examines a day in the life of a young Belorussian to reveal "how change can germinate inside of a person even within a culture that resists change at every step." Translated and adapted by Natalia Fedorova and Amber Robinson and directed by Robinson, the production begins previews Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 4670 N. Manor Ave., Chicago. The show opens Oct. 26. See tutatheatre.org.

• Six city dwellers decamp to the woods for a spiritual retreat where they cannot speak for a week in "Small Mouth Sounds" by Beth Wohl. A Red Orchid Theatre ensemble member Shade Murray directs the company's production, which begins previews Thursday, Oct. 18, at 1531 N. Wells St., Chicago. The show opens Oct. 27. (312) 943-8722 or aredorchidtheatre.org.

• "Destinos," the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival produced by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance and featuring artists from Chicago, Los Angeles, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Puerto Rico, continues at Chicago-area theaters. Those theaters include: Aguijon, Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Teatro Vista, UrbanTheater, Victory Gardens and Water People theaters. This week includes Teatro Vista's Chicago-area premiere of "American Jornalero," Ed Cardona Jr.'s play about Latino day laborers confronted by America First vigilantes. Performances run Thursday, Oct. 18, to Oct. 21 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Also opening Thursday, Oct. 18, is Aguijon Theater's Midwest premiere of Dolores Prida's "Casa Propia/A House of Her Own," a comedy about a woman's quest for her American Dream. It runs through Nov. 25 at 2707 N. Laramie Ave., Chicago. For a festival schedule and ticket information, see clata.org or call (312) 631-3112.

• redtwist theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, has extended its season-opening production of John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation," about a young con man who charms his way into the good graces of a wealthy family by claiming to be the son of Sidney Poitier. Performances run through Oct. 21. (773) 728-7529 or redtwist.org.

• A group of young misfits fall in with Freddy Krueger's younger brother in the adults-only comedy "A Wet Dream on Elm Street: The Musical," running through Nov. 4 at The Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. (773) 697-9693 or theannoyance.com.

• Trap Door recently announced its 25th season will include Luigi Pirandello's "Naked" (through Oct. 27); Alexander Sekulov's "There is No Power for the Electric Chair" (Oct. 21-Nov. 5) about a convict and an executioner; "Old Woman Broods" by Tadeusz Rozewicz (Dec. 13-Jan. 19, 2019) and the 25/25 Festival celebrating the theater's milestone anniversary (Feb. 14-March 20, 2019). Performances take place at 1655 W. Cortland St., Chicago. Multishow season passes range from $75 for four shows to $150 for eight shows. (773) 384-0494 or trapdoortheatre.com.

• Broken Nose Theatre's seventh season commences Nov. 9 with the premiere of company member Spenser Davis' play "Plainclothes" about security guards at a downtown Chicago store charged with racial profiling after a violent encounter with a shoplifter. That's followed by "Girl in the Red Corner" (Feb. 1-March 2, 2019), Stephen Spotswood's drama about a recently divorced woman who signs up for mixed martial arts lessons. Up next is the Midwest premiere of Yussef El-Guindi's "Language Rooms," about a Middle Eastern man who works in the Department of Homeland Security whose loyalty comes under suspicion. The season concludes in summer 2019 with Bechdel Fest 7, showcasing short plays that pass the Bechdel test (named for cartoonist Alison Bechdel) in which two females have a conversation about something other than a man. Performances take place at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but donations are accepted. See brokennosetheatre.com.

• Sideshow Theatre Company's 2018-2019 season begins with a world premiere co-production with Greenhouse Theater Center of J. Nicole Brooks' "HeLa" (Nov. 18-Dec. 23 at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago), which blends a 1951 story about an African-American woman in a gynecology ward at Johns Hopkins, a 1981 story about a child in Chicago watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" and a future tale about a pilot watching from her flying saucer hovering above earth. That's followed by the Midwest premiere of "The Ridiculous Darkness" (March 24-April 28, 2019) a riff on "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocalypse Now" adapted from a radio text by Wolfram Lotz about a soldier charged with killing a Colonel who has gone rogue. The season concludes with a Rivendell Theatre Ensemble co-production of the Midwest premiere of Selina Fillinger's "Something Clean," about a mother coping with her son's incarceration on sexual assault charges. It runs June 16-July 21, 2019. The second and third production take place at the Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Memberships start at $75. See sideshowtheatre.org.

• Underscore Theatre Company's season opens Nov. 13 at The Understudy, 4609 N. Clark St., Chicago, with the musical "Wife Material" by writer/composer/lyricist Jamie Shriner. It's about a young woman who grew up in conservative Indiana, married in January 2017 and discovered she wasn't necessarily "wife material." The 5th Annual Chicago Musical Theater Festival showcasing nine works by emerging musical theater creators takes place from Feb. 4-24, 2019, at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, Chicago. The season concludes in June 2019 at The Understudy, with "The Ballad of Lefty & Crabbe" a musical by Brian Huther, Ben Auxier and Seth Macci that follows a pair of down-on-their-luck vaudeville performers trying to navigate the burgeoning Hollywood scene. Tickets go on sale at a later date. see underscoretheatre.org.

• The Gift Theatre will open its 2019 season Jan. 10 with Ten, its annual premiere of 10 10-minute plays by Gift associates and ensemble members. On Feb. 27, 2019, the theater stages an especially timely revival of John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt: A Parable," about Sister Aloysius, a parochial school principal in 1950s New York who suspects the parish priest has abused a male student. Up next is the Chicago-area premiere of Hansol Jung's "Wolf Play" (Oct. 18-Nov. 24, 2019) about an American boxer and his wife who adopt a Korean boy (actually a puppet), but has second thoughts after he "re-homes" his son to a lesbian couple. The last production will be announced later. "Doubt" takes place at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted St., Chicago. Other performances take place at 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Preview subscriptions are $65, weekday subscriptions are $95, anytime subscriptions are $115 and Gale Street subscriptions including special perks are $190. (773) 283-7071 or thegifttheatre.org.