A contemporary 'Midsummer' at NWRT

Like she did with last season's "Hamlet Remix'd," director Jean Gottlieb puts a contemporary spin on Shakespeare's romantic romp, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at New World Repertory Theater. The Company's season-opening production also marks the professional debut of students from NWRT's Acting Out Education Program.

Facts: Preview Friday, Oct. 10. Opens Saturday, Oct. 11 at 923 Curtiss St., Downers Grove. (630) 663-1489 or newworldrep.org.

Nuns at Noble Fool

Theatergoers sure do like funny nuns. For proof there's the four professional productions of the hit interactive comedy "Late Nite Catechism" and its sequel "Put the Nuns in Charge" staged recently in the suburbs and Chicago. Noble Fool hosts the latest. Their version of "Put the Nuns in Charge" stars the busy Lisa Braatz, who's also currently starring in Copley Theatre's "Late Nite Catechism."

Facts: Opens Saturday, Oct. 11 at Pheasant Run Resort & Spa, 4051 E. Main St., St. Charles. (630) 584-6342 or noblefool.org.

Robertson in Oak Brook

Chicago area favorite Barbara Robertson stars as the irrepressible, eccentric title character in the Jerry Herman musical "Mame" adapted from Patrick Dennis' novel about growing up with his madcap aunt. Robertson plays the role through Nov. 16, after which she returns to the Chicago cast of "Wicked." Kat Taylor plays Mame through the end of the run.

Facts: Previews continue through Oct. 15. "Mame" opens Thursday, Oct. 16, at Drury Lane Oak Brook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. (630) 530-0111 or drurylaneoakbrook.com.

What's new

•Newcomer Sandhill Theatre Company begins its inaugural season with an evening of one-acts dubbed Questioning the Dead. Plays include Nathaniel Wright's "Pushing Daisies" about three very different men confronting each other in the afterlife and David Alex's "The Visitors" about a man coming to terms with his life. The shows open Thursday, Oct., 9 at Stage 33, 3657 N. Kedzie Ave., Chicago. (773) 648-0583 or sandhilltheatre.org.

•Stage Left Theatre, 3408 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago, in conjunction with the Vet Art Project, offers U.S. veterans and active duty servicemen and women free admission to its Friday, Oct. 10, preview of "After Ashley." The play, about a young man dealing with the after effects of a family tragedy that became a media sensation, opens Tuesday, Oct. 14. (773) 883-8830 or stagelefttheatre.com.

•Oracle Productions hosts "Disturbed III," its annual adults-only horror-theater series performed in 15-minute increments. This year's production centers around an artist who turns a human body into a grotesque sculpture. Performances are Saturdays and Sundays from Oct. 10 to Nov. 1 at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway, Chicago. (773) 244-2980 or oracletheatre.org.

•Three short plays and three poems by early 20th century Spanish playwright/poet Federico Garcia Lorca inspire "Cabaret of Desire," an original production by Blair Thomas & Company that incorporates puppets and original music. The adults-only show opens Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago.(312) 742-8497.

•Hell in a Handbag Productions offers as its Halloween offering, "Haywire!" a parody of 1960s B-horror films opening Monday, Oct. 13 at Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. The show's about a circus owner who suffers a nervous breakdown and retires. Her return to the big top 15 years later is accompanied by a series of mysterious deaths. (800) 838-3006 or handbagproductions.org.

•"Bernarda Alba - a musical," Michael John LaChiusa's musical adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba," about repressed passion that centers around the strict mourning rituals a widow imposes upon her five daughters, begins Bohemian Theatre Ensemble's fifth season. The musical opens Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood, Chicago. (866) 811-4111 or bohotheatre.com.

•Humorist Mike Daisey satirizes homeland security in his new monologue "If You See Something, Say Something," running Friday, Oct. 10, to Sunday, Oct. 12. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. (312) 397-4010 or mcachicago.org.

•Election-centered theater isn't just for adults, as Lifeline Theatre demonstrates with the world premiere of the musical "Duck for President" based on Doreen Cronin's book about a young duck who wants to run Farmer Brown's farm and then the entire world. Adapter James E. Grote, composer/lyricist George Howe and director Shole Milos (the trio responsible for Lifeline's hit "Click, Clack, Moo") are in charge. Previews begin Saturday, Oct., 11, at 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago. The show opens Sunday, Oct. 12. (773) 761-4477 or lifelinetheatre.com.

•The next installment of the "Forbidden Broadway" franchise spoofing some of theater's biggest hits, "Forbidden Broadway: Dances with the Stars" is in previews at the Royal George Cabaret Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St., Chicago. This version - parodying "Young Frankenstein," "Spring Awakening," "The Little Mermaid" and "Legally Blonde" among other shows - opens Tuesday, Oct. 14. (312) 988-9000 or ticketmaster.com.

•Doug Weight's "Quills," about the last days of the Marquis de Sade, confined to the insane asylum at Charenton as much for his scandalous sexual behavior as for his provocative writing, opens The Shadowmen's 2008-2009 season. Performances begin Thursday, Oct. 16, at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland St., Chicago. Tickets available at shadowmenchicago.com.

•"Special Import," writer/director Paul Turner's look at a changing Chicago neighborhood from the perspective of three regulars at a local tavern, opens Thursday, Oct. 16, at the Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway, Chicago. (773) 561-4665 or annoyanceproductions.com.

•Artistic director Michael Menendian directs Raven Theatre's production of "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train," Stephen Adly Guirgis' prison drama about a young man jailed for shooting a cult leader. Previews continue through Oct. 10. The show opens Sunday, Oct., 11 at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. (773) 338-2177 or raventheatre.com.

•"The Screwtape Letters," C.S. Lewis' meditation on faith in which senior demon Screwtape instructs his nephew, apprentice Wormwood, on how to undermine the faith of a recent convert to Christianity, comes to the Mercury Theater for a brief run. Jeffrey Fiske and Max McLean's adaptation opens Sunday, Oct. 12, at 3745 N. Southport, Chicago. (773) 325-1700 or screwtapeonstage.com.

•Victory Gardens Theater's revival of Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice," a unique take on the Greek myth of Orpheus in which his bride Eurydice wanders away from their wedding when a messenger arrives bearing a letter from her dead father, marks the start of the theater's 35th season. Ensemble member Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus co-direct the play which opens Monday, Oct. 13, at the Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. (773) 871-3000 or victorygardens.org.

•Pegasus Players opens its 30th anniversary season with David Edgar's politically themed two-play epic "Continental Divide," about the making of a political candidate from both a Democratic and Republican perspective. "Mothers Against" opens Monday, Oct. 13, and "Daughters of the Revolution" opens Wednesday, Oct. 15. The plays run in repertory at the O'Rourke Center at Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago. (312) 932-9950 or pegasusplayers.org.