Onstage around the Chicago area

• A former actress, a pouty 16-year-old, a hippie and a divorced carpenter enroll in an acting class. No, it's not the set up of a joke, it's the premise of “Circle Mirror Transformation,” Annie Baker's comedy about the real-life drama ordinary folks experience. Dexter Bullard (“The Big Meal”) directs Victory Gardens Theater's Chicago area premiere, which begins previews Friday, Feb. 25, at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Rae Gray, Steve Key, Joe D. Lauck, Lori Myers and the redoubtable Carmen Roman star in the show which opens Saturday, March 5. (773) 871-3000 or victorygardens.org.

• Theater Wit concludes its 2010-2011 season with “This,” Melissa James Gibson's comedic meditation on love and adultery beginning previews Friday, Feb. 25, at 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Artistic director Jeremy Wechsler directs the play, which centers around a promising poet and single mother forced to face some hard truths after a party game goes awry. The show opens Monday, Feb. 28. (773) 975-8150 or theaterwit.org.

• Previews begin Friday, Feb. 25, for “Magnetic North,” a sketch revue from a group of IO Chicago veterans who dub themselves St. Greg's Place. Performances run at 10:30 p.m. Fridays through April 1 at the Artistic Home, 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago. (773) 398-3913.

• Magicians, comedians, clowns, poets and performance artists gather each week for “Mayhem” a new variety show at Second City's Conny's Skybox Theatre, 1608 N. Wells St., Chicago. The show runs at midnight beginning Friday, Feb 25. (312) 337-3992 or secondcity.com.

• Adventure Stage Chicago kicks off its New Play Workshop Series with a reading of “Walk Two Moons,” Tom Arvetis' adaptation of Sharon Creech's 1995 tale about the life lessons a girl learns while traveling cross country with her grandparents. Matthew Reeder directs the free reading, which takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, at Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble St., Chicago. Additionally, Adventure Stage Chicago became the first Illinois company to receive the EmcArts' Innovation Lab Grant, which assists nonprofit arts organizations around the country. (773) 342-4141 or adventurestage.org.

• Remy Bumppo Theatre bids farewell to its founding artistic director James Bohnen, who is stepping down after 14 seasons at the helm of the Chicago company. The ensemble and its supporters will salute Bohnen Sunday, Feb. 27, during its ninth annual What's Past is Prologue Benefit at the University Club of Chicago, 76 E. Monroe St., Chicago. The event includes lunch, a silent auction, raffle and tributes to Bohnen from Remy Bumppo artistic associates and other theater artists. Proceeds help support the company's productions and programs. (773) 244-8119 or remybumppo.org.

• The State Theatre of Chicago showcases “The Blood Sun,” a work-in-progress about a South African orphan who brings hope and destruction to her people, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, at the Studio Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Chicago. The performance is part of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events' Theater Incubator Program to support the creation of new work. (312) 742-8497 or dcatheater.org.

• Performances begin Monday, Feb. 28, for “Nobody Likes Retsina,” a new musical from the Stockyards Theatre Project by Barbara Georgans (book), Philip Seward (music) and Jon Steinhagen (lyrics) developed through the New Tuners Musical Theatre Workshop. Set during the Prohibition era, the musical is about Greek-American brothers who make bootleg retsina (a Greek wine) that nobody likes. To extricate themselves from the bootleg business, they hatch a scheme to marry off their daughters. The show runs Mondays and Tuesdays through April 5, at the Parthenon Restaurant, 314 S. Halsted St., Chicago. (312) 423-6612 or stockyardstheatreproject.org.

• Rivendell Theatre Ensemble presents the world premiere of “Precious Little,” Madeline George's new play about a fortysomething linguistics professor who learns the child she's carrying might have a genetic abnormality that prevents the child from learning language. Previews begin Tuesday, March 1, at the Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago. The show opens Thursday, March 3. (312) 742-8497 or dcatheater.org orrivendelltheatre.net.

• Ireland's Abbey Theatre brings “Terminus” — writer/director Mark O'Rowe's three-person play comprised of intertwined monologues from a lonely woman, a mother seeking absolution and a serial killer — to the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. Performances, part of the MCA's Global Stage series in association with the Goodman Theatre, run Tuesday to Sunday, March 2-6. (312) 397-4010 or mcachicago.org.

• The 1950s quiz show scandal involving Columbia University academic Charles Van Doren and winning “21” contestant Herbert Stempel inspired Richard Greenberg's cautionary tale, “Night and Her Stars.” Michael Patrick Thornton (“Private Practice”) directs The Gift Theatre's revival, which stars Raymond Shoemaker as Herb and Jay Worthington as Charles. Previews begin Thursday, March 3, at 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. The show opens Monday, March 7. (773) 283-7071 or thegifttheatre.org.

• Staged readings of the five new plays selected for Pride Films and Plays' “Great Gay Play Fest” run Thursday to Sunday, March 3-6, at the Hoover-Leppen Theater at the Center of Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., Chicago. Plays include: Joe Lauderdale's “False Reality” about a man who creates a fictional identical twin to make his life easier; Corinne J. Kawecki's “Short Expanse” in which a child's birthday party sparks revelations that change the participants' lives; Enrique Urueta's “Learn to Be Latina” about a Lebanese pop singer made over into a Latin bombshell; Tyler Dean's farcical “Save the Date” about a wedding planner who goes to extremes to ensure the nuptials occur as scheduled and Mark S. Watson's “The Times” about a man's reunion with his college sweetheart. (773) 472-6469 or centeronhalsted.org.

• Writers Theatre has added an additional week of performances for “Travels With My Aunt,” Giles Havergal's adaptation of the Graham Greene novel. Performances continue through April 10 at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Ave., Glencoe. (847) 242-6000 or writerstheatre.org.

• American Theater Company has extended its world premiere of Dan LeFranc's “The Big Meal” chronicling significant moments in the history of a suburban family as they play out at a local restaurant. Performances continue through Sunday, March 20, at 1909 W. Byron St., Chicago. (773) 409-4125 or atcweb.org.

• The record-breaking “Million Dollar Quartet” celebrated its 1,000th performance in Chicago with the announcement of yet another extension. Performances of the musical revue, which re-imagines a 1956 jam session between Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley at the famed Sun Studios, continue through Sept. 25 at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. (773) 935-6100 or milliondollarquartetlive.com.

• “An Overhead Project” a retro sketch comedy revue that uses an overhead projector to address such critical middle school issues as death and the metric system, continues through Thursday, March 24, at Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Also at Gorilla Tango, the late-night, adults-only show “Boobs and Goombas: A Super Mario Burlesque” has been extended through Saturday, March 26. (773) 598-4549 or gorillatango.com.

• Playwright Yussef El Guindi (“Our Enemies,” “Back of the Throat”) has been awarded the Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award, a $10,000 commission awarded by a consortium comprised of Chicago's Silk Road Theatre Project, San Francisco's Golden Thread Productions and New York's Lark Play Development Center. The award is to encourage and support emerging Middle Eastern American playwrights.

— Barbara Vitello