Theater events: Patti Vasquez headlines 8th Annual Chicago Women's Funny Festival

• Steel Beam Theatre hosts its next Night Moose Comedy Jam featuring the improv team 4 of Diamonds at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, at 111 W. Main St., St. Charles. Admission is $10. (630) 587-8521 or steelbeamtheatre.com.

• Otherworld Theatre hosts the Genre-Thon Comedy Festival, a "celebration of nerdom in comedy" with headlining ensembles Improvised Star Trek and Improvised Jane Austen, along with the theater's in-house improv team Out on a Whim: Improvised Dungeons and Dragons. Performances run Friday through Sunday, Aug. 23-25, at 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago. Festival passes are $30. Single-day passes are $20. See otherworldtheatre.org.

• The 8th Annual Chicago Women's Funny Festival continues through Sunday, Aug. 25, at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. More than 80 shows - including standup, improv and sketch comedy - are scheduled for the festival, whose headliners include comedians Patti Vasquez and Dina Nina Martinez; comedy duo Anna Vocino and Loren Tarquinio; ventriloquist Hannah Leskosky; and improv group Bosses in Bonnetts. New this year is an all-Spanish language set at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug 25. It features Argentine comedian Eliana La Casa, the sketch show "La Carne Asada #2: The Seasoning," Las Tinas Improv, whose members create an original telenovela, and Ratas De Dos Patas. (773) 327-5252 or see the schedule at stage773.com/cwff-lineup.

• Pride Films & Plays hosts a Fundraiser Friday event on Friday, Aug. 23, that will benefit the Test Positive Aware Network, which supports people living with AIDS. The fundraiser is in conjunction with PFP's current production "All That He Was," about a man's struggle with AIDS. The company will donate $5 from every ticket sold that day to TPAN. The performance is at 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago. See pridefilmsandplays.com.

• Chicago favorite Heidi Kettenring channels Karen Carpenter as part of Theatre at the Center's Artists Lounge Live series showcasing theater artists in a cabaret setting. Kettenring performs "We've Only Just Begun: Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter" at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana. (219) 836-3255 or theatreatthecenter.com.

• In another Artists Lounge Live series event, Broadway veteran Chester Gregory brings his show "Higher and Higher, A Feel-Good Rock 'n Soul Shindig" to the Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. Chester performs favorites such as "My Girl" and "Superstition" at 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25. (847) 634-0200 or artistsloungelive.com.

• Broken Nose Theatre presents Bechdel Fest 7: Momentum, the company's showcase of short plays consisting of female-identifying and nonbinary actors "talking about things other than men." Presented as part of Steppenwolf Theatre's LookOut Series, the fest runs Sunday through Wednesday, Aug. 25-28, at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted St., Chicago. All the works are inspired by the Bechdel-Wallace Test created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel ("Fun Home"), which evaluates whether a work of entertainment features at least two women talking about a subject other than a man. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but suggested admission is $25. (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org or brokennosetheatre.com.

• Previews begin Thursday, Aug. 29, for Greenhouse Theater Center and On The Spot Theatre's collaboration on the U.S. premiere of "Sons and Lovers," adapted from D.H. Lawrence's novel and directed by Mike Brayndick. Set in England during the early 20th century, the semi-autobiographical tale chronicles Lawrence's coming-of-age, his parents' troubled marriage and his mother's jealousy of the women he romanced. The production opens Aug. 31 at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. (773) 404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org.

• Short Story Theatre presents tales about a possible home invasion, a cigarette-smoking teen, balding tires and how a business trip changed a man's life at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29. The storytelling takes place at Miramar Bistro, 301 Waukegan Ave., Highwood. (847) 433-1078 or shortstorytheatre.com.

• The comedy troupe Always in Trouble presents "Good Trouble," in which company members draw inspiration from variety performers to improvise a sketch comedy revue. The show runs Thursdays through Sept. 26 at the Cornservatory, 4210 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Also at the Cornservatory, All Caps, a local improv team, performs "Night Caps With All Caps" a late-night improv show that requires actors to drink. It runs Fridays through Oct. 4. Lastly, "Nihilism in Color and Other Chuckle-Inducing Buffoonery," hosted by Ben Rackl and Zane Rerek, runs Saturdays through Oct. 5. See cornservatory.org.

• Windy City Playhouse, 2229 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, has extended its hit production of Leslie Liautaud's immersive drama "Southern Gothic." The play unfolds during a 1960s cocktail party where four couples make startling revelations. It runs through Oct. 27. (773) 891-8985 or windycityplayhouse.com.

• "Miracle," the musical about a Chicago working-class family set against the Chicago Cubs' 2016 championship run, has been extended. Performances run through Sept. 29 at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St., Chicago. Additionally the show will celebrate its 108th performance on Friday, Aug. 30, beginning at 7:15 p.m. Tickets that night will include a free hot dog from Byron's and a slice of Eli's Cheesecake. (312) 988-9000 or miraclethemusical.com.

• Victory Gardens Theater announced its 2019/2020 Directors Inclusion Initiative, which was established in 2015 to help develop emerging Chicago stage directors who are people of color, people with disabilities, female, transgender and gender nonconforming. This season's directors include: Alexander (Lex) Turner, Lanise Antoine Shelley, Christina Casano, Jeremy Ohringer and Aliza Feder.

• In honor of 2019's Year of Chicago Theatre, Hot Tix is offering $20 tickets (not including service charges) to fall productions. The offer extends to tickets purchased by Sept. 8, or while supplies last. Participating productions include: "Anything Goes" at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre; "Mother of the Maid" at Northlight Theatre; "Tiny Beautiful Things" at Victory Gardens Theater; "Whose Body?" at Lifeline Theatre; "Bernhardt/Hamlet" at Goodman Theatre; "The Great Leap" at Steppenwolf Theatre; "Hello Again" at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre; and "The King's Speech" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater among others. See hottix.org/special-offer-tickets-for-a-20.

• Goodman Theatre named four Chicago-based writers to its 2019/2020 Playwrights Unit, created in partnership with Chicago Dramatists. They are Monty Cole, Nancy Garcia Loza, Alex Lubischer and Steve Pickering. Their residency culminates in a staged reading of each new play in summer 2020.

• Underscore Theatre Company announced its 2019/2020 season will begin Oct. 18, with the non-equity premiere of "Proxy," a musical by Austin Regan, Alexander Sage Oyen and Rachel Franco about an investigative journalist who exploits her own near-tragedy by disguising herself and interviewing the childhood friend who tried to murder her 15 years earlier. That's followed by the premiere of "Notes & Letters" (April 10-May 17, 2020), Annabelle Revak's musical about an immigrant in 1917 Chicago who becomes friends with a piano store owner, his girlfriend and a composer until World War II upends their lives. The season also includes the 6th Annual Chicago Musical Theatre Festival at a date to be determined. Performances take place at 4609 N. Clark St., Chicago. See underscoretheatre.org.