Black Boys Cry is a powerful, nationally acclaimed stage play that follows seven Black men as they navigate love, loss, trauma, faith, and healing. With a blend of humor, heart, and raw honesty, the show opens up necessary conversations around mental health, masculinity, and vulnerability in Black communities. It’s an emotional, thought-provoking night of theatre that leaves audiences laughing, reflecting, and deeply moved.

Candlelight: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac on Strings is a glowing, immersive concert that transforms Fleetwood Mac’s iconic soft-rock sound into lush, cinematic string arrangements performed live in a sea of flickering candles. Expect an intimate, emotionally rich journey through favorites like “Everywhere,” “Gypsy,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Don’t Stop,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Landslide,” “Little Lies,” “Songbird,” “Rhiannon,” and “The Chain,” where familiar melodies take on new warmth and drama—part sing-along nostalgia, part classical reimagining, and entirely transportive.

Candlelight: Neo-Soul Favorites is a smooth, candlelit concert experience that reimagines modern R&B, neo-soul, and hip-hop favorites through lush live string arrangements, letting familiar grooves and hooks land with new intimacy and cinematic warmth. Performed by the Listeso String Quartet, the set moves through a feel-good, slow-burn playlist that can include SZA's "Good Days," Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor," Solange's "Don't Touch My Hair," Miguel's "Adorn," Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You," Prince's "Purple Rain," Sade's "Smooth Operator," D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," Childish Gambino's "Redbone," H.E.R.'s "The Best Part," Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name," and Boyz II Men's "End of the Road," creating an immersive night that feels equal parts soulful, elegant, and deeply vibey under the glow of candlelight.

A completely new form of improv inspired by the classic Old Time Radio shows of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. The cast of Improvised Golden Age of Radio (IGAR) takes the themes, language, and technology of the era to create an immersive improvised audio soundscape for their live audience. Taking advantage of dozens of toys on their live foley table, the sound effects and performances paint a hilarious picture of a classic drama-gone-wrong.

The New Stages Festival returns for its 21st year, transforming the Owen Theatre into a showcase for bold new work in development. This year’s lineup features script-in-hand readings of Calamity West’s FEAST!, a sharply funny holiday dinner gone off the rails that exposes privilege, money, and marriage under pressure; Hansol Jung’s Pennies, an epic, time-bending journey from a modern call center to the River Styx that wrestles with grief, guilt, and emotional burnout; Christina Anderson’s This Part of His Life Blooms, in which a newly retired man turns to his neglected garden and unburied memories to confront love, friendship, and fatherhood; and Ike Holter’s The Audience Unseen, a real-time supernatural thriller where a routine interrogation becomes a terrifying descent into the unknown. With free tickets by reservation and a focus on inventive, risk-taking storytelling, the festival offers Chicago audiences an early look at some of the country’s most exciting playwrights and plays in progress.

Candlelight: Rings and Dragons is a spellbinding, candlelit concert that brings the sound worlds of epic fantasy to life through lush live string arrangements, blending the sweeping wonder of The Lord of the Rings with the brooding power of Game of Thrones in a way that feels both cinematic and surprisingly intimate. Over the course of about an hour, you’ll travel from Middle-earth’s most beloved themes like “The Shire,” “Rivendell,” and “The Breaking of the Fellowship” to Westeros favorites including the “Game of Thrones” main theme, “Rains of Castamere,” “Light of the Seven,” and more—each piece reimagined to heighten the drama, warmth, and atmosphere under the soft glow of hundreds of candles.intimate. Over the course of about an hour, you'll travel from Middle-earth's most beloved themes like "The Shire," "Rivendell," and "The Breaking of the Fellowship" to Westeros favorites including the "Game of Thrones" main theme, "Rains of Castamere," "Light of the Seven," and more-each piece reimagined to heighten the drama, warmth, and atmosphere under the soft glow of hundreds of candles.

Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer is an immersive, candlelit concert that transforms some of modern cinema’s most unforgettable scores into lush, emotionally charged string arrangements, bringing blockbuster themes into a setting that feels both epic and intimate. Performed live by a string quartet, the program sweeps through Zimmer favorites like “Time” from Inception, “This Land” from The Lion King, “A Dark Knight” from The Dark Knight, highlights from Gladiator, Interstellar (“Cornfield Chase”), Dune, Dunkirk (“Supermarine”), Sherlock Holmes (“Discombobulate”), and a Pirates of the Caribbean suite, creating an atmosphere-rich night where every crescendo hits like a movie moment—only closer, warmer, and lit by the soft glow of hundreds of candles.

At Berkeley, California's ultra-progressive Eureka Day School, every decision is made by consensus. But when a mumps outbreak hits, the school's carefully cultivated culture of inclusiveness spirals into chaos. As parents and board members clash over vaccines, personal freedoms, and viral misinformation, a community built on open-minded ideals implodes. TimeLine's Chicago premiere of Spector's Tony Award-winning play tackles one of the defining questions of our time: how do you build consensus when no one can agree on the truth?

This trailblazing new show, an electrifying fusion of Irish dance, music, theater and cinema, traces the history of Ollav Fola, the ancient Irish sage and legislator commissioned to perpetuate the legacy of one of the world's greatest kings in the British Isles. Don't miss the opportunity to experience the revolutionary new Irish dance show capturing the hearts of audiences all over the world!

John and his daughter Caitlyn are birders. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways. BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding.

Using elements of absurdity and black humor, Green Corridors is a poetic, harrowing journey through a world fractured by war. Ukrainian playwright Natalka Vorozhbyt's deeply human storytelling, brought to life by Kay Martinovich, invites us to bear witness to displacement, resistance, and the echoing pain of conflict and offers a poignant and urgent reflection on displacement, survival, and identity.

Through music, videos, photos and live actors, Sanctuary Stories captures in words and images the lives and communities touched by the immigration crackdown in Chicago. This "living documentary" is a unique and unprecedented adventure in multimedia storytelling that brings journalism to life.

The camp macabre world of Edward Gorey returns to Steppenwolf in the second installment of this absurdist dark comedy anthology told through puppetry, clowning, dance, live music, song, animation and an unhealthy dose of death.

Candlelight: Tribute to Bad Bunny is a vibrant, candlelit concert that reimagines the global superstar’s biggest reggaetón and Latin-pop hits in lush, cinematic string arrangements, turning club-ready grooves into something surprisingly intimate and emotional. In a room lit by hundreds of flickering candles, a live quartet guides you through fan favorites like “NUEVAYol,” “Si Estuviésemos Juntos,” “La Canción,” “La Noche de Anoche,” “Yonaguni,” “Moscow Mule,” “Callaíta,” “Ojitos Lindos,” “Me Porto Bonito,” “Tití Me Preguntó,” “un 100xto,” and more—capturing the swagger, romance, and late-night energy of Bad Bunny’s catalog with a fresh classical twist.

Critics, fans and fellow comedians agree: Brian Regan is one of the most respected comedians in the country with Vanity Fair calling Brian, "The funniest stand-up alive," and Entertainment Weekly calling him, "Your favorite comedian's favorite comedian." Having built his 30-plus year career on the strength of his material alone, Brian's non-stop theater tour continuously fills the most beautiful venues across North America, visiting close to 100 cities each year.

Candlelight: Tribute to Drake is a live, multi-sensory concert that reimagines Drake’s biggest hits in lush, cinematic string arrangements, performed in an intimate setting illuminated by the warm glow of candlelight. Over the course of about an hour, a live string quartet transforms fan favorites like “Passionfruit,” “Marvins Room,” “Teenage Fever,” “Headlines,” “Take Care,” “Laugh Now Cry Later,” “God’s Plan,” “Controlla,” “Fair Trade,” “Crew Love,” “Over,” “In My Feelings,” “One Dance,” and “Hold On, We’re Going Home” into something fresh and surprisingly emotional—capturing the smooth late-night mood, the big hooks, and the swagger that made these songs iconic.

Candlelight: Tribute to Taylor Swift is a dreamy, candlelit concert that transforms Swift’s eras into sweeping live string arrangements, turning familiar hooks into something intimate, cinematic, and unexpectedly emotional. The program blends iconic sing-along favorites like “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” and “Shake It Off” with newer hits including “Anti-Hero,” plus era-spanning medleys inspired by Red, Reputation, folklore, and 1989—with “Cruel Summer” and the evocative “The Fate of Ophelia” adding extra drama and atmosphere—creating the feeling of a greatest-hits journey heard in a whole new light.