Already wondering how to entertain your visiting relatives this holiday season? The Second City has you covered with its new holiday revue, The Second City’s The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Sweater. This hilarious show pulls a festive mix of material from The Second City archives and is the perfect way to celebrate winter in Chicago. The Second City’s The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Sweater runs November 13 – December 31, 2018 in the UP Comedy Club. Tickets range from $31 - $56 and can be purchased online at www.secondcity.com, by phone at 312-337-3992 or at the box office, located at 230 North Ave. on the first floor of Piper’s Alley.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the world premiere production of La Ruta by acclaimed Chicago playwright Isaac Gomez, directed by ensemble member Sandra Marquez and featuring ensemble member Karen Rodriguez along with an eight-member all female Latinx cast. Inspired by the lives of Mexican women who live, work—and disappear—along a Ciudad Juárez bus route, La Ruta weaves live music through a story of resilience in the wake of loss.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater announced that after 20 years of service to the Theater, Director of Audience Development Alida Szabo will be stepping down from her role at the end of the year.

Goodman Theatre adds to its 2018/2019 Season a limited engagement of St. Nicholas—an internationally-acclaimed major revival by London’s Donmar Warehouse of Conor McPherson’s 1997 intimate thriller, directed by Simon Evans. The monologue play stars Olivier Award-winning actor Brendan Coyle (“Mr. Bates” of the smash sensation Downton Abbey, for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination) in “a superlative, mesmerizing performance that’s simply not to be missed” (The Arts Review). The U.S. premiere, which appears in the Goodman’s 350-seat flexible Owen Theatre, follows two acclaimed recent appearances at the Donmar Warehouse and the Dublin Theatre Festival.

One of the hottest tickets of past holiday seasons - Midsommer Flight’s “pay-what-you-can” production of TWELFTH NIGHT, performed in the beautiful Show House Room of the Lincoln Park Conservatory - will return for its fourth year on November 29, 2018. Shakespeare’s delightful comedy of mistaken identity and gender switching has a strictly limited seating among the lush flowers of the Show House Room.

Steppenwolf for Young Adults (SYA) announced full casting for its upcoming production of We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury, co-directed by Hallie Gordon and Gabrielle Randle. It’s the second of SYA’s 2018-19 two-play season which asks, “When You Feel Lost, How Do You Find Your Way?" The cast features Will Alan (Actor 3/Another White Man), Taylor Blim (Actor 5/Sarah), Jeffrey Owen Freelon Jr. (Actor 2/Black Man), Michael Holding (Actor 1/White Man), Daniel Kyri (Actor 3/Another Black Man) and Jennifer Latimore (Actor 6/Black Woman).

You may have been to Oz before. But never like this. Acclaimed Chicago director Amber Mak dazzled audiences with Paramount’s production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She made kids of all ages believe in Santa again with Elf The Musical. Now she’s taking audiences over the rainbow and into another fantastical world with The Wizard of Oz, November 14, 2018-January 6, 2019 at Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora. Press opening is Saturday, November 17, at 8 p.m.

The Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) celebrates the 32nd year of the program that inspires Chicago students to explore their histories, research their communities and mine their personal journeys to write dynamic one-act plays for the stage.