Enjoying an area-theatre presentation mere months after its film version emerged as a $100-million-grossing springtime hit for Disney, Madeleine L'Engle's iconic children's-book A Winkle in Time wraps up the Playcrafters Barn Thatre's 2018 season with a family-adventure bang, its November 9 through 18 run treating audiences to a stage work the Chicago Reader deemed “a spirited retelling that captures the heart of (L'Engle's) magic.”

From November 9 through 18, a quintet of works by one of America's most acclaimed and prolific writers serves as the opening presentation in Scott Community College's 2018-19 theatre season, with Lives of the Saints: Five One-Acts treating audiences to the witty, silly, and hilarious words and actions of author David Ives, the Tony-nominated author of Venus in Fur whom the New York Times called a “maestro of the short form.”

Winner of seven 1977 Tony Awards and one of the 25 longest-running musicals in Broadway history, the iconic comic-strip adaptation Annie will be brought to life by the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse November 7 through December 30, demonstrating why the New York Times called the show “an unstoppable sunshine steamroller,” and the Wall Street Journal opined, “Even if you're a child-hating curmudgeon, you'll come home grinning in spite of yourself.”

It was Sunday, October 30 in 1938 New York, and the country was on edge as Orson Welles went live via Madison Avenue and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in a Halloween episode hosted by Mercury Theater on the Air. A dramatic, science-fiction radio play, the program caused panic amongst communities who mistook the broadcast for real-life events as alien invaders, described in detail, appeared ready to take over the world.

That's the real-life tale told in the Black Box Theatre's unique production of War of the Worlds: A Radio Play, and while Friday's performance was only about an hour long with no intermission, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Based on the novel by H.G. Wells and adapted from the radio-play script by Howard E. Koch, this singular story directed and designed by Lora Adams is quite different from the theatrical productions I typically attend – and different in a good way.