Presented by The Shoebox Theater Series for Young Audiences (from Duncan YMCA) and Theatre Building Chicago

Book by Judy Freed, Music & Lyrics by Marianne Kallen

“Engine” shows her new trainees the way, but with all the excitement the entire train derails!! “Dash” skips three stations and “Starlight” would rather be home with her Mom. How will these two new friends help each other and keep the train on track? Always on-time, always on-schedule, of course!!

GETTING A LIFE is a collection of stories by a diverse group of local women who bring a clear-eyed view of various relationships and how they really work. These authors want to do more than entertain or shock, they want you to see what really takes place between the lines and make you wonder what happens when it is done. The situations run the gamut: a newly-blind man wants to end his long marriage; a husband makes his wife and their nephew go to a church where snake-handling is part of the service; a woman’s fate is in the hands of the doctor who will decide how long she must stay in a psychiatric ward.

In DIANA LIVELY IS FALLING DOWN formerly brilliant architect Diana Lively, like the London Bridge before her, has been transplanted from England to Arizona An American millionaire wants to put up a King Arthur Theme Park in the middle of the desert. With visions of dollar signs dancing in their head, Oxford University sends Sheila’s husband, Ted, their resident Arthurian expert, to consult on the project. There, in the most unlikely place, in the most surprising ways, Diana is about to discover that happiness can shower down on her life and make it bloom.

THE WEEK YOU WEREN’T HERE, by Chicago author Charles Blackstone, is a poignant, wry portrait of a young writer, Hunter Flanagan, at the close of his undergraduate days. For Hunter, writing has always been easy; it’s love that comes hard. From encounters with his persistent “stalker” Kate, to the elusive Dewey, and the surprisingly independent sorority girl Lila, Hunter exemplifies our longing for the defining moment - as fragile and quixotic a dream as life itself.

Karen Dean, author of the popular children’s travel series Let’s Go, comes to Chicago with her newest addition, LET’S GO TO CHICAGO. Experience the excitement of the city along with Mom and her two sons. A fun train ride leads them to tall buildings, boat rides, museums, dinosaurs and the Navy Pier, all colorfully captured in lovely, watercolor illustrations. This is a wonderful book for anyone who is coming to our city with small children, or those who are already here and are in love with its beauty.

Luminous, funny and deeply moving, BORROWED BODY, is Valerie Mason-John’s powerful debut about growing up black, female and in care. ’70s and ’80s England becomes another country, a land of foster homes, squats and worse, all seen through the eyes of a girl they call “Minstral.” Author Mason-John, also known by the stage name Queenie and who has been named Britain’s “Black Gay Icon”, draws on her own experiences in the British social services system to bring both harsh reality and vivid beauty to this astonishing novel.

The city of Chicago has spent a great deal of time and money marketing itself as a tourist-friendly place for the whole family. Our rough-and-tumble tough-guy rep has been replaced by postcards with views of the lake. But that city isn’t gone, no matter how much they try to tell us it is. The hard-bitten streets of Farrell and Algren may have shifted neighborhoods, and accents, but there are still places where struggle is a way of life and crime just another way of getting by. CHICAGO NOIR, ed. by Neal Pollack, is populated with killers and jazzmen, winos and barroom philosophers, junkies and scalpers. Join us for a dark night, Windy City style.