Dozens of performances and events are featured in the 3rd Annual Pivot Arts Festival, including a few queer-friendly shows like the performance-art-group-band BAATHHAUS in concert and a remounting of About Face Youth Theatre Ensemble's 2014 drama on immigration called Checking Boxes. There's also plenty of family-friendly events and other boundary-pushing pushing performances in the mix. The Pivot Arts Festival runs from Thursday, May 28, through Sunday, June 7, at various locations in the Chicago neighborhoods of Edgewater, Uptown and Rogers Park. Tickets vary by each event, ranging from free to $20. An all-access pass is $45. For more information on the full schedule of events and performances, call 773-340-9637 or visit www.pivotarts.org/festival.
Photo of BAATHHAUS by D Star Photography
Critics' Picks
The Diary of Anne Frank, Writers Theatre, Glencoe, extended through Aug. 2. The revised script of this familiar drama incorporates long-expurgated diary passages which make Anne more human and less saintly. The production also looks afresh at the characters to make them less archetypal and more nuanced. JA
Lady Windermere's Fan, Dead Writers Theatre Collective at Stage 773, through June 7. The Dead Writers' production of Oscar Wilde's rare serious drama may err on the wrong side of Being Earnest, but the stage picture is a high-calorie feast for the eyes. MSB
The Little Foxes, Goodman Theatre, through June 7. One-percenters get it right between the eyes in Henry Wishcamper's economics-based take on Lillian Hellman's morality fable of unreconstructed family greed in the American south following the Civil War. MSB
Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical, Piven Theatre Workshop, Evanston, extended through June 21. Sarah Ruhl's examination of a depressive woman who attracts all sorts of admirers is reborn as a musical with a score by Todd Almond that makes all the excessive whimsy all the more acceptable and enjoyable. SCM
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan