OFFBEAT: Steppenwolf ready with 2012 'Garage Rep' audience offerings

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is presenting its 3rd annual Garage Rep series, featuring three productions in rotating repertory by some of Chicago's most innovative, storefront companies: LiveWire Chicago, Theatre Zarko and The Inconvenience.

The series plays a 10-week run now through April 8, 2012 in The Steppenwolf Garage space, 1624 N. Halsted St.

Single tickets and three-play passes for are currently on sale.

Here's a description of this year's line-up:

• LiveWire Chicago presents "Oohrah!" by Bekah Brunstetter and directed by Brad Akin. It's featuring Peter Esposito, Joel Ewing, Madeline Long, Melissa Engle, Josh Odor, Calliope Porter and Ian R. Tranberg. Surprised by her husband's early return from a tour in Iraq, Sara is unprepared for the complications of his re-entry into civilian life. Tension simmers around their gun-obsessed teenage daughter, Sara's oddball live-in sister Abby, and Abby's newest infatuation - a sexy, young Marine who's keeping a secret. The stage story turns a comic eye to a homecoming gone awry.

LiveWire Chicago is a collective of artists who create theater that reflects the current cultural landscape of our community through productions of original and contemporary works. FYI: livewirechicago.com

• The Inconvenience presents "Hit the Wall" by Ike Holter and directed by Eric Hoff. It features Walter Owen Briggs, Manny Buckley, Daniel Desmaris, Desmond Gray, Steve Lenz, Layne Manzer, Shannon Matesky, Rania Salem Manganaro, Arturo Soria and Mary Williamson with musicians Josh Lambert, Ryan Murphy and Will Wood. It's the summer of 1969 and the death of music icon Judy Garland has emboldened her gay followers. A routine police raid on an underground Greenwich Village hotspot erupts in to a full-scale riot, the impetus of the modern gay rights movement. That's the well-known, oft-rehearsed myth of Stonewall, anyhow. But smash that myth against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add a howling live rock ‘n roll band, and you get the world premiere play "Hit the Wall." Remixing this historic confrontation reveals 10 unlikely revolutionaries, caught in the turmoil and fighting to claim "I was there."

• Theatre Zarko presents "He Who," written and directed by Michael Montenegro and featuring Nancy Andria, Karen Hoyer, Katherine Jones, Laura Montenegro, Ellen O'Keefe, Noah Silver-Mathews and Colleen Werle with musicians Ben Goldberger, Stephen Lieto and Jude Mathews. Within an old man's dying few seconds, he experiences the distorted and painful dreams of his most influential acts and their consequences. He must witness the birth of his life's work and its devastating effect on those people closest to him and ultimately on the whole world. Darkly poetic and arresting, "He Who" brings together live performers, puppets and original music for an intimate audience experience.

Theatre Zarko explores puppet and mask theater as an innovative, developing art form, with a focus on building strong artistic relationships within the community. The work expresses a strong visual point of view that plays with scale, metaphor, integral live music and a surrealistic expression of images and themes. FYI: theatrezarko.org

Tickets are $20 per play or $45 for a three-play pass at (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org/garage. Group discounts are available by calling (312) 932-2422.

 The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or (219) 852-4327.