CHICAGO: The Goodman Theatre has announced the lineup for its 18th annual 2022 New Stages Festival, to be held Dec. 1-18, featuring two fully staged developmental productions and four script-in-hand staged readings of works by six contemporary playwrights. Tickets are available to the public free of charge.  

This year’s plays include This Happened Once at the Romance Depot off the I-87 in Westchester by Gina Femia, directed by Kimberly Senior. The play concerns the unlikely relationship between a store owner and a school teacher and forces them to confront what they think they know about love, romance, and sex.

Rust, written by Nancy García Loza and directed by Laura Alcalá Baker, tells the story of a young woman struggling to be the perfect Mexican daughter despite her glaring imperfections.

White Monkey, written by Charlie Oh and directed by Eric Ting, tells the story of a woman running a “rent-a-foreigner” agency to help Chinese businesses looking to boost their international prestige.  

Fever Dreams (of Animals on the Verge of Extinction), written by Jeffrey Lieber and directed by Susan V. Booth, is a romance and mystery play about a couple looking to rekindle their relationship while celebrating their anniversary in a remote cabin.

Modern Women, written by Omer Abbas Salem and directed by Lavina Jadhwani, follows the lives of multiple generations of Arab and Indian friends who find comfort and routine at a beauty salon a quiet Skokie strip mall.

What Will Happen to All That Beauty?, written by Donja R. Love and directed by Malika Oyetimein, is an offering to the community of Black people living with HIV/AIDS, exploring questions of legacy, family, and healing against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and its imprints today.