In this funny and heartfelt world premiere comedy, Margaret finds herself in a quarter-life crisis while working two jobs to pay down her debt. She wades through banal office triviality at The Services Corporation by day and trudges through the slow-moving graveyard shift at The Burg’s drive-thru by night. Margaret yearns to belong somewhere, and so do the coworkers and customers she interacts with every day. With delightfully unexpected turns and an ensemble of endearing characters, Origin Story is a touching tale about life’s biggest questions and the surprising ways we find the answers.

How far would you go to help a friend, and what would you be willing to risk? In this strikingly intimate play, two young people become one another’s sanctuaries as the children of U.S. immigrants in the wake of 9/11. Through years of late-night conversations, they see each other through adolescence and fight to find their place in the world. When G becomes a naturalized citizen, she finds a way to help B stay in the country legally. But what begins as a simple choice becomes far more complicated, and G and B’s relationship teeters on the brink of falling apart.

The ingredients for the cake are simple: eggs, butter, sugar, salt. Look closer, though, and you’ll see the essence of life itself. Every year, Ernestine bakes a cake and celebrates with her family on her birthday — a delicious ritual that unfolds onstage across 90 years of birthdays. We meet Ernestine and the people who sweeten her life every year on this day as she grows from 17 to 107 years old. Through glimpses of Ernestine’s life as the years go by, Birthday Candles tenderly explores motherhood, family, love, loss and finding your place in the universe. This charming new play, recently performed on Broadway, will warm the soul.

A mystery about Agatha Christie! The curious, real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie sets the stage for this charming and heartfelt comedy that celebrates writers and the stories that shape our lives. In 1926, after the recent death of her mother and with her marriage on the rocks, 37-year-old Agatha Christie vanished for 11 days, then reappeared without explanation. The reasons behind her disappearance remain unknown. A century later, devoted superfan Lucy, who is going through her own life crisis, attends an Agatha Christie Festival. There, she follows the clues left by Agatha and might finally crack the case. As we follow their parallel timelines and journeys of self-discovery, we experience the thrill of good old-fashioned mystery.

Playwright Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.

Millions have rediscovered Dickens’ classic at The Goodman over the past five decades—and know why it’s “the best Christmas story ever told!” (Time Out Chicago). Follow the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge as ghostly intervention transforms his holiday disdain into delight one fateful Christmas night. This timeless production, long heralded for its “first-rate cast and marvelous staging” (Chicago Sun-Times), is not to be missed.