“When in the Course of Human Events: Creative Disobedience and Why the World Can’t Wait” is the unwieldy title of a one-night Steppenwolf Theatre program of readings and performance on Jan. 16. Various Chicago theater types plan to address the “challenges and responsibilities of citizenship under the current administration.” Martha Lavey, Anna D. Shapiro, Joan Shapiro (Anna’s mother) and Sheldon Patinkin are the organizers. Anna Shapiro directs this free event. The full list of participating artists has yet to be confirmed, but performers from Lookingglass Theatre, Second City and Congo Square (among others) are expected to be on stage. . . . Former Chicagoan and Neo-Futurist Greg Kotis is readying his new off-Broadway comedy “Pig Farm,” which will open at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre on June 9. The cast includes Katie Finneran and Denis O’Hare. John Rando, who scored a hit with Kotis’ “Urinetown” has signed on to direct this new show. After New York, it’s headed to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. . . . “Sweet Charity,” which had a pre-Broadway run in Chicago, ends its Broadway stand on Saturday night. . . . Theatre Building Chicago’s series of Monday night readings of new musicals presents “The Circus of Dr. Lao” on Jan. 23. By Kevin Hale and Jon Steinhagen, it’s based on the novel by Charles G. Finney. . . . Several cast members from “Wicked” spent time over the holidays singing seasonal ditties at Northwestern Memorial and Children’s Memorial hospitals. . . . Actors Workshop Theatre has announced the Midwest premiere of “Abandonment,” the first play by the British novelist Kate Atkinson. A ghost story, the show opens Jan. 20. . . . Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, run by former Chicago director Susan V. Booth, is partnering with the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference on a plan to create new works for the American theater.
