These plays, all written by Tony and Pulitzer-winning playwright and Steppenwolf ensemble member Tracy Letts, share at least one thread: a world off-kilter. These gripping pieces create the opening landscape of this season and will mark a bridge between where we have been and where we are going.

A campy chronicle of the lusts and loves of the men and women who work on a low-rent TV show called, "The Love Judge."

GOOD GRIEF is a dark comedy about eight estranged friends who return to their childhood hometown in order to attend the funeral of their best friend, comic artist Cory Burns. The film explores the unique qualities and dysfunctions of these friends who, even before they unpack their bags, discover they each have become a stark contrast to their nostalgic childhood that Cory based his comic on.

On a road trip to scatter her dad’s ashes, Nora’s family does a substandard job of paying their respects.

Teams of teenagers battle it out in a pop quiz and activity competitions.

Caitlin, a young Chicago performance artist, struggles to create work that is both personal and political. A piece she performs about the BP oil spill sends her relationship into a tailspin because her onstage nudity bothers her boyfriend.

The Ryries have suffered a loss: the death of a baby just fifty-seven hours after his birth. Without words to express their grief, the parents, John and Ricky, try to return to their previous lives. The couple's children, ten-year-old Biscuit and thirteen-year-old Paul, responding to the unnamed tensions around them, begin to act out in exquisitely idiosyncratic ways. But as the family members scatter into private, isolating grief, an unexpected visitor arrives, and they find themselves growing more alert to the hurt, humor, warmth, and burdens of others—to the grief that is part of every human life but that also carries within it the power to draw us together.

A mysterious college professor, Simon Conjurer guides a group of dysfunctionals on a journey of self discovery, as they become the focus of a murder investigation when Simon is framed by his rival, Dr. Crazx, a Pulitzer prize winning psychiatrist with an unsavory vendetta and a knack for twisted mind games.

It focuses on real-life educational challenges and the complex dynamics between students, teachers, and parents.