John C. Russell's Stupid Kids opens its first production outside of New York at Chicago's Victory Gardens Studio May 15. Beginning previews May 13 with a run through June 19, Kids will be the final play of Roadworks Productions' 1998-99 season. Stupid Kids, a comic dissection of four suburban teenagers who escape the reality of their lives through their favorite movies and a "Rebel Without A Cause" fantasy life, is the only surviving completed work of John C. Russell, who died of AIDS in 1994. Its 1998 Off Broadway debut happened partially thanks to director Michael Mayer (Side Man, Lion In Winter), who worked on Roadworks's 1995 adaptation of WAS. Mayer had made a promise to Russell that the show would be done.

Shade Murray (Roadworks' The Santaland Diaries) directs Joey Honsa, Halena Kays, Ned Noyes and Armando Riesco.

Tickets are $20-$10 and available by calling the box office at (773) 871 3000. The Victory Gardens Studio is located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Roadworks is on the web at www.roadworks.org.

-- By Christine Ehren