The three productions — including the Chicago premiere of Melissa James Gibson's Current Nobody, the world premiere of a new Michael Montenegro puppet play and the world premiere of a music-filled play about a flashpoint in gay history — will run Feb. 3–April 8, 2012, in The Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted St., in Chicago. Tickets will go on sale at a later date.

Here's Garage Rep 2012 at a glance:

LiveWire Chicago
Current Nobody
By Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Lisa Portes
"It's a journalist's assignment of a lifetime: document the entire Trojan War. Photojournalist Pen embarks upon the project with excitement, leaving behind her husband and daughter. As Pen's absence extends from weeks to years, her family grapples with the personal cost of her ambition. Their struggle is exposed by a relentless trio of indie documentary filmmakers who force their fractured home into the public eye. An intimate look at love left behind, the Chicago premiere of Melissa James Gibson's Current Nobody retells the classic epic tale of Homer's 'Odyssey' to reveal the cost of abandoning home for the glories of war."

LiveWire Chicago is "a collective of artists who create theatre that reflects the current cultural landscape of our community through productions of original and contemporary works." Visit www.livewirechicago.com.

Theatre Zarko
He Who
Written and directed by Michael Montenegro
"How do four brave and exhausted women share the burden of one grotesquely enormous baby? They struggle to nurture and restrain the giant darling. But the baby has an existential crisis, which sparks a fight for control. His tyrannical attempts to pit the women against each other ultimately test the limits of love. Darkly poetic and arresting, He Who brings together live performers, puppets, and original music for an intimate audience experience. Master puppeteer Michael Montenegro conceives and directs this world premiere." Theatre Zarko "explores puppet and mask theatre as an innovative, developing art form, with a focus on building strong artistic relationships within the community. Our work expresses a strong visual point of view that plays with scale, metaphor, integral live music and a surrealistic expression of images and themes."

The Inconvenience
Hit the Wall
By Ike Holter
Directed by Eric Hoff
"It's the summer of '69 and the death of music icon Judy Garland has emboldened her gay followers. A routine police raid on an underground Greenwich Village hotspot erupts in to a full-scale riot, the impetus of the modern gay rights movement. That's the well-known, oft-rehearsed myth of Stonewall, anyhow. Smash that myth against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add a howling live rock 'n' roll band, and you get the world premiere play, Hit the Wall. Remixing this historic confrontation reveals ten unlikely revolutionaries, caught in the turmoil and fighting to claim, 'I was there.'"

The Inconvenience "is a community of interdisciplinary artists who seek to create a new way of experiencing art through a collaboration of music, theatre, dance, fine art and celebration. [They] create, produce, and curate work that challenges audience and artist perspectives and ignites social dialogue."

For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org.