Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department faculty and alumni are bringing two new plays to Chicago stages this month.

Susan Padveen, coordinator of the Theatre Department’s BFA program in Theatre Directing, is staging the world premiere of Anna in the Afterlife, by Richard Engling, for the Polarity Ensemble Theatre. The show’s cast includes Columbia alumna Sheila Willis and current student Sarah Eddy. Another alumna, Alaina Moore, designed the costumes; current student Conor Murphy designed the sound, and Columbia College Chicago Music Department teacher Ilya Levinson composed the incidental music. Anna in the Afterlife runs April 22-May 24 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln. (Greenhouse’s executive director is Columbia College Theatre alumnus and teacher Jason Epperson.) For ticket information, click here or call 773-404-7336.

Mary McDonald Badger, director of theatre facilities at the Columbia College Theatre Department, is the lighting designer for Raven Theatre‘s world premiere The Bird Feeder Doesn’t Know, running through May 16. Alumnus Sam Hubbard is the show’s fight choreographer and alumnus Conor Clark is the production’s technical director. Clark is also facility manager for Raven, whose associate artistic director is alumnus Cody Estle. For ticket information, click here or call 773-338-2177.