If we could pick one piece of fiction we’d like to see adapted to the stage, it would probably be George Gipe’s 1985 novelization of Back to the Future, itself based on the screenplay by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.

It’s got everything, really—time travel, Libyan terrorists, an Oedipus-complex subplot, and a high school principal who’s always ragging on the guy who just wants to skateboard and rock out on guitar. Plus, we’d love to see how a stage adapter would deal with internal monologue and backstory such as this: “During his frequent moods of quiet self-analysis, George McFly managed to dissect his psyche, for he did worry about his own lack of grit. He thought it all went back to one occasion in grade school when he was accosted by the class bully.”

Entertaining, yes. But cake—fluffy, poppy cake—compared with Alan Donahue’s latest work for Lifeline Theater. In his stage adaptation of Adam Langer’s Crossing California, Donahue aimed higher than our poor minds would have thought possible. (Turns out the theme of crossing the class boundaries of California Avenue is better developed than Doc Brown's explanation of crossing the space-time continuum.)

With its intricately linked cast of characters set in West Rogers Park during the Iranian hostage crisis and Jane Byrne’s mayoral tenure, Crossing California is no less than 474 pages of the politics and humor of bat mitzvahs, high school drama club, race, class, father-daughter relationships, teenage pot-smoking and sex, public radio, and, above all, growing up. Chances are probably good you read this wildly popular novel and are well familiar with the Wasserstroms, Rovners, and Mills. If you didn’t, what are you waiting for? The movie?

Alan Donahue first read Crossing California shortly after it was published in 2004. “I love the sort of inspired way that he creates all these coincidences in their lives that draw them all together and thought that very possibly could make something interesting on stage,” he said.

Lifeline specializes in original literary adaptations, “using imaginative, unconventional staging to portray sprawling stories in an intimate space.” A scenic designer for Lifeline, Donahue has also done previous stage adaptations for the theater, which sits next to the Morse Red Line stop in East Rogers Park. Their motto, “Big Stories, Up Close,” well summarizes the way Donahue morphed the story from a lengthy and complex novel into a two-hour play. We peer into his process, after the jump.

Chicago is just one big set, isn't it? Everywhere we turn these days we see people hamming it up; and no, we're not referring to the shenanigans of our local politicians or the outspokenness of a certain rapper. We're taking about all the movies being shot in Chicago at the moment. Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman's new flick is doing some location work in the Loop, joining the new installment of the Batman franchise with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger.

But there's more to a Hollywood blockbuster than sheer star power. In most cases it also takes a small army of men and women willing to mill around for hours, looking enthusiastic at all times while doing very little. They are the movie extras, people whose job is to blend in seamlessly with the CGI effects that will pasted around them (remember when it was the other way around?)

When he heard that the new Dennis Quaid football movie needed extras, comedy writer Jeremy Wells immediately jumped on board. He's done everything from being a production assistant on the cable show "Mission: Organization" to co-writing Kara Buller Live! at the Cornservatory, but playing a 50's football game spectator was totally unexplored territory. Was a day in the life of a movie extra all he hoped it would be? Find out after the cut.

You could hurl a rock on pretty much any street in downtown Chicago and hit three or four aspiring novelists struggling to get their big break. Or you might hit Ben Tanzer. A regular contributor to Punk Planet and Wonkavision and a self-described literary “late bloomer,” Tanzer’s first novel, Lucky Man, was released by small book publisher Manx Press this past March, less than a decade after he first plunged into writing in his early 30’s.

Peppered with profanity, drugs, sex, and 80’s pop-culture references, the book is a stream-of-consciousness tale that follows four teen protagonists through their final days of high school tinto young adulthood. Described by a reviewer at Portland's Williamette Week as “a Rubik's Cube on acid,” its edgy-but-funny content is probably not what one would expect as the first-time novel of a trained social worker. Tanzer, a graduate of University of Chicago’s School of Social Administration, has a full-time job in the non-profit sector while continuing to write for various literary and music publications, and promote Lucky Man.

The book has already earned Tanzer readings at Quimby’s and Columbia College and a brief but favorable mention in Time Out Chicago. It has also given him the chance to pull together a DIY U.S. book tour at indie bookstores in North Carolina, Portland, and New York. Chicagoist sat down with Tanzer to talk about the thrill and the constant hustle of getting into Chicago’s literary scene through the back door.

Best-selling author and Chicagoan Audrey Niffenegger has been on Chicagoist's radar for a while now. And since the movie version of her novel The Time Traveler's Wife is ramping into production, you're likely to see more and more people reading the book on the El ... if you haven't been reading (or re-reading) it yourself already.

If you're unfamiliar with the book, here's the Cliffs Notes: Boy meets girl, boy jumps through time through no fault of his own, boy and girl get married, good and bad things happen to both boy and girl. Of course, it's a little more in-depth and much more emotional than that — it's as much a portrait of two people in love as it is a trip through Chicago over the span of decades. (Get Me High Lounge, RIP.)

Chicagoist checked in with Ms. Niffenegger in between her writing, working on a graphic novel, preparing an upcoming art exhibit, her teaching at Columbia College, and if that wasn't enough, in the process of moving. Yikes. Warning: here there be book spoilers (from here on out, known as Time Traveler), so if you haven't read the book yet, don't say we didn't warn you.

Rednecks, God, cheaters, Jesus, Steve, a pre-op transsexual, Satan, the Angel Gabriel, Adam & Eve, and Jerry Springer. Where on earth can you find a cast list like that? Why, at the Bailiwick starting May 3, of course!

Jerry Springer — The Opera makes its American debut on the Main Stage at the Bailiwick, and you'll be sorry if you miss this amazing show. Now, we know what you're thinking. Missing teeth, baby-daddy's, and chicks with, well, you know. And you're partially right. But Jerry Springer — The Opera is more than just an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show" played out on stage.

In spite of the controversy led by numerous protest groups in the U.K. (and the swear-word-laden libretto), the original version of the opera went on to win many of the most prestigious acting awards granted in England.

But now it's Chicago's turn at bat. Right here in the home of "The Jerry Springer Show" itself, we sat down with Brian D. Simmons, who plays the man, the legend himself, Jerry Springer, in Jerry Springer — The Opera.