Chicago has earned its reputation for adventurous stage productions that lure audiences well beyond downtown. But even the most enterprising theatergoers may not know what’s worth checking out. One solid rule of thumb: See what’s playing at the Chopin Theatre. In recent decades, the 106-year-old Noble Square theater has served as a rental venue nurturing scores of sensationally scrappy companies. The street-level main stage and squat basement studio provided fertile grounds for storefront standouts like Trap Door Theatre (which performed its first avant-garde outing here in 1994), Roadworks, Defiant Theatre, the Hypocrites, and the House Theatre, among many others. More recently, you might find Michael Shannon prowling upstairs in A Red Orchid Theatre’s Turret, while the crafty Kokandy Productions mounts idiosyncratic musicals below (like its current production, Alice by Heart). For a reliably quirky sampling of quintessential Chicago theater, the Chopin’s got you covered. 1543 W. Division St. chopintheatre.com