Theater lovers planning to attend this year’s annual meeting in May will probably not leave the Windy City until they have sampled some of its renowned theater offerings. Chicago is well known for its stage productions, both traditional and avant garde, and its stages have given birth to many plays and actors that later gained fame far beyond the city limits.

Among the most famous of these is the Steppenwolf Theater Company. The repertory company, which is now in its 25th year, launched the careers of John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and Laurie Metcalf, among others. Sinise was one of its founders. The company now has 33 actors, playwrights, directors, and designers and prides itself on the theatrical risks it is never reluctant to take.

While APA members are in town, Steppenwolf will present a production of Ken Kesey’s "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," which will star Sinise.

Another Chicago theater with a national reputation is the city’s oldest and largest resident theater, the Goodman Theater. Founded in 1925 and housed until later this year in a wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Goodman’s most recent triumph was its production of Arthur Miller’s "Death of a Salesman," starring Brian Dennehy, which garnered four Tony awards after it moved to Broadway. In May the Goodman will be presenting Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun."

The Victory Gardens Theater, whose mission is to support Chicago’s many theater artists, will be offering a "madcap comedy" about 1930s Broadway called "Cahoots." It will star Sharon Gless of "Cagney and Lacey" fame.

More than a score of other theaters, from small experimental community theaters to large traditional theaters showing Broadway musicals, will be ready to challenge and entertain the more than 17,000 people expected to attend this year’s annual meeting.