Next Theatre Announces 2010/2011 Season

Next Theatre Company and Artistic Director Jason Southerland are thrilled to announce the 30th anniversary season, a year dedicated to plays that explore the myths that men and women create about their lives. The season opens in the fall with a world premiere presented at the National New Play Network's annual showcase. It continues with the regional premiere of a play Southerland first read when he met with Israeli playwright Motti Lerner (Pangs of the Messiah) in Tel Aviv earlier this year. The season comes to its climactic end with a pair of plays by Phyllis Nagy (pronounced "Naij") who has captured wide acclaim in the United Kingdom but has been rarely produced in the U.S.

2010/2011 Mainstage Season
· Danny Casolaro Died for You by Dominic Orlando (October 14 - November 14, 2010)
· Benedictus by Motti Lerner (January 20 - February 20, 2011)
· The Talented Mr. Ripley and Butterfly Kiss by Phyllis Nagy (in repertory March 24 - May 1, 2011)

The season kicks off with Dominic Orlando's conspiracy drama Danny Casolaro Died for You in a joint world premiere (the show will debut at Next and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre simultaneously). Danny Casolaro is the true story of the playwright's cousin, a reporter who disappeared while investigating corruption in the Reagan/Bush Justice Department. His body was found in a cheap motel, his arms slashed a dozen times-the authorities say suicide, but a host of conspiracy theorists and The House Judiciary Committee disagree. What was ‘the truth' Danny died trying to tell? And what does his journey reveal about the world we live in now?"

The season continues in February with the regional premiere of Benedictus written by Motti Lerner. The play is part of an Iran-Israel-US Collaboration and was created by Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Motti Lerner, Roberta Levitow, Daniel Michaelson and Torange Yeghiazarian. This will be the Chicagoland premiere for this new play set just 72 hours before a scheduled United States attack on Iran. It's the story of two estranged Iranian friends, one Jewish and one Muslim (now an Israeli arms dealer and an Iranian politician respectively), who agree to a secret meeting in a Benedictine monastery in Rome in an attempt to find an alternative to war. Alliances are further complicated when an American ambassador, who became friends with the Iranian politician while a hostage during the Iranian Revolution, introduces his own agenda to the negotiations. Benedictus is a shockingly current and frighteningly possible examination of the diplomatic ties that bind and break, with the fate of global stability hanging in the balance. Artistic Associate Lisa Portes (In the Blood and Far Away) returns to Next to direct.

In March, we will launch an ambitious project examining the work of Phyllis Nagy, a successful playwright in the U.K. whose work has been infrequently staged in the United States and rarely in Chicagoland. The Phyllis Nagy Project will include two of her works on the Next mainstage as well as a host of readings and educational programs to acquaint people with her body of work. Butterfly Kiss and an adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley will run in repertory in March/April 2011. Butterfly Kiss, which will be directed by the playwright, is the story of Lily Ross, a young woman who has murdered her mother. In her prison cell Lily reflects on a past and future, both real and imagined, while her lover, Martha, searches for the motive. Gradually, as through a glass darkly, we begin to perceive the complex web of events which led Lily inexorably to her extreme act. Jason Southerland directs Ripley, which is adapted from the novel by Patricia Hightower, the same source material that became a film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to help persuade Rickie Greenleaf to come home to his American parents. As they strike up a friendship, he is seduced by Rickie's luxurious life and will do anything to have it for himself, with deadly consequences.

"It's a compelling four-play season that will encourage audiences to look at our current world with a critical eye," says Artistic Director Jason Southerland. "As Dominic Orlando writes in Danny Casolaro, ‘a man makes a myth about his life, about who he is, and in some real way, this is what allows him to keep on living.' This year Next explores the myths men and women create to keep themselves and their friends or family sane."

In addition to the mainstage season, Next will expand its Dark Night Series by offering a dozen events during the period when mainstage shows are not using the theater. These events will be announced in the coming weeks and patrons will be able to buy a season pass to the Dark Night Series. Thanks to generous grants from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at the Prince Charitable Trust, Next will be able to add some high-profile events to our Dark Night Series to complement the more experimental work we've offered this season. 2010 Dark Night performances have included two one-acts by puppet designer/performer Michael Montenegro, Dean Evans' mime and clown show Magical Exploding Boy and James Anthony Zoccoli's one-man show Wiggerlover.

Subscriptions to Next Theatre Company's 30th Anniversary Season are on sale now, ranging in price from $85 to $125. A Sponsor Flex subscription for $225 is partially tax deductible. To purchase a subscription call 847-475-1875, or visit our website at www.NextTheatre.org.

Next Theatre's 30th Anniversary Season
Production Information

DANNY CASOLARO DIED FOR YOU
By Dominic Orlando
A Joint World Premiere
with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre
October 14 - November 14, 2010

A man makes a myth about his life, about who he is, and in some real way, this is what allows him to keep on living?

The true story of the playwright's cousin, a reporter who disappeared while investigating corruption in The Reagan/Bush Justice Department. His body was found in a cheap motel, his arms slashed a dozen times. The authorities say suicide, but a host of conspiracy theorists-and The House Judiciary Committee-disagree. What was "the truth" Danny died trying to tell? And what does his strange journey reveal about the political world we live in now?

"Dominic Orlando's The Sense of What Should Be comes as close as almost any new play I've seen in the last ten years to being absolutely perfect."
Twin Cities Daily Planet

"Orlando's writing is smart and layered, funny and dramatic."
Mpls.St. Paul Magazine

BENEDICTUS
By Motti Lerner
Directed by Lisa Portes
Chicagoland Premiere
January 20 - February 20, 2011

Don't bother looking for another way to reach the White House. They know who you really are. They've known for a long time. I was the only fool who didn't.

On the eve of a threatened U.S. bombing of Iran's nuclear installations, an Israeli arms dealer and an Iranian ayatollah meet secretly at a Benedictine monastery in Rome to try to stop the attack. With their friend, an American ambassador pursuing his own agenda, this diplomatic nail-biter examines the ties that bind and break with the world's fate hanging in the balance.

"An evening full of on-the-edge-of-your-seat action, full of important ideas to carry home and continue the conversation that the artists started."
All About Jewish Theatre

"There's no denying that Benedictus-as a harbinger of war with Iran-has an eerie currency."
San Francisco Chronicle

THE Phyllis Nagy PROJECT
By Phyllis Nagy
March 24 - May 1, 2011

Next will launch an ambitious project examining the work of Phyllis Nagy, a hugely successful playwright in England whose work has been infrequently staged in the United States and rarely in Chicagoland. The Phyllis Nagy Project will include two of her works on our mainstage as well as a host of readings and educational programs to acquaint people with her body of work.

"Playwrights don't come much hotter than Phyllis Nagy." Daily Telegraph

"Each play I see by Phyllis Nagy confirms my belief that she is the finest playwright to have emerged in the 1990s." Financial Times

Butterfly Kiss
Directed by Phyllis Nagy
Chicagoland Premiere

Jenny: I was always so interested in a family with a past. With some history.
Lily: There's nothing ahead of you but the future, Mama. The future.

Lily Ross has murdered her mother. In her prison cell Lily reflects on a past and future, both real and imagined, while her lover, Martha, searches for the motive. Gradually, as through a glass darkly, we begin to perceive the complex web of events-a mother and grandmother living off dreams and alcohol, a father enclosed in his world of butterflies, the older man she seduced on the beach when she was just fourteen-which leads Lily inexorably to her extreme act.

"In a wittily outrageous manner, Butterfly Kiss would have you believe that murderers and screwed-up families are as normal and American as blueberry pie." The Independent

"In Butterfly Kiss Nagy captures the texture of a life and writes short, vivid, often disturbingly erotic scenes. It's a play that leaves me proclaiming Nagy a writer of real talent." Guardian

"A fascinating surrealist portrait. Nagy's play breaks new ground." LA Weekly

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Directed by Jason Southerland
Chicagoland Premiere

Freddie: So maybe you wanna tell me what the hell's been going on here before I lose my patience and call the cops.
Ripley: I wouldn't do that. I really wouldn't even think about it.

Tom Ripley is a criminal with an ambiguous past who is sent to Italy by a wealthy financier to coax home the rich man's son. In the process Ripley attaches himself to Rickie Greenleaf as he soaks in luxury. But when the handsome and confident Rickie tires of him, Tom goes to extreme lengths to make Greenleaf's privileges his own. This subversive, psychological thriller explores the mind of one of literature's great anti-heroes; an intelligent, suave, charming psychopath whose amorality is at the center of a plot about duplicity and murder.

"Patricia Highsmith's beguiling tale of morality and amorality is given a dramatic rendering by contemporary dramatist Phyllis Nagy." Guardian

"The talented Phyllis Nagy gets closer to the black heart of Highsmith's novel than you would have thought possible." Financial Times

About the 2010/11 Artists

Motti Lerner (playwright, Benedictus) has been active in the Israeli peace movement since 1973 and frequently lectures at European and American universities on playwriting, Israeli theater and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among his plays are: Kastner, Pangs of the Messiah, Paula, and Pollard, all produced by the Cameri Theatre; Exile in Jerusalem and Passing The Love of Women at Habima National Theatre; Autumn at Beit Lessin Theatre; and Hard Love at the Municipal Theatre in Haifa. His play The Murder of Isaac about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was produced at the Heilbron Theatre in Germany (1999). U.S. productions include The Murder of Isaac at Centerstage Theatre and in the New Work Now! festival at The Public Theatre; Exile in Jerusalem at Williamstown, Jewish Ensemble Theatre, La Mama ETC, and Theatre J; Hard Love at Theatre Or, Victory Gardens, and JTS; Passing The Love of Women and Pangs of the Messiah at Theatre J (Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Best Play), Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago and Cleveland Play House; Coming Home at Golden Thread Productions; and Benedictus at Golden Thread Productions, LATC and Theatre J. His plays have also been produced in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, South Africa and Australia. He has written screenplays for the films Loves in Betania, The Kastner Trial, Bus Number 300, Egoz, A Battle in Jerusalem, The Silence of the Sirens, Spring 1941, Altalena, and 12 episodes of the TV drama The Institute. He received the Israeli Motion Picture Academy award for best TV drama in 1995 and 2004, is a recipient of the Meskin Award for best play and received the Prime Minister of Israel Award for his creative work.

Phyllis Nagy (playwright, Butterfly Kiss and Ripley; director, Butterfly Kiss) has had her plays performed throughout the world. They include: Weldon Rising, Royal Court Theatre; Butterfly Kiss, Almeida Theatre Company; The Strip, Royal Court Theatre; Disappeared, premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester in 1995 in a production directed by the author which subsequently toured the UK before a London run at The Royal Court Theatre (joint winner of a 1992 Mobil International Playwriting Prize, and a Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award); Trip's Cinch, Actors Theatre Of Louisville Humana Festival; and Never Land, Royal Court. Phyllis' adaptations include: Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Palace Theatre, Watford; Chekhov's The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre; and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Classic Stage Company, New York and Chichester Festival Theatre. Phyllis has also directed extensively in the theatre, including productions of her own work internationally. Phyllis' work for radio includes Delores, a contemporary version of Euripides' Andromache (The Sunday Play, BBC Radio 3). Her debut film (as writer/director) was the multiple award-winning Mrs. Harris (HBO Films, 2005). Phyllis is the recipient of two NEA Playwriting Fellowships, a McKnight Fellowship, and a NY State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She is currently under commission to write new plays for the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court Theatre. Her current feature film projects in development as writer/director include an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Carol, and Tumble Up for Film 4 in the UK.

Dominic Orlando (writer, Danny Casolaro...) is a co-creator of Fissures (lost & found), which premiered at the 2010 Humana Festival of New American Plays. Currently, he is working on a commission for a new musical from Berkeley Repertory Theatre; past commissions include Actor's Theatre Of Louisville, The Guthrie Theater, Nautilus Music-Theater, Teatro Del Pueblo, & Bristol Valley Children's Theatre. He has worked with New York Theatre Workshop, HERE (multi-year), The Samuel Beckett on Theatre Row, Kitchen Dog (multi-year), Stage Left, The Side Project, Crowded Fire, The Aurora Theater, The Pasinger/ Fabrike (Munich), The Prague International Fringe Festival, The Tokyo International Festival for the Arts, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival (multi-year) and The National New Play Network's Festival of New Work (among others). He is a two-time Jerome Fellow to The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis as well as a McKnight Award-winner and a four-time fellow to The MacDowell Colony (NH). Other residencies include Yaddo, The Edward Albee Foundation (multi-year) Ucross, Djerassi and The Atlantic Center for the Arts (with Paula Vogel). He is a founding producer at The Workhaus Collective, company-in-residence at The Playwrights' Center.

Lisa Portes (director, Benedictus) is pleased to return to Next Theatre where she directed the Chicago premieres of In the Blood and Far Away. Recent credits include the world premiere of Ghostwritten by Naomi Iizuka at Goodman Theatre, Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin and Spare Change by Mia McCullough at Steppenwolf's First Look Series, After a Hundred Years by Naomi Iizuka at Guthrie Theatre, Elliot, A Soldiers Fugue by Quiara Alegria Hudes with Teatro Vista and Rivendell Ensemble at the Steppenwolf Garage, Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons at Northlight Theatre. New York credits include Wilder by Erin Cressida Wilson and The Red Clay Ramblers at Playwrights Horizons, Hurricane by Erin Cressida Wilson and Fur by Migdalia Cruz at Soho Rep and numerous readings and workshops of new work at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theatre, the Flea Theatre, Cherry Lane Alternative, and New Dramatists. Lisa heads the MFA Directing Program at The Theatre School at DePaul University where she also serves as Artistic Director for Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences.

Jason Southerland (Director, Ripley) begins his second full season with Next Theatre. He is an award-winning director and producer who spent a decade as the founding Artistic Director of Boston Theatre Works. During his time at BTW, the company produced twelve world premieres and developed over sixty new plays through commissions, workshops and readings. Jason has staged several award-winning productions for BTW including the New England premieres of Homebody/ Kabul, Not About Nightingales and The Laramie Project. Other notable premieres at BTW include Pulp, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun and I Am My Own Wife. Jason spent five years in New York City, where he worked with BACA Downtown, Circle Rep Laboratory, Lehman/Engel BMI Workshop, Alice's Fourth Floor and the Sanford Meisner Theatre. Additionally, he directed the world premiere of Love Kills, by frequent collaborator Kyle Jarrow, at the 45th Street Theater in New York in September 2007. Regional work includes Gloucester Stage, Foothills Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, MOXIE Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Albuquerque CLO and the University of Kent at Canterbury. Jason studied directing at The American Repertory Theatre/Harvard University. He has served as production assistant and/or assistant director for Julianne Boyd, Jerry Zaks, Hal Prince, Des McAnuff, Oskar Eustis, Christopher Ashley and many others. He holds a B.A. cum laude in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, is a two-time winner of the Joe Hardy Directing Fellowship, received a Drama League Fellowship, was honored with an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Direction for his production of Angels in America and was chosen by Boston magazine as #4 on their list of the "40 Bostonians to Watch."

About Next Theatre: 30 Years of Theatre in Evanston
In August Next Theatre will kick off it's 30th Anniversary Season. Since our founding in 1981, Next has been a home for award-winning theater. From that first season, when our production of Class Enemy won a Jeff Award for Outstanding Direction, Next has racked up impressive recognition including more than 30 Jeff Awards, dozens of After Dark Awards, critical praise and, in the past eight years, a tripling of the audience. Next's production of Adding Machine: A Musical transferred Off-Broadway where it won a Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Obie Award for Outstanding Musical. Our mission is to produce socially provocative and artistically adventurous new work. According to Dan Zeff, "Next is now a place to go for what's hot and invigorating in area theater," and Chris Jones earlier this season wrote, "The audience at this long-lived theater of substance is used to hard-hitting, political work; nobody moved a muscle during this gutsy, powerfully acted show." Our repertoire reads like a list of the most important plays of the past quarter-century, all of which received their Chicago premieres at Next. These include The Overwhelming by J.T. Rogers, John Patrick Shanley's Defiance, Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire (in partnership with the MCA), A Number by Caryl Churchill, The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, Suzan-Lori Park's In the Blood, Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros' Omnium Gatherum and Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman. In addition we have commissioned and/or developed dozens of plays including Tracy Letts' first major success, Killer Joe. Next is now under the leadership of our sixth artistic director, Jason Southerland.