Next Theatre Company's Main Stage Opens with The Piano Teacher 11/8-12/5

Next Theatre Company is proud to announce the Midwest premiere of Julie Cho's The Piano Teacher, directed by Lisa Portes, November 8 - December 5, 927 Noyes Street in Evanston. The Piano Teacher tells the emotional story of Mrs. K and the secrets that are revealed when she reaches out to her former piano students. Previews are Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Press/Opening Night is Monday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 have an added 4 p.m. matinee. There are no performances Thursday, Nov. 25 or Friday Nov. 26 in honor of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Preview Tickets are $25. Regular run tickets are $30 - $45 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.

When the sweet, cookie loving Mrs. K (Maryann Thebus), the epitome of the caring grandmotherly piano teacher, reaches out to her old students, she discovers a chain of startling secrets that she can no longer keep hidden inside her piano bench. With breath-taking theatricality and stunning language, Julio Cho creates a journey of discovery that brings international responsibility into the sanctity of our family kitchen.

The Piano Teacher also includes cast members Sadieh Rafieh and Emmanuel Buckley. The creative team includes scenic design by Keith Pitts, costume design by Alex Meadows, lighting design by Gina Patterson, sound design by Victoria "Toy" DeIorio. The stage manager is Richard Lundy and production manager is Patrick Fries.

Julia Cho wrote her first play in eighth grade about a motley group of people stranded in a bomb shelter during nuclear fallout. Hailing from the suburbs of Southern California and Arizona, Cho is fascinated with the forces and choices that determine who we are, and often writes about good people who mean well but do not-so-good things. Cho strives to write with brevity, honesty, humor and a dash of poetry and has received a New York Foundation for The Arts grant, residencies at Seattle Rep/Hedgebrook's Women Playwrights Festival and The MacDowell Colony, and was a finalist for a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her play BFE won the 2004 Weissberger Award. She has received commissions from Ma-Yi Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, South Coast Repertory and the Mark Taper Forum. Cho is a graduate of Amherst College and has degrees from UC Berkeley, NYU and The Juilliard School.
Lisa Portes's recent directing credits include the world premieres of Ghostwritten at Goodman Theatre and After a Hundred Years at Guthrie Theatre both by Naomi Iizuka. Other Chicago credits include Spare Change by Mia McCullough at Steppenwolf's First Look Series, Elliot, A Soldiers Fugue by Quiara Hudes with Teatro Vista and Rivendell Ensemble at the Steppenwolf Garage, Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons at Northlight Theatre and, at Next Theatre, both Far Away by Caryl Churchill and In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks. New York credits include Wilder by Erin Cressida Wilson and The Red Clay Ramblers at Playwrights Horizons, Hurricane by Erin 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. Portes 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.

ABOUT Next Theatre Company
Next Theatre Company produces socially provocative, artistically adventurous work.

It is Next's vision to become a national destination for audiences and artists who share this vision that theatre can promote awareness and provoke change with more power than any other medium of expression.

Since its founding in 1981 by Harriet Spizziri and Brian Finn, the 167-seat space has been home to over a hundred productions, serving nearly a quarter of a million theatergoers and winning Jeff Awards in nearly every category. The theater's adventurous spirit and great conviction prompted Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune to announce that Next is "a resounding reaffirmation of what faith, dedication and talent can accomplish. It is what distinguished Chicago theatre in its Early Stages more than a quarter century ago, and it is what continues to make Chicago theater so exciting."

The Next serves over 10,000 patrons annually, including students, elderly, and everyone in between. The Next audience includes locAl Evanstonians as well as Chicago and North Shore residents, and they have come to expect artistic excellence in the pursuit of culturally progressive work.

The Piano Teacher's previews are Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Press/Opening Night is Monday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 have an added 4 p.m. matinee. There are no performances Thursday, Nov. 25 or Friday, Nov. 26 in honor of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Preview Tickets are $25. Regular run tickets are $30 - $45 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.

Next Theatre Box Office hours are from 12 - 6 p.m. weekdays and 2 hours prior to curtain. The box office is closed on Monday unless a show is scheduled. All tickets are held at will-call until pick-up on the day of performance, unless the tickets have been purchased in person.

The Next Theatre is located inside the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, right next to the Noyes street stop on the Evanston "el." Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre and the Evanston Civic Center.