Next Theatre Presents the American Premiere of The Girl in the Yellow Dress

Next Theatre Company is set to present the United States premiere of Craig Higginson's The Girl in the Yellow Dress, directed by Joanie Schultz, January 19 – February 26, 2012, at The Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street. Previews are January 19 – 22 and the opening/press night is Monday, January 23 at 7 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are 4 p.m. Saturday performances February 4, 11, 18 and 25. Tickets are $25 - $40 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.

South African Playwright Craig Higginson's The Girl in the Yellow Dress is set in contemporary Paris where an Englishwoman named Celia (Carrie Coon) has left her well appointed home in London to start a new life teaching English. When she takes on a French-Congolese student (Austin Talley), a relationship begins to develop that reveals dark truths from Celia's past. Raising issues that prove the modern world is not as advanced as one may believe, The Girl in the Yellow Dress explores the ways in which class, race, identity and language continue to divide us.

The production team is made up of set design: Jacqueline and Rick Penrod, lighting design: Diane Fairchild, costume design: Marianna Csaszar and sound design: Thomas Dixon.

ABOUT CRAIG HIGGINSON

Craig Higginson is literary manager and dramaturg at the Market Theatre in South Africa, as well as being a playwright, novelist, editor and university lecturer. Higginson's writing and directing have been nominated for and won several awards in South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2010, he began his PhD in Creative Writing at University of Witwatersrand. His first play, Laughter in the Dark, an adaptation of Nabokov's novel, opened at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 2000. He later adapted it as a radio play for BBC Radio 3 and it won the Sony Gold Award for Best Radio Drama in the UK for 2004-5. His first original play, Dream of the Dog, opened in Grahamstown and the Market Theatre in 2007 and was at the Hilton Festival in 2008. In 2010, Dream of the Dog opened at the Finborough in London and transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End. Higginson's second original play, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, premiered in Grahamstown in 2010, before touring in both South Africa and the UK.

ABOUT Joanie Schultz

Joanie Schultz returns to Next after directing Adam Rapp's The Metal Children this past spring. Schultz received her B.A. in theater directing from Columbia College, where she studied with David Cromer, Sheldon Patinkin and Henry Godinez, among other artists. After her studies, she arrived on the Chicago theater scene as artistic director and co-founder of Flush Puppy Productions. She received her M.F.A. from Northwestern University in 2007, where she was mentored by Anna D. Shapiro, and also studied with great directors such as Frank Galati, Mary Zimmerman, Amy Morton and Jessica Thebus. Since 2007, Schultz has been busy in both theater and opera as a freelance director, assistant director and directing teacher. She has worked in Chicago, nationally and abroad. In the fall of 2007 she was awarded a directing fellowship with the Drama League in New York that allowed her to direct her off-Broadway debut. She was awarded The Goodman Theatre's Michael Maggio Directing Fellowship for 2009-10, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation's Denham Fellowship for 2009-10, and was a 2008 member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. She is currently on faculty at Columbia College Chicago, and is an artistic associate with Steep Theatre.
SUNDAY TALKBACKS

Every 2 p.m. Sunday matinee during the season is followed by a discussion with the artistic staff and artists involved in the production, as well as special guests familiar with the topic to be discussed.

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 theatre'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 theatre so exciting."

Next Theatre serves over 15,000 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 Next Theatre is located inside the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, adjoining the Noyes street stop on the Evanston "el." Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre and the Evanston Civic Center.

Next Theatre Box Office hours are from 12 – 6 p.m. weekdays and two hours prior to curtain Saturday and Sunday. 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 Girl in the Yellow Dress, directed by Joanie Schultz, January 19 – February 26, 2012, at 927 Noyes Street. Previews are January 19 – 22 and the opening/press night is Monday, January 23 at 7 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are 4 p.m. Saturday performances February 4, 11, 18 and 25. Tickets are $25 - $40 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.