Photo Flash: Theatre Wit Presents THIS

Theater Wit Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler has landed a coup by snaring the rights to present the Chicago premiere of Melissa James Gibson's new contemporary comedy This.

Hailed by New York Times critic Charles Isherwood as "the best new play to open off Broadway this fall",

Gibson's comic meditation on love, adulthood and adultery seemingly could have ended up on any one of Chicago's larger theater's schedules. But leave it to Wechsler - recently described as "indefatigable" by the Chicago Tribune and possessing "showbiz-sized cojones" in New City's most recent "Players" issue - to sneak in and snag Gibson's acclaimed un-romantic comedy about a single, 30-something mother confronting her pre-midlife crisis.

A finalist for the prestigious 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for women playwrights, Gibson's rueful comic drama This will have its Chicago debut Feb. 25-Mar. 27, 2011 at the new Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Avenue. Performance times are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Single tickets are $15 to $35. For tickets and information, visit TheaterWit.org or call the Theater Wit box office, 773.975.8150.

Exceptions: Press opening is Monday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. There is an additional Industry Night performance, Monday, Mar. 14 at 7:30 p.m. (with tickets also on sale to the general public.) There is no performance Thursday, Mar. 3.

Photo Credit: Johnny Knight