Next Theatre Announces Their 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, 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.

Don't Miss a Chicago News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...