Profiles Theatre Continues 24th Season With the Midwest Premiere of AFTER, Opening 9/5

Profiles Theatre announces the Midwest premiere of After by Chad Beckim, the second show of the company's 2012-2013 season. After, directed by guest artist Matt Hawkins, runs August 31-October 14, 2012, with the press opening on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, at 8:00 pm. Performances are held at Profiles original venue, The Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway.

When a wrongfully imprisoned man is exonerated by DNA evidence after seventeen years in prison, he is forced to re-assimilate into a cold, foreign world of toothbrush shopping, doggy day care, and a friendship with an anxious young woman with secrets of her own. After is a compassionate portrait of a man struggling with the challenges of socializing and the anger he still feels for having his youth unjustly destroyed.

After, written by Chad Beckim, received its World premiere production in September 2011 by Partial Comfort Productions in New York where he is co-Founder and co-Artistic Director. His playwriting credits include …a matter of choice, 'nami and Lights Rise on Grace which won Outstanding Play at the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival and finalist for the 2007 Princess Grace Award. Chad holds an MFA in Playwriting from Mac Wellman's Brooklyn Colleges Program and in July 2007, he was named one of 50 Playwrights to Watch by the Dramatists Guild.

Matt Hawkins (director of Cabaret at The Hypocrites) directs for the first time at Profiles. The production features guest artists Alice da Cunha, Carlos Rogelio Diaz, J. Salome Martinez, Stephenie Park, Gabriel Ruiz and Foster Williams, Jr., all making their debut with Profiles Theatre.

"There's a delicate balance to my work; a dark, often bare-knuckle aesthetic entwined with levity, heart and hope," says playwright Chad Beckim. "This is particularly true in the slippery landscape of After which demands a bold production team. Like any playwright, I've longed to find a home in Chicago, and am thrilled that Profiles Theatre-a company with a rich history of staging similarly daring voices and intrepid worlds – has carved out space for my baby. I'm eager to see how audiences of such a theatrically savvy company in such a theatrically savvy town embrace this story."

The designers are Dan Stratton (set), Bekki Lambrecht (lights), Jeffrey Levin (sound and original music), and Brittany Bodley (costumes). Krissy Larson is the stage manager and Elise Spoerlein serves as assistant director.

After is the second production of Profiles Theatre's 24th season. The Midwest premiere of Sweet and Sad by Richard Nelson opens at Profiles Theatre's Main Stage on August 24, 2012. The season also includes the 20th Anniversary production of Hellcab by Will Kern, and the Midwest premieres of The Dream of the Burning Boy by David West Read and The Break of Noon by Neil LaBute.

Tickets for After are $35 for Thursdays, $40 for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available by phone, (773) 549-1815, or online, www.profilestheatre.org. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 7:00 p.m.