An upscale dinner party goes to hell, literally, in a controversial comedy from the award-winning author of Spike Heels and View of the Dome. This stinging satire of privilege in the shadow of terror provoked uproarious laughter in its world-premiere last season, and prompted The New York Times to call it a "piping hot slice of satire," with "tragedy and triviality mixed into a salad deliriously tossed." As bombs fall outside the windows of Suzie's elegant dinner party, eight guests debate the virtues of rhubarb, post-modernism, and radical Islam? until the explosions come so close that they shatter the participants' delusions. Recently nominated for a 2004 Pulitzer Prize.

Khalid - Anish Jethmalani*
Jeff - Tim Donovan
Lydia - Elizabeth Laidlaw*
Roger - Doug McDade
Suzie - Wendy Robie*
Julia - Penelope Walker*
Terence - Joseph Wycoff
Mohammed - Bobby Zaman

Director - Jason Loewith
Scenic Designer - Matthew J York
Lighting Designer - Jaymi Lee Smith
Costume Designer - Michelle Tesdall
Sound Designer - Victoria DeIorio
Stage Manager - Jennifer Gadda*

* Member Actor's Equity Association

The Next continues to introduce Chicago to the hottest new voices in American theater with Carson Kreitzer's adventurous, award-winning reverie about ethics, love, anti-Semitism and war. Starting with Oppenheimer's security-clearance hearing, the play takes us on a fantastical journey through science, sex, betrayal and the atom bomb lead by Lilith, Adam's first wife according to biblical myth. The play's 2003 world premiere prompted the Cincinnati Enquirer to pronounce, "If you love theater, see this play! Oppenheimer is superb."

Kitty - Jennifer Avery
Jean - Jane Baxter-Miller*
Oppenheimer - David Cromer*
Young Scientist - James Elly
Lilith - Wendy Robie*
Teller - Sean Sinitsky
Rabi/Groves - Jamie Vann
Landsale/Strauss - Joseph Wycoff

Director - Nic Dimond
Scenic Designers - Richard & Jaqueline Penrod
Costume Designer - Elea Crowther
Lighting Designer - Scott Zematis
Composer/Sound Designer - Andre Pluess & Andy Brommel
Stage Manager - Lindsay Beacham*

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association

Question authority! 1997 Nobel Prizewinner Dario Fo, the great master of Italian satire, unleashed his razor-sharp wit on government corruption with Accidental Death of an Anarchist, originally penned in 1970. The play tells the partly-true, topsy-turvy tale of a police investigation gone awry. When a mental patient adopts the persona of a Chief Judge, his inquiry into police misconduct over the death of a terrorist takes on Marx Brothers proportions, complete with glass eyes, wooden hands and bombs being tossed about the stage.

Bertozzo - Kirk Anderson*
Second Officer - Andy Carey
Commissioner - William Dick*
Fool - Joe Foust*
Miss Feletti - Carolyn Klein
Turtleneck Inspector - Sean Sinitski
First Officer - Will Schutz

Director - Linda Gillum
Scenic Designer - Keith Pitts
Costume Designer - Vicky Strei
Lighting Designer - Ben Wilhelm
Sound Designer - Michael Kraskin
Dramaturg - Benjamin Calvert
Stage Manager - Jennifer Gadda*

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association

Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist masterpiece about the rise of technology and the fall of the common man tells the story of Mr. Zero, a milquetoast guy with anger management issues. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of his employment in a large corporation, Zero kills his boss, is executed, winds up in the Elysian Fields, and finally has his soul "recycled". Joshua Schmidt (composer for Far Away) works with Artistic Director Jason Loewith to create a new chamber opera for the American theater, based on one of its most seminal texts.