Emma and Frank are minding their own business raising cattle on a remote dairy farm somewhere in middle America, when Frank’s old friend Haynes shows up, spouting sparks of blue electricity from his hands. This pitch-black comedy from one of America’s greatest living playwrights (True West, A Lie of the Mind) turns even more absurd when a mysterious G-man shows up, peddling American flags and Pat Boone songs. By the time the dust settles, Frank and Haynes have submitted to all manner of totalitarian control, and poor Emma is left trying to keep her plants – and her freedom – alive.

Frank - Roderick Peeples*
Emma - Natalie West*
Welch - Troy West*
Haynes - Joseph Wycoff

Director - Karen Kessler
Set Design - John C. Stark
Costume Design - Amy Gabbert
Light Design - Lee Keenan
Sound Design/Composition - Victoria DeIorio
Dramaturg - Brennan Parks
Stage Manager - Jennifer Gadda*

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association

Pulitzer Prizewinner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, The Baltimore Waltz) has written one of the most lyrical and beguiling stories of salvation we’ve ever read. Actors manipulate child-size Bunraku puppets in this astonishing memory play about a family driven to the brink of tragedy on the car-ride home from Grandma’s on Christmas Day. Vogel masterfully weaves a tale of a young gay man’s coming-of-age, set against the backdrop of family crisis and spiritual renewal. The production stars Wendy Robie and Troy West as the narrators. A very non-traditional play for the season; parental guidance strongly suggested.

Claire - Jennifer Avery
Stephen - Tim Hendrickson*
Minister - Cameron Jappe
Puppeteer - Melanie Keller
Rebecca - Julia Neary*
Woman - Wendy Robie*
Puppeteer - Jeremy Sher
Man - Troy West*

Director - Jason Loewith
Scenic Designer - Matthew York
Costume Designer - Linda Roethke
Lighting Designer - Diane Fairchild
Sound/Music Designer - Scotty Iseri
Puppet Designer - Michael Montenegro
Choreography - Christina Ernst
Dramaturg - Sarah Gubbins
Stage Manager - Richard Lundy*

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association

The Next continues its acclaimed relationship with Caryl Churchill (Far Away) by producing the hottest play of last season off-Broadway. In sixty-five highly-charged minutes, Caryl Churchill’s A Number tells the story of a father-son conflict so extraordinary it shakes the very foundation of western ideas about the individual. When Bernard confronts his father Salter about the possible existence of “a number” of genetically-identical brothers, Churchill opens a Pandora’s Box of penetrating questions about science and morality, nature versus nurture, and the definition of the word “identity.” Named one of 2004’s Ten Best by The New York Times, A Number confirms Churchill’s position as one of the most important dramatists of our time.

Salter - John Judd*
Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black - Jay Whittaker*

Director - BJ Jones
Scenic Designer - Brian Sidney Bembridge
Costume Designer - Janice Pytel
Lighting Designer - Diane D.Fairchild
Dramaturg - Rosie Forrest
Stage Manager - Jennifer Gadda*

*indicates member of Actor’s Equity Association

In her newest play, Lynn Nottage (Steppenwolf’s Intimate Apparel and the Goodman’s upcoming Crumbs from the Table of Joy) targets the African-American elite in this stinging riches-to-rags satire. Undine Barnes Calles - nee Sharona Watkins of the Walt Whitman Projects – is a fantastically successful PR exec who wakes one morning to find she’s lost it all. With no money, business or social position, Undine must return to her family in the projects… unfortunately, she told the press they all died in a fire 15 years ago. Painfully rediscovering her roots, Undine is shocked to learn that her cancelled platinum American Express card doesn’t get her very far in the depths of urban America. “Robustly entertaining… having found her feet as a playwright, [Nottage] is not about to stand in one place” – New York Times.

Stephie - Lili-Anne Brown
Grandmother - Laura Collins*
Father - Allen Gilmore*
Mother - Joslyn Jones
Accountant - Scott Kennedy
Flow - Osiris Khepera
Herve/Guy - Dale Rivera*
Undine - Jacqueline Williams*

Director - Jason Loewith
Set Design - Richard & Jacqueline Penrod
Costume Design - Christine Pascual
Lighting Design - Keith Parham
Sound Design - Andrew Brommel
Dramaturg - Lila M. Stromer
Stage Manager - Richard Lundy*

* Member Actor's Equity Association