2007/2008 HISTORY
 
THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED
By Keith Bunin
Chicago Area Premiere
Directed by
Kimberly Senior
September 12 - October 14, 2007

Faith, love and loss collide in Keith Bunin’s staggeringly beautiful new play, which received its world premiere off-Broadway last year. Hannah, an Episcopal Minister, hires a young academic named Brandt to ghost-write her new controversial book on the Gnostic Gospels. When Hannah’s wayward son Thomas arrives in search of clues to his father’s death, the sparks begin to fly between them. When Thomas and Brandt fall in love, all three are thrown into a dynamic and provocative love triangle that mingles questions of faith with questions of the heart. “Dramatically and emotionally absorbing” – Variety

Keith Bunin Watch an audio slide show with author Keith Bunin produced by the New York Times.

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DEFIANCE
By John Patrick Shanley
Chicago Area Premiere
Directed by
Jason Loewith
November 8 – December 23, 2007

The author of 2005 Pulitzer- and Tony-winner Doubt has written a stunning new play intertwining ethical dilemmas about race, sexual fidelity and the cost of doing the right thing. On a North Carolina marine base in 1971, a young black Captain is promoted in order to ease the camp’s growing racial tensions. Soon, Captain and his superior officer are caught in a riveting web of moral issues that set the stage on fire. “Spellbinding! I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Shanley has followed up 'Doubt,' the best play of 2004-05, with a play of identical quality.” – Wall Street Journal

Defiance at Manhattan Theatre Club Read a full review of the New York premiere.

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THE AMERICAN DREAM SONGBOOK
Leonard Bernstein’s TROUBLE IN TAHITI
and World Premiere songs by America’s hottest music-theater composers

Directed by
Jason Loewith
February 14 – March 22, 2008

Leonard Bernstein’s little-heard musical, the vibrant satire Trouble in Tahiti (1952) receives an intimate and immediate staging, followed by the world premieres of brand new songs on the topic of the American Dream by the country’s leading contemporary composers, including Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party), Michael Friedman (Gone Missing), Michael Mahler (How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back?), Kevin O'Donnell (Resident Composer at the House Theatre of Chicago), Michael Mahler (How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back?), and Josh Schmidt (The Adding Machine: A Chamber Musical). Spend an evening with Bernstein’s Sam and Dinah, a married couple in 1950s suburbia, and then flash-forward 50 years to hear what our best music-theater writers discover about changing expectations of love, lifestyle and success.

Watch a video clip of the prelude to Trouble in Tahiti from the 2001 film.

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Heather Raffo's
9 PARTS OF DESIRE
Written and performed by Heather Raffo
Chicago Area Premiere
Directed by Joanna Settle
Presented in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago
May 3 - 18, 2008

Acclaimed across the country, Heather Raffo’s journey into the lives of nine Iraqi women is a riveting, explosive mix of docudrama, lyrical language and mesmerizing performance. Raffo plays all nine roles, taking us on a theatrical adventure through desire, loss, and a universal understanding of humanity. Next Theatre Company is proud to bring the Iraqi American playwright and the original director to recreate what critics across the country have hailed as one of the most important new plays of the century. Mature audiences only.

"A beautifully shaped one-woman play! It is persuasive precisely because it is beautiful. See it soon… see it tonight!" – Wall Street Journal

“Powerful, impassioned, vivid and memorable” – New York Times

Heather Raffo Visit heatherraffo.com.
 
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