Hart, Kron, Loewith et al. Take Part in Next Theatre 2008-2009 Season

Susan Hart, Lisa Kron, and Jason Loewith will take part in Next Theatre Company’s 2008-2009 season.

The season will open with the American premiere of David Farr’s adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector, which he has titled The U.N. Inspector, September 12-October 12. For this sharp satire Next Theatre asked James Sherman (Victory Gardens Ensemble) to craft a Chicago hero, and he created a real estate salesman who exploits his mistaken identity as a U.N. Inspector for all it’s worth. Directed by Jason Loewith, this production will star Joe Dempsey, Susan Hart, Bill McGough, and Joseph Wycoff.

The season will continue with Chicago premiere of Lisa Kron’s Well, November 13-December 14, a memoir about the playwright’s mother’s fight for racial integration and healthy communities in Lansing, Michigan. Damon Kiely will direct.

The new year will open in a socially important vein with War With the Newts, February 5-March 8, by Loewith and Justin D.M. Palmer. Loewith will direct this adaptation of Karel Capek’s novel about the discovery of an intelligent race of giant salamanders, a satire about the global economy planting the seeds of its own destruction.

The season will close with J.T. Rogers’ play, The Overwhemling, April 16 – May 17. The play follows Professor Jack Exley who uproots his family from Illinois to Rwanda on the eve of the genocide to interview a mysterious doctor about his AIDS treatment program. This production will be directed by Kimberly Senior.

For more information, call 847-475-1875 ext 2 or visit nexttheatre.org.