Next Theatre Company's WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER Runs Nov. 15 – Dec. 22
Next Theatre Company’s second production of their 32ndseason is the Midwest premiere of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter by Julie Marie Myatt and directed by Jessica Thebus, at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street. Previews are Thursday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 16 and Saturday, Nov. 17 and 24 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 18 and 25 at 2 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are Saturday 4 p.m. performances December 1, 8, 15 and 22. Tickets for previews are $25 and for the run, $30 – $40 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.
A darkly funny play about healing and the ways in which we as a nation ignore our returning veterans. When U.S. Marine Jenny Sutter (Lily Majekwu*) returns from Iraq, she lays down her rifle but isn’t ready to pick up her children. Buying some time, Jenny takes a one-way trip to nowhere—a desert community where misfit residents gently nurture her wounded spirit and nudge her back to her own humanity.
Additional cast includes Jenny Avery, Kurt Brocker, Justin James Farley, Lawrence Grimm* and Hanna Dworkin*.
The production team is made up of Jacqueline and Rick Penrod (set design), J.R. Lederle (lighting design), Kevin O’Donnell (sound design) and Melissa Torchia (costume design).
*Indicates a member of Actors’ Equity.
ABOUT JULIE MARIE MYATT, playwright
Myatt’s work includes the plays The Happy Ones, commissioned by South Coast Repertory (SCR) and winner of the Ted Schmitt Award for an outstanding new play from the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle; Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before being performed at the Kennedy Center in DC; My Wandering Boy, also premiered at SCR; Sex Habits of American Women; Boats on a River, which premiered at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis; and The Joy of Having a Body, Zealot, and Mr. and Mrs. Recipient of a Walt Disney Studio Screenwriting Award, a Jerome Fellowship, the Michener Residency Award Author in Playwriting and a McKnight Advancement Grant and a member of New Dramatists, Myatt makes her home in Los Angeles.
ABOUT JESSICA THEBUS, director
Jessica Thebus is an associate artist with Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she has directed several productions and a longtime collaborator with Red Moon Theater. Thebus’s additional directing credits include work with local and national companies including Kansas City Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Court Theatre, About Face, Collaboraction, Lookingglass, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Victory Gardens, Writers’ Theater and the world premiere of Welcome Home Jenny S
utter at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Kennedy Center. Thebus is a faculty member in the MFA Directing Program at Northwestern University and an artistic associate at The Corn Exchange in Dublin, Ireland.
SUNDAY TALKBACKS
Every 2 p.m. Sunday matinee during the season is followed by a discussion with the artistic staff and artists involved in the production, as well as special guests familiar with the topic to be discussed.
ABOUT NEXT THEATRE COMPANY
Next Theatre Company produces socially provocative, artistically adventurous work. It is Next’s vision to become a destination for audiences and artists who share this vision that theatre can promote awareness and provoke change with more power than any other medium of expression.Since its founding in 1981 by Harriet Spizziri and Brian Finn, the 140-seat space has been home to over a hundred productions, serving nearly a quarter of a million theatregoers and winning Jeff Awards in nearly every category. The theatre's adventurous spirit and great conviction prompted Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune to announce that Next is “a resounding reaffirmation of what faith, dedication and talent can accomplish. It is what distinguished Chicago theatre in its early stages more than a quarter century ago, and it is what continues to make Chicago theatre so exciting.”
Next Theatre serves over 10,000 patrons annually, including students, elderly and everyone in between. The Next audience includes local Evanstonians as well as Chicago and North Shore residents, and they have come to expect artistic excellence in the pursuit of culturally progressive work.
The Next Theatre is located inside the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, adjoining the Noyes street stop on the Evanston “el.” Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre and at the Evanston Civic Center.
Next Theatre Box Office hours are from 12 – 6 p.m. weekdays and two hours prior to curtain. All tickets are held at will-call until pick-up on the day of performance, unless the tickets have been purchased in person.
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter by Julie Marie Myatt and directed by Jessica Thebus, at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street. Previews are Thursday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 16 and Saturday, Nov. 17 and 24 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 18 and 25 at 2 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are Saturday 4 p.m. performances December 1, 8, 15 and 22. Tickets for previews are $25 and for the run, $30 – $40 with subscriber and student discounts available. Tickets may be purchased at nexttheatre.org or by calling 847-475-1875 x2.
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The Next Theatre is funded in part by The Evanston Community Foundation, The Alphawood Foundation, The ArtsWork Fund, The Chicago Community Trust, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Evanston Arts Council, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Prince Charitable Trust and the Illinois Arts Council.