Next Theatre's 32nd Season Continues with WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER, Now thru 12/23

Next Theatre Company's second production of their 32nd season 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 tonight, 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.

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 Penny Slusher*.

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.

Julie Marie Myatt (Playwright)'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.

Jessica Thebus (director) is an associate artist with Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she has directed several productions, a longtime collaborator with Red Moon Theater and a teacher with Piven Theatre. 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 Sutter 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.

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.

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