That is the question guiding our 2009-2010 season, the one we’re launching at our home in the Lincoln Park Cultural Center right now!

Last season, as you know, we asked “How do we build a future from a present we didn’t expect?”  Continuing our commitment to unify our seasons around a single question, this year we’ll examine “How do the stories we tell rewrite what we become?”  As people, as a city, as a nation, even globally – our stories constantly form and transform who we are and how we see our world.  We’ll explore this question through a world-premiere adaptation and a revival of an American classic.

First, in the fall:
The Man Who Was Thursday
by Bilal Dardai
adapted from G.K. Chesterton’s novel

directed by Jessica Hutchinson
Anarchy, order, poetry, and the police. Bilal Dardai’s world-premiere adaptation of G.K. Chesterton’s 1908 novel is part espionage thriller, part comedy of manners, part outright farce.  The Man Who Was Thursday interrogates who we really are, where our loyalties lie, and how far we’ll go to defend them.  We are excited to welcome Neo-Futurist ensemble member and frequent collaborator Dardai back to New Leaf with this production.

opening October 15, 2009
running Thursday – Saturday at 8 PM
through November 21

and in the spring:
Curse of the Starving Class
by Sam Shepard
directed by Kyra Lewandowski

Under one splintering roof in the desolation of the California desert, four lone wolves try to pull themselves up by bootstraps that keep breaking, seeking to escape the prisons they’ve constructed in Sam Shepard’s blistering exploration of disease, poverty, and selfishness. Curse of the Starving Class marks Artist-in-Residence Kyra Lewandowski’s directorial debut, as she helms this presentation of a script recently revised in honor of the play’s 30th anniversary.

opening April 15, 2009
running Thursday – Saturday at 8 PM
through May 22

Additionally, you can join us for Treehouse Readings – our new play reading series – on the third Saturday of the month, September 2009 – May 2010.

Treehouse Readings
Building on our internal play selection process, we invite friends, neighbors, and the general public to join us as we explore new scripts and classic dramas.  We are excited to extend our “living room” atmosphere of joyful informality to the larger community, and look forward to the opportunity to work with local directors, actors, and playwrights.  This series will also form the basis of our re-imagined podcast programming

I’m thrilled to get this season officially off the ground, and hope you’ll let us know what you think!