Victory Gardens Theater announced the lineup for its 2018–19 season this morning—a slate to open with the Chicago premiere of Paula Vogel’s highly acclaimed play Indecent and the newest entry in Ike Holter’s Chicago-set series.
Indecent, which last year marked the long-overdue Broadway debut for the prolific and hugely influential Vogel, looks back on another Broadway production, giving the backstory on a Yiddish play called The God of Vengeance that was deemed morally offensive when produced in New York in 1923. Gary Griffin will stage VG’s production, running September 21–November 4.
Holter’s premiere, Rightlynd, is set in the same fictional 51st Ward as his interlocking plays Exit Strategy, Sender, Prowess and The Wolf at the End of the Block, which have all debuted at various Chicago theaters over the last several years. In Rightlynd, Ald. Nina Esposito—mentioned but not seen in some of the other works—battles a redevelopment plan that would change the nature of her neighborhood; Lisa Portes directs (November 9–December 23).
Cheryl Lynn Bruce will stage the Chicago premiere of Pipeline, a drama by in-demand writer Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew, Detroit ’67) about a parent confronting the so-called school-to-prison pipeline (February 1–March 3).
That’s followed by another Chicago premiere, Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band (April 5–May 5), a raucous take on the Khmer Rouge—with music by the band Dengue Fever—that will have its world premiere next month at California’s South Coast Rep. Marti Lyons will direct at VG.
The season closes out with another world premiere, Madhuri Shekar’s Miriam for President (June 7–July 7), in which a teenage girl readjusting to life at home after being kidnapped throws herself into campaigning for student body president. VG artistic director Chay Yew will direct.