Photo Flash: First Look at THE JACKSONIAN at Profiles Theatre

Profiles Theatre opens its 27th Season with the Midwest premiere of the acclaimed new play The Jacksonian by Beth Henley, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus. The production runs August 21 - October 11, 2015 at Profiles Theatre's The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway. The press opening is Thursday, August 27 at 8pm.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley's eerie new play The Jacksonian transports audiences to Jackson, Mississippi, 1964. When his wife kicks him out, respectable dentist Bill Perch moves into the unsettling world of the seedy Jacksonian Motel. There, his downward spiral is punctuated by encounters with his teenage daughter, a gold-digging motel employee, a treacherous bartender and his now-estranged wife. Revolving around the night of a murder, The Jacksonian, brims with suspense and dark humor as the subversive becomes commonplace and the passage of time becomes hauntingly unpredictable.

In The Jacksonian, Beth Henley returns to the Southern Gothic storytelling that made her reputation with both critics and audiences. The darkly humorous play premiered at the Geffen Playhouse in February 2012 in a production directed by Tony Award winner Robert Falls with a cast featuring Ed Harris, Glenne Headly, Amy Madigan and Bill Pullman. It later premiered in New York with the New Group in November 2013 with the same creative team. Beth Henley's best known plays include Crimes of the Heart, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and The Miss Firecracker Contest. Her screenplay for Crimes of the Heart was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay.

Directed by Profiles Artistic Director Joe Jahraus, the cast of The Jacksonian features guest artists Betsy Bowman, Tim Curtis, Christian Isely, Juliana Liscio and Rachel Sledd.

"It's an honor to bring this startling new work to Chicago audiences," says Jahraus. "Filled with the Southen Gothic themes that established her career, Henley's play is also very personal and reflective on such a turbulent period of our history. It's a fascinating, disturbing and sometimes surreal experience as it crosses barriers of time and memory."

The designers for The Jacksonian are Katie-Bell Springmann (set), Michael Rathbun (lights), Oliver Hickman (sound and original music) and Raquel Adorno (costumes). The assistant director is Jeff Gamlin and the stage manger is Miles Mabry.

This is the first production of Profiles' 2015-16 season. The season also includes the Midwest premieres of Jerusalem and The Village Bike, the World and Midwest premiere of Vices and Virtues by Neil LaBute and Profiles seasonal return of their long-running hit Hellcab by Will Kern.

Tickets for The Jacksonian are $35 for Thursdays, $40 for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available by phone, (773) 549-1815, or online, www.profilestheatre.org. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 7:00 p.m.

Photos by Michael Brosilow

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