Pictured: Playwright María Irene Fornés

Cor Theatre has announced its 2017 two play season featuring a Pulitzer Prize-nominated play and a Midwest premiere. 

First, Cor will present a revival of Cuban-American writer María Irene Fornés’s seminal play WHAT OF THE NIGHT? Chicago director and playwright Carlos Murillo will stage Fornés’s, Pulitzer Prize-nominated, four-part play about poverty in America in a co-production with Stage Left Theatre.

“By combining Carlos’s passionate vision, Fornés’ poetically primal voice, Cor’s fearless aesthetic and Stage Left’s strong commitment to artists, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? promises to be our biggest leap yet,” says Cor Theatre Artistic Director Tosha Fowler.

 In June, Cor will introduce Chicago to Canadian director and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill with the Midwest premiere of LATE COMPANY. Directed by Jessica Fisch, the production will feature Cor Artistic Director Tosha Fowler and Cor Ensemble Member Ernie Nolan.

Cor Theatre’s 2017 Season 

 WHAT OF THE NIGHT?

By María Irene Fornés

Directed by Carlos Murillo

A co-production with Stage Left Theatre

Presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Avenue, Chicago

January 8-February 12, 2017

Previews: Sun., January 8 at 3 p.m.; Tues. and Wed., January 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Performances through February 12: Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m.

Note: For mature audiences only. Contains sex, violence and partial nudity.

When the just-married 14-year-old Birdie leaves her impoverished home to seek a better life, she unwittingly sets in motion a sprawling epic spanning time and geography. Her daughter Rainbow finds love. Her son Charlie finds solace in loyalty. Her son Ray finds the trappings of success. For each character, survival and the preservation of loved ones is the name of the game. Though their yearnings are briefly rewarded, Fornés’s story lays bare the difference between the hunger of the soul and the hunger of the ego.

LATE COMPANY 

By Jordan Tannahill

Directed by Jessica Fisch

Featuring Cor Artistic Director Tosha Fowler and Ensemble Member Ernie Nolan

At The Buena (Pride Arts Center), 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago

June 2017 

Note: For mature audiences only

 One year after a gay teen’s suicide, two suburban Chicago families sit down to dinner. Pleasant mealtime chatter quickly turns into fierce interrogation as each person at the table confesses their real or imagined part in the tragedy. As blame shifts, layers of parental, sexual, and political hypocrisy are revealed. Scathingly funny and heartbreakingly real, award winning Jordan Tannahill’s Late Company asks, “How well can a parent ever really know their child?

Tickets for WHAT OF THE NIGHT? go on sale in mid-November at cortheatre.org or by calling (773) 975-8150. Tickets for LATE COMPANY go on sale next spring.