The Next Theatre, located just north of Chicago in Evanston, IL, will present two premieres during its 1999-2000 season. The first up, Ann Noble Massey's The Boarding House, takes place in 1945. In a small Boston boarding house, a wife and sister wait for a long overdue young man to return from the war. Sarah Tucker directs the play, which runs Nov. 19-Dec. 18.

Massey's And Neither Have I Wings to Fly's was nominated for an American Theatre Critic's Association New Plays Award. Also an actress, she appeared in the Chicago production of The Cripple of Inishman.

Concluding the season will be another new play, Tom Szentgyorgyi's Among the Thugs. The author of Snow and A Family Man, both presented at Next, and a writer for television's "Sports Night," Szentgyorgyi's latest is about a reporter who finds himself drawn into a circle of frenzied European soccer fans. Tucker will direct.

The rest of the Next season is as follows:

€ Stonewall Jackson's House (Sept. 24-Oct. 23), Jonathan Reynolds' incendiary and comic look at race relations and political correctness, directed by Kate Buckley. € Tiny Island (Feb. 25-March 25), Michael Hollinger's play about two estranged sisters and a revival movie house's projection room.

For more information, call (847) 475-1875.

-- By Robert Simonson