Victory Gardens Theater, the Chicago company devoted to new works by its stable of playwrights, opens its 2000-2001 season Sept. 25 with the world premiere of Douglas Post's Blissfield. Victory Gardens artistic director Dennis Zacek directs Kevin Gudahl in the mystery about a foreign correspondent who returns to his hometown of Blissfield, IL, to find out the secret of his best friend's apparent suicide. His old friend is a former congressman who was running for mayor in their hometown.

Gudahl was named Actor of the Year by Chicago Magazine in 1999. He recently appeared in Via Dolorosa in the Windy City.

Blissfield designers are Judith Lundberg (costumes), Todd Hensley (lights), Jack Magaw (set).

Playwright Post's past work include Somebody Foreign, Forty-Two Stories, Drowning Sorrows, Personal Effects, Earth and Sky, Suffering Fools, Murder in Green Meadows, The Wind in the Willows, The Real Life Story of Johnny DeFalco and Detective Sketches.

Previews began Sept. 15. Tickets are $28-$33. Victory Gardens is at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue. For information, call (773) 871-3000, or visit the website at www.victorygardens.org.

-- By Kenneth Jones