Chicago’s Writers Theatre has announced the six productions slated for its 2018-2019 season, which will welcome the return of award-winning Chicago native David Cromer, who previously directed Picnic (2008) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2010) for Writers Theatre.

Currently represented on Broadway with The Band’s Visit, the in-demand director will stage the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal as the final production in the company’s season.

Qui Nquyen’s Vietgone opens the season August 15–September 23. Lavina Jadhwani directs the 1975 play about two young survivors who meet in a Vietnamese refugee camp in mid-America shortly after the fall of Saigon.

Jen Silverman’s Witch, a modern fable inspired by The Witch of Edmonton, will run September 26–December 16 under the direction of Marti Lyons.

Michael Halberstam will direct Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will, November 7–December 16, which will be followed by August Wilson’s acclaimed drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom directed by Ron OJ Parson February 6–March 17, 2019. Robin Witt will direct Caryl Churchill’s A Number, running March 20–June 9.

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s award-winning rock musical Next to Normal, which sheds light on mental illness in contemporary America as a family struggles to hold its center, closes the season May 8–June 16 with Cromer at the helm.

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