The latter play, from the co-author of In the Continuum, is "set amid the colonial scramble for southern Africa in 1895" and follows "a young girl who escapes a forced marriage arrangement with the help of a stalwart black African catechist," according to Goodman. It "explores the untold cultural and religious collisions caused by British colonization in this section of southern Africa (now Zimbabwe), and the reverberating effects still felt in the region today."

The Convert was commissioned by Center Theatre Group and is a co-production of CTG, Goodman and McCarter Theatre. Emily Mann directs the play, scheduled for Goodman's Owen Theatre in February-March 2012.

In addition to the two-character Tony Award-winning Red, about the painter Marc Rothko (directed by artistic director Robert Falls in the Albert, in September) and Race, the provocative 90-minute legal drama by Mamet (directed by Chuck Smith in the Albert Theatre, in January 2012), Goodman will revive Tennessee Williams' fantasia Camino Real, directed by Spanish director Calixto Bieito, known for his radical opera stagings. This marks his American theatre debut, offering "a new interpretation" of the rarely produced play by Williams, in the centennial year of the author's birth. It plays the Albert in March-April 2012.

Camino Real (pronounced "caminno reel") is billed as a "hauntingly poetic allegory takes us to the mysterious Camino Real, a surreal netherworld populated by a colorful collection of lost souls anxious to escape but terrified of the unknown wasteland lurking beyond the city's walls." According to Goodman notes, "When Kilroy, an American traveler and former boxer inadvertently lands in Camino Real, he sets off on a phantasmagoric venture through illusion and temptation in an attempt to flee its confines — and defy his grim destiny."

The season concludes with Regina Taylor's musical Crowns (directed by the author in June-July 2012), about black women and their Sunday church hats, revived for its tenth anniversary. Three additional productions (including a collaboration with Chicago's Teatro Vista) will be announced for the Goodman season. A Christmas Carol will also return.

To subscribe to the 2011-2012 season, call (312) 443-3800 or visit ExploreTheGoodman.org.