Collaboraction announces 2011–12 season: three Chicago premieres and a new look for Sketchbook

Collaboraction's 2011–12 season will feature three Chicago premieres and a revamp of the annual Sketchbook festival, the company is announcing today. The season opens in September with Bekah Brunstetter's Be a Good Little Widow (Sept 8–Oct 23), about a young woman whose grief over her husband's death is judged insufficient by her proper mother-in-law; of the play's debut earlier this year at Ars Nova, The New York Times wrote that Brunstetter "writes fresh, unfussy dialogue and characters who earn their laughs and emotional moments by honest means." Collaboraction's artistic director Anthony Moseley directs.

Moseley also takes the helm for Dark Play or Stories for Boys (Jan 12–Feb 26), in which a teenage boy cons another with a vast web of online lies. The one-act by Carlos Murillo, head of the playwriting program at DePaul, premiered at the Humana Festival at Actor's Theatre of Louisville.

Sarah Moeller will direct Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (Apr 19–May 27) by Dan LeFranc, author of American Theater Company's smash-hit The Big Meal. Sixty Miles, a father-son road trip tale with a twist, earned LeFranc the New York Times Outstanding Playwright award in 2010. In June, the 12th annual Sketchbook gets a makeover: In addition to eight to ten of the usual new works of seven minutes or less, the slate will also include two to three full-length world premieres in rotating repertory with the bite-size menu. The entire season will be produced at Collaboraction's new space in Wicker Park's Flat Iron Arts Building.