Magic announces new season

San Francisco's Magic Theatre, currently celebrating its 40th anniversary, is looking ahead to next season.The lineup, announced last week, kicks off in September with a world premiere: Expedition 6, created and directed by Bill Pullman, best known as a film actor (While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day). This original docudrama explores the political and personal life of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut stranded on the International Space Station after the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003.Next up in November is the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman's The Crowd You're in With, a drama about modern families and friendships, followed by the world premiere of Betty Shamieh's Territories, a historical thriller set during the Crusades, in January.The new year also brings a world premiere from Irish writer Edna O'Brien. Tir Na nOg (Land of Youth) is an adaptation -- with music -- of O'Brien's novel The Country Girls. The show opens in February.In April comes another world premiere, Kevin Fisher's Monkey Room, a comedy about the search for an HIV vaccine. And in May of 2008 comes Birnham Woods, yet another world premiere, by Wendy MacLeod, which deals with a dinner party turned into an Orwellian web of politics and deceit.Visit www.magictheatre.org for information.