The Atlantic Presents World Premiere of Cohen's 'OFFICES', Abraham Featured, Pepe to Direct

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce casting and dates for the world premiere production of Academy Award® winning film maker Ethan Coen's OFFICES, directed by Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow).

Previews will begin Wednesday, April 15 toward an official opening Thursday, May 7, and a limited engagement through Sunday, May 31, 2009 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20 Street).

The ensemble cast will feature Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham (Coen's Almost an Evening), Daniel Abeles (Behold, the Bowery!), Brennan Brown (Atlantic's Celebration), Aya Cash (From Up Here), John Bedford Lloyd (Some Americans Abroad), Daniel London (Patch Adams), Mary McCann (Atlantic's Spring Awakening), Joey Slotnick (Almost an Evening), Greg Stuhr (November), C.J. Wilson (Atlantic's The Voysey Inheritance) and Daniel Yelsky (upcoming film Meet Monica Velour).

Hiring and firing are antisocial acts. Workplace pressures make for nasty competition. And the work itself can be meaningless and alienating. Accordingly, the three short plays that make up OFFICES are comedies.

Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen returns to Atlantic with another world premiere production of one-act comedies. He made his Off-Broadway debut last season with the hit world premiere of Almost an Evening, which transferred Off-Broadway following a sold out extended Atlantic Stage 2 run. Coen has made fourteen movies with his brother Joel, including the Academy Award® winning films No Country for Old Men and Fargo; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Raising Arizona; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading.

Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe made his acclaimed Broadway debut this season with the hit revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, and staged David Pittu's world premiere comedy What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, which transferred Off-Broadway following a sold out engagement at Stage 2. He recently staged Harold Pinter's first and most recent plays, The Room and Celebration at Atlantic, and the world premiere of Mamet's Romance at Atlantic and at the Mark Taper Forum.

The design team for OFFICES will feature scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by Laura Bauer, lighting design by David Weiner and sound design by Obadiah Eaves.

Atlantic and Druid's critically acclaimed production of Martin McDonagh's dark comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Garry Hynes, concluded an extended engagement on March 14.

Ethan Coen (Playwright) returns to Atlantic following the hit world premiere production of Almost An Evening, which transferred to The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street after a sold out extended engagement. He has written a collection of stories, Gates of Eden and a collection of poems, The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way. With his brother, Joel, Ethan Coen has made fourteen movies including Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Miller's Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Man Who Wasn't There; Intolerable Cruelty; The Ladykillers; No Country for Old Men and Burn after Reading.

Neil Pepe made his acclaimed Broadway debut this season with the hit revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, and staged David Pittu's world premiere comedy What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, which transferred Off-Broadway following an extended engagement at Atlantic Stage 2. He has been the artistic director of Atlantic Theater Company since 1992. There he directed Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening; Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song; David Mamet's American Buffalo starring William H. Macy (also Donmar Warehouse, London); Harold Pinter's The Room and Celebration; David Mamet's Romance (also Mark Taper Forum, L.A.); Milos by John Guare; Tom Donaghy's The Beginning of August (also South Coast Rep.); Howard Korder's Sea of Tranquility; Jez Butterworth's Mojo and The Night Heron; Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange; Wolf Lullaby by Hilary Bell; Clean by Edwin Sanchez; and Shaker Heights by Quincy Long. Other credits include the world premiere of David Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon as well as The Duck Variations (Center Theatre Group), Further Than the Furthest Thing by Zinnie Harris (Manhattan Theatre Club), Eric Bogosian's Red Angel (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Jessica Goldberg's Refuge (Playwrights Horizons).

DANIEL ABELES makes his Off-Broadway debut after recently graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and training with the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Favorite roles include "Julian Fisk" in Behold, the Bowery! at the NYC Fringe Festival, "Dromio of Syracuse" in The Comedy of Errors at Lake George Theater Lab, "Indian Joe" in Gnadiges Fraulein at Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, "Phil" in Falling Petals at Wings Theatre and "Weston" in 5th of July at the Tisch Mainstage. He recently completed filming the upcoming feature Son of Mourning with Joe Cross, Lorraine Bracco, Heather Graham and Jesse Bradford.

F. Murray Abraham returns to Atlantic following starring in the world premiere of Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening at Atlantic Stage 2 and The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street. NYC debut as Macy's Santa, street theatre, children's theatre, live soap opera, TV pilots, series, commercials, musical comedy, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Moière, Rostand, Giraudoux, Pirandello, Miller, Mamet, Guare, Gurney, McNally, Albee, May, Feiffer, Oates, Kushner, Becket, Pinter, Bradbury, Turgenyev, Dickens. Experimental work with Richard Foreman, Pina Bausch, Linda Mussman, Joe Chaiken, Andre Serban; professor, Brooklyn College; narrator, PBS series Nature; book on A Midsummer Night's Dream published by Faber and Faber. Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, Obie. Grandfather.

Brennan Brown returns to Atlantic after appearing in Harold Pinter's Celebration. Other New York credits include: The Persians, Right You Are (National Actor's Theatre); Major Barbara (Roundabout); The Second Man, Museum (Keen Company); Disconnect (Working Theater); Asylum, Fair Fight (Naked Angels). Regional: Richard III (title role), The Imaginary Invalid (Yale Rep); Edgardo Mine (Hartford Stage); Absolution (ART); Shooting Simone (Florida Studio Theatre); Great Expectations (Fulton Opera House). Film & television credits include the upcoming State of Play, John Adams (HBO), I Love You Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey, Turn The River; "Damages," "Ugly Betty," "Gossip Girl," "Monday Night Mayhem" (TNT Feature) and all the "Law & Orders."

Aya Cash. New York: Three Changes (Playwrights Horizons), From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Pain and the Itch (Playwrights Horizons), Not Waving (SPF), Playlist (Ars Nova), Cookie Crumble (DirectorFest), The Philistines (New Bridge Productions), Jasper Lake (FringeNYC), Regional: The Three Sisters (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Glass Menagerie (Berkshire Theatre Festival), The Diary of Anne Frank (Denver Center, Ovation Award Best Actress), Hamlet (Mill Mountain Theatre), Hidden Parts (Encore Theatre Company). Two seasons at GRSF: A Winter's Tale, Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III. Television: "Spellbound" (pilot), "Law & Order," "Law & Order:CI," "Law & Order: SVU," "In Men We Trust," "Brotherhood." Film: Deception, Off Jackson Avenue, Winter of Frozen Dreams. Education: UM/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program. AEA

JOHN BEDFORD LLOYD. Broadway: Some Americans Abroad, The Rainmaker; Carnegie Hall: Showboat; Williamstown: (six seasons); Guthrie Theatre: Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues (world premiere); Westport Playhouse: The Drawer Boy; Television: HBO - John Adams and Taking Chance, ESPN-"The Bronx is Burning," AMC- "Remember WENN" (Screen Actor's Guild Award Nomination) Film: Super Troopers, Crossing Delancey, Tough Guys Don't Dance, Nixon, The Abyss, Bourne Supremacy, Waiting for the Light, The Killing Floor, Sweet Lorraine, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, The Abyss, The Hoax, 13 (fall of 2009). Proud volunteer at Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a theatre outreach program inside New York prisons.

DANIEL LONDON. Theater: World premieres of Beth Henley's Impossible Marriage (Roundabout) and Ridiculous Fraud (McCarter Theatre), Critical Darling (The New Group), More Lies About Jerzy (Vineyard). Film: Synecdoche, New York; Old Joy; Rent; Minority Report; The Toe Tactic; Arranged; Protect You & Me; In Northwood; Big Trouble; Lisa Picard is Famous; Patch Adams; A Soldier's Sweetheart; The First Seven Years. Television: "Fringe," "Nurse Jackie," "Law & Order," "The Sopranos," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Third Watch."

MARY MC CANN is a founding member of Atlantic Theater Company. She appeared in the original cast of the world premiere production of Ethan Coen's Almost An Evening, which transferred to The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street following an Atlantic Stage 2 engagement, and most recently starred in Annie Baker's acclaimed world premiere play Body Awareness at Atlantic. Mary has appeared in many Atlantic productions, including the hit musical Spring Awakening, The Cherry Orchard, The Night Heron, The Hiding Place, This Thing of Darkness, The Beginning of August, Wolf Lullaby, The Water Engine, Edmond, Dangerous Corner and Shaker Heights. Broadway: The Old Neighborhood, Our Town with Spalding Gray and Search and Destroy. Other Off-Broadway: Oleanna (OrpheumTheater); Uncommon Women and Others (Second Stage); Boys' Life (Lincoln Center) and Hot Keys (Naked Angels). American Repertory Theater: Oleanna and Boston Marriage. Film credits include the role of "MaryAnn" in Little Children starring Kate Winslet, and the upcoming films Sordid Things and House of the Devil, The Spanish Prisoner, Things Change and The Night We Never Met. "On television she has guest starred on "Cashmere Mafia," "The Naked Brothers Band," as "Ruthie Cheales" in "The Unit," "Law & Order," "Law & Order Special Victims Unit," "Law & Order Criminal Intent," "Sex and the City," "Sports Night," "ER," "Spin City," "Promised Land, " It Must Be Love, Door to Door and The Con. Producing credits include the films Edmond starring William H. Macy and Colin Fitz.

Joey Slotnick returns to Atlantic after starring in the hit world premiere production of Almost An Evening, which transferred to The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street following a sold out extended run. He is a member of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Co., and is currently appearing in the company's production of Our Town, co-directed by Anna D. Shapiro and Jessica Thebus. Lookingglass credits include Wants & Needs, Great Men of Science Nos. 21 & 22, Hard Times, Arabian Nights, The Master & Margarita, Up Against It, Third Voyage. New York credits include The Cartells (Comix), The Altruists (Vineyard), Slotnick Katz & Lehr (Trocadero).Recent film work includes: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Made in Romania, Jesus Cooks Me Breakfast, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. Television: recurring on "Nip/Tuck," "Boston Legal," "Law & Order: SVU," "CSI," recurring on "Alias," regular on "Boston Public" and "The Single Guy," "Ellen," TNT's "Pirates of Silicon Valley." Other film credits: Hollow Man, Blast from the Past, Twister, Since You've Been Gone, Judas Kiss, Dinner and Driving.

Greg Stuhr. Broadway credits include David Mamet's November, directed by Joe Mantello, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by James Lapine, and Elaine May's Taller Than a Dwarf, directed by Alan Arkin. Previously with the Atlantic: Mamet's Romance, Keith Reddin's Frame 312, Jordan Lage's Alums (New Works), among others. He most recently appeared in Ars Nova's evening of one-acts, Playlist. Other Off-Broadway and regional: Primary Stages, Keen Company, Rattlestick, Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, Alliance. Film and TV includes Red, Beautiful Ohio, "New Amsterdam", "Law & Order", "Third Watch", and the upcoming AMC series "Rubicon". Greg is a native of Buffalo, NY, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon Drama.

C. J. Wilson returns to Atlantic following his appearance in David Mamet's adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. Broadway: Festen, Henry IV, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Best Man. Off-Broadway: Race (Classic Stage), Home of the Brave (Jewish Rep), Stop Kiss, The Cripple of Inishmaan (Public), The Merry Wives of Windsor (N.Y. Shakespeare Festival). Regional: Home (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Book Club Play (Berkshire Theatre Festival), The Cherry Orchard(Chautauqua Theater), The Glass Menagerie (Fulton Opera House), Big Love (ACT), The Weir (Old Globe), Portia Coughlin(McCarter); As You Like It, Love's Labour's Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry VI (The Shakespeare Theatre); Apple Cove(Todd Mountain Theatre); Henry V, Arms and the Man(Acting Company). Television: "New Amsterdam," "Brotherhood," "Without a Trace," "Law & Order:CI," Law & Order:SVU," "Law & Order," "Third Watch," "Ed," "All My Children." Fox Fellow honoree.

DANIEL YELSKY is thrilled to be making his Off Broadway debut. Film credits include: Meet Monica Velour (starring Brian Dennehy and Kim Cattrall) and Every Day (starring Liev Schreiber and Helen Hunt). TV: "Life On Mars," "Rescue Me," "Law & Order: SVU." Daniel is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process. Atlantic's acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work.

Atlantic produced five world premieres during its 2007-2008 season: Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's comedy Almost an Evening, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker; Peter Parnell's Trumpery, directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Tony Award® winner Michael Cristofer and Tony Award® nominee Manoel Felciano; Lucy Thurber's Scarcity, directed by Jackson Gay and featuring Emmy Award® winner Kristen Johnston, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael T. Weiss, Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer and Annie Baker's Body Awareness, directed by Karen Kohlhaas and featuring Academy Award® nominee JoBeth Williams, Peter Friedman and Mary McCann and the critically acclaimed New York premiere production of Oliver Award® winning and Tony Award® nominated playwright Conor McPherson's play Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper and featuring Tony Award® nominee Brian d'Arcy James, Tony Award® winner John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony Award® winner Jim Norton.

Playwright Beau Willimon made his celebrated Off-Broadway debut this season with the world premiere of Farragut North starring Chris Noth and John Gallagher, Jr. The world premiere comedy What's That Smell: The Music Of Jacob Sterling, written and performed by Tony Award® nominee David Pittu, transferred Off-Broadway to New World Stages following a critically acclaimed extended engagement at Atlantic Stage 2.

Since it's inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced over 120 productions including the Tony Award® winning play The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet's Romance and his new adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, the musicals Spring Awakening and 10 Million Miles, Jez Butterworth's Mojo, Tom Donaghy's Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez' Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules and revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson's Choice. Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and director David Mamet and Academy Award® nominee William H. Macy, who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago.

OFFICES will play Tuesday - Friday at 8p, Saturday at 2p & 8p and Sunday at 3p & 7p.

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY AT THE LINDA GROSS THEATER is located at 336 West 20 Street (between 8 & 9 Avenue). Tickets are $65.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (ticketcentral.com). For more information visit, www.atlantictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski