Capital Stage Presents Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize Winning AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Capital Stage continues its 12th season Love + War with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize Winner August: Osage County. Tracy Letts' masterpiece will be directed by Benjamin T. Ismail and will feature Capital Stage favorites such as Janis Stevens, Jamie Jones and Amy Resnick.

Capital Stage Co-Founder JoNathan Williams also returns as scenic designer. An instant theatre classic, August: Osage County premiered in 2007 at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and subsequently on Broadway in the same year. Its dark comedy has left a deep mark on audiences everywhere. August: Osage County will run from October 19 through November 20, 2016 with a Press Opening on Saturday, October 22 at 8pm.

THE PLAY
A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you've got a play that unflinchingly - and uproariously - exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.

THE PLAYWRIGHT
Tracy Letts was born July 4, 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County and a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

He wrote the screenplays of three films adapted from his own plays: Bug and Killer Joe, both directed by William Friedkin, and August: Osage County, directed by John Wells. He is also known for his portrayal of Andrew Lockhart in seasons 3 and 4 of Showtime's Homeland, for which he has been nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards as a member of the ensemble.

Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to best-selling author Billie Letts (née Gipson) and the late college professor and actor Dennis Letts. Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma and graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980s. He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing while starting as an actor. Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Famous Door. He is still an active member of Steppenwolf. He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre, whose members included Greg Kotis (Tony Award-winner for Urinetown), Michael Shannon (Academy Award-nominee for Revolutionary Road), Paul Dillon, and Amy Pietz. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.

Letts' plays have been about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson.

THE PRODUCTION
August: Osage County will be directed by local favorite Benjamin T. Ismail (Love and Information). The cast will feature Janis Stevens (Macbeth, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Master Class, Fiction, Humble Boy), Rich Hebert (Capital Stage debut), Jamie Jones (The Totalitarians, Tribes, Erratica, Dinner With Friends) Harvey T. Jordan (Capital Stage debut), Amy Resnick (Blackberry Winter), Rick Eldridge (Capital Stage debut), DenA Martinez (Mr. Burns A Post Electric Play), William Glasser (Capital Stage debut), Taylor Burris (Captial Stage debut), Justin D. Mu?oz (Capital Stage debut), Chiitaanibah Johnson (Capital Stage debut), Tim Church (Capital Stage debut), and Jessica Brooks (Capital Stage debut). The production design team will include JoNathan Williams (scenic design), Gail Russell (costume design), Brian Harrower (lighting design and scenic design associate), Ed Lee (sound design), and Emi Teixiera (set dressing).

Performances for August: Osage County will begin with three previews on Wednesday, October 19 & Thursday, October 20 at 7pm, and Friday, October 21 at 8pm. The production will open Saturday, October 22 at 8pm. Performances will continue through Sunday, November 20, 2016. Showtimes will be Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays at 7pm (new showtime), Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Regular ticket prices range from $23-45. Discount tickets are available as follows: Student Rush tickets are half priced with valid student ID within 1 hour of performance; Senior tickets are $5 off regular priced tickets; Military personnel tickets are $10 off regular priced tickets with valid ID; and Group Rate tickets are $5 off each for parties of 12 or more. Tickets are currently available at the Capital Stage Box Office, by phone at 916-995-5464, or online at capstage.org.