Mamet, Shepard and Brunstetter Works Set For Atlantic Theater's 2009-2010 Season

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director, Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce three of its 2009-2010 season productions. The main stage season at the Linda Gross Theater will mark premieres from Atlantic co-founder David Mamet and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard, while Bekah Brunstetter makes her Off Broadway debut at Stage 2 with the world premiere of a new comedy.

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet returns to the company he founded with a double bill of one-act plays - the world premiere of SCHOOL and the New York premiere of KEEP YOUR PANTHEON, following an acclaimed staging at Center Theatre Group last season, directed by Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe. Mamet was last represented on the Atlantic stage with the smash hit comedy Romance, also staged by Pepe.

Fellow Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard will make his Atlantic debut with the U.S. premiere of The Abbey Theatre's production of AGES OF THE MOON following an acclaimed world premiere engagement in Ireland directed by Jimmy Fay. A third new play will be announced for the Linda Gross Theater main stage.

Atlantic Stage 2, the company's state-of-the-art second stage, will feature the world premiere limited engagement of OOHRAH!, by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Evan Cabnet. A second new play will be announced for Atlantic Stage 2.

2009-2010 Atlantic Theater Company LINDA GROSS THEATER

NEW YORK & WORLD PREMIERE 

TWO UNRELATED PLAYS BY David Mamet: KEEP YOUR PANTHEON and SCHOOL

By David Mamet, Directed by Neil Pepe

Founder David Mamet returns to Atlantic with his new comedy that made its world premiere at Center Theatre Group, directed by Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe. KEEP YOUR PANTHEON is a rousing farce that follows the fortunes and misfortunes of an acting troupe in ancient Rome. An impoverished acting company on the edge of eviction is offered a lucrative engagement. But through a series of riotous mishaps, the troupe finds its problems have actually multiplied, and that they are about to learn a new meaning for the term "dying on stage."

Mamet's world premiere play SCHOOL is a brief comic discourse on recycling, poster design and the transmission of information.

U.S. PREMIERE

The Abbey Theatre'S PRODUCTION OF

AGES OF THE MOON

By Sam Shepard

Directed by Jimmy Fay

AGES OF THE MOON is a gruffly poignant and darkly funny play. Byron and Ames are old friends, re-united by mutual desperation. Over bourbon on ice, they sit, reflect and bicker until fifty years of love, friendship and rivalry are put to the test at the barrel of a gun.

2009-2010 ATLANTIC STAGE 2 THEATER

WORLD PREMIERE

OOHRAH!

By Bekah Brunstetter, Directed by Evan Cabnet

Young playwright Bekah Brunstetter makes her Off-Broadway debut with the world premiere of OOHRAH! In Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to one of the South's largest military bases, practically everybody has somebody "Over There." Sara is relieved when her husband Ron returns home from an uneventful tour in Iraq, but he's finding it difficult to settle back into the domestic bliss that is "home improvement" and "Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals." Sara's sister Abby has set herself up for an uneventful life with a civilian fiancé who's more interested in PlayStation than the battlefield. But when a hot, mysterious Marine walks into their lives, all bets on stability are off.

David Mamet (Playwright). Plays: Keep Your Pantheon (world premiere, Center Theatre Group 2008), Romance (world premiere Atlantic 2005, Mark Taper Forum), November, Boston Marriage, Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Award), American Buffalo, The Old Neighborhood, A Life In The Theater, Speed-the-Plow, Edmond, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Woods, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Reunion and The Cryptogram (1995 Obie Award). Translations and adaptations: The Voysey Inheritance by Harvey Granville-Barker, Red River by Pierre Laville and The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov and Faustus. Films: The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables, House of Games (writer/director), Oleanna (writer/director), Homicide (writer/director), The Spanish Prisoner (writer/director), Hoffa, Wag the Dog, The Edge, The Winslow Boy (writer/director), Hannibal, State and Main (writer/director), Heist (writer/director), Spartan (writer/director), Redbelt (writer/director). Mr. Mamet is also the author of Warm and Cold, a book for children with drawings by Donald Sultan and two other children's books, Passover and The Duck and the Goat; Writing in Restaurants, Some Freaks and Make-Believe Town, three volumes of essays; The Hero Pony and The China Man, a book of poems; Three Children's Plays, On Directing Film, The Cabin and the novels The Village, The Old Religion and Wilson. His most recent books include the acting books, True and False and Three Uses of the Knife, The Wicked Son, and Bambi Vs. Godzilla. Mr. Mamet was also a co-creator of the 4-season running, hit CBS television series "The Unit." He is a co-founder and member of Atlantic Theater Company.

Sam Shepard (Playwright). was first produced in New York in 1963 at Theatre Genesis and many times at La MaMa and Café Cino. Eleven of his plays have won Obie Awards including The Tooth of Crime (1972) and Curse of the Starving Class (1976). He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child (1979). The critically acclaimed production of True West, starring Jon Malkovich and Gary Sinise opened Off-Broadway in 1982. Fool For Love (1982) starring Ed Harris received Obie Awards for Best Play and Direction. A Lie of the Mind (1985) won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Outstanding New Play. Simpatico opened at The Royal Court Theatre after its New York premiere at The Public Theater in 1994 and was made into a feature film by Matthew Warchus starring Nick Nolte and Sharon Stone. A revised Buried Child under the direction of Gary Sinise opened on Broadway in 1996 and was nominated for a Tony Award. Several new plays opened over the next decade in the United States and in London, most notably The Late Henry Moss and The God of Hell. Mr. Shepard recently began a fruitful collaboration with The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland where Ages of the Moon had its world premiere in March, and where Kicking a Dead Horse starring his friend Stephen Rea also premiered. As an actor he is perhaps best known for his roles in Days of Heaven, The Right Stuff and Frances. His third book, Day Out of Days will be published by Knopf early next year.

Bekah Brunstetter (Playwright). Plays include Be a Good Little Widow (Commissioned by Ars Nova, 2009), OOHRAH! (Ars Nova outloud reading series, dir, Leigh Silverman; developed in London at the Finborough Theater), To Nineveh (NY Innovative Theater Award for Best new full length play, 2006) Sick (winner, Sam French short play festival 2006), Green (finalist, Alliance Theater's Kendeda Competition; national finalist, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival) Space (semi-finalist, Princess Grace Award 2007) I Used to Write On Walls (published and licensed by Samuel French,) Fat Kids On Fire (published and licensed by Playscripts, Inc), You May Go Now: A Marriage Play (Winner, 2008 NYIT award for best new Full Length Play (Babel Theater Project), Cenentary Stage 2009, Le Fou (The Atlantic Acting school), Happy Birthday/ I'm Dead (Samuel French Short Play festival Finalist, 2007), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (nominee, 2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award), Celebrity, and Torch Number 2 (SOHO Think Tank), and f-ing Art (winner, Sam French Short play Festival 2008.) Her plays have been read and produced by the Babel Theatre Project, New Georges, The Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, the Ohio Theater (Think tank), NYU, Centenary Stage, NC New Voices, The New School for Drama, Working Man's Clothes, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Phare Play Productions, Old Vic/ New Voices, Boston Theatre Works, Manhattan Theatre Source, SPF, and The Alliance Theater. Her plays are published by Sam French, Playscripts, Original Works, and Smith and Krauss. She is a member of the Ars Nova play group, the Playwright's Center, At Play Productions, and the Dramatist's Guild. She is proud to be the 2009 playwright in residence at Ars Nova, and a member of the Women's Project Writer's Lab. She received her BA (Theater/Fiction Writing) from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. Bekah is currently working on a commission for the Roundabout Underground. 

Evan Cabnet (Director). Mark Schultz's The Gingerbread House (stageFARM at the Rattlestick, world premiere), Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Long Wharf Theater, East Coast premiere), Elizabeth Meriwether's The Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels, world premiere), new plays by Adam Rapp, Schultz, and Meriwether as part of SPIN (Cherry Lane), Lewis Black and Rusty Magee's The Czar of Rock and Roll (Joe's Pub), his own adaptations of Ubu Roi and Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Williamstown), and the 2009 TFI Sloan staged readings for the Tribeca Film Festival. He has developed new works by: Carly Mensch (Playwrights Horizons), Rajiv Joseph (Vineyard), Lucy Thurber (MCC), Molly Smith Metzler (MTC), Bekah Brunstetter (Atlantic Theater Co.), Diana Fithian (Roundabout), Lauren Gunderson (NYU Grad), Cusi Cram (WET), Anna Ziegler (Cape Cod Theater Project), Annie Baker, Steven Levenson, Beau Willimon, Liz Flahive and many others. Five seasons at the Williamstown Theater Festival, including the 2003 Boris Sagal and 2002 Bill Foeller Fellowships. Recipient of the 2008 Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists.

JIMMY FAY (Director). For the past year Jimmy served as acting Literary Director of The Abbey Theatre where his acclaimed production The Resistable Rise of Aturo Ui enjoyed a limited engagement. His productions at The Abbey Theatre include The Seafarer by Conor McPherson, The Playboy of the Western World in a new version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle, Saved by Edward Bond for which he won Best Director Irish Times Theatre Award 2007, The School for Scandal by R B Sheridan, Howie the Rookie by Mark O'Rowe, True West by Sam Shepard, Shakespeare's Henry IV in an edit by Mark O'Rowe, The Muesli Belt by Jimmy Murphy, Flánn O' Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds adapted by Alex Johnston and Melonfarmer by Alex Johnston. He is Artistic Director of Bedrock Productions. His recent productions include Hoors by Gregory Burke for the Traverse Theatre Company, This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan for his own company, Bedrock, Roberto Zucco by Bernard Marie-Koltes, This is not a Life by Alex Johnston, That Time by Samuel Beckett for Bedrock's Beckett's Ghosts at Project Arts Centre, Shooting Gallery by Des Bishop and Arthur Riordan, the experimental double-bill of Self-Accusation and Pale Angel under the rubric Urban Ghosts as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, Faraway by Caryl Churchill, Entertainment by Alex Johnston, the Irish premiere of Blasted by Sarah Kane, The Massacre @ Paris by Christopher Marlowe, Wideboy Gospel by Ken Harmon, Quay West and Night Just Before the Forest by Bernard Marie-Koltes. Other productions include most recently,The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger by Paul Howard (Landmark Productions), a Romanian version of Malachy McKenna's Tillsonburg at Arad State Theatre, Transylvania and Sibiu Festival, Romania, The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco adapted by Owen McCafferty (Tinderbox), Martin Lynch's monologue for Convictions (Tinderbox at Crumlin Road Jail), True West (Lyric Theatre), Blown by Nicholas Field, Royal Supreme and Melonfarmer by Alex Johnston (Theatre Royal, Plymouth). For Bickerstaffe he directed Rap Éire by Arthur Riordan and Des Bishop and Comedians by Trevor Griffiths which won the Best Production of the Dublin Theatre Festival 1999. Jimmy was the Theatre Curator Kilkenny Arts Festival, 2007. He was the first director of the Dublin Fringe Festival (1995 -1996), which he co-founded with Bedrock Productions.

Neil Pepe (Director) made his acclaimed Broadway debut with the hit revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow last season and staged the world premiere of Ethan Coen's trio of one act comedies Offices. He directed the world premiere of Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon as well as The Duck Variations at Center Theatre Group. 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 Pittu's What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling; 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 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).

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.

This season Atlantic and Neil Pepe were awarded a special 2009 Drama Desk Award for exceptional craftsmanship, dedication to excellence and productions that engage, inspire and enlighten, while Atlantic and Druid's hit revival of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan was awarded an Outstanding Ensemble Performance Award.

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 during the 2008-2009 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. Atlantic and Druid's critically acclaimed production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Tony Award® winner Garry Hynes, was extended three times and received four 2009 Lucille Lortel Award nominations including Outstanding Revival, three Outer Critics Circle Award nominations including Outstanding Revival, and a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Revival. Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen returned to Atlantic with a trio of one-act comedies, Offices, directed by Neil Pepe, and Leslie Ayvazian's new comedy Make Me made its world premiere at Stage 2 directed by Atlantic Associate Artistic Director Christian Parker.

Since it's inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 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, the revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson's Choice. Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985.

Atlantic Theater Company MAIN STAGE AT THE LINDA GROSS THEATER is located at 336 West 20th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). Tickets for main stage productions are $65.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (ticketcentral.com).

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). Tickets are $45 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (ticketcentral.com).

For general inquiries and/or group sales for both theaters call 212-645-242.

For more information visit www.atlantictheater.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.