CHESTER BAILEY World Premiere Set for A.C.T. This Spring; Tickets on Sale!

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) favorite and Academy Award nominee, David Strathairn (Underneath the Lintel at A.C.T.; film: Good Night, and Good Luck, Lincoln, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), returns to A.C.T. for a special three-week engagement of Joseph Dougherty's CHESTER BAILEY (May 25-June 12, 2016) at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater.

Single tickets (ranging from $25-$75) are available now by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228 or visiting www.act-sf.org. Ticket prices are subject to change without notice.

In 1945, in a hospital in Long Island, a young man named CHESTER BAILEY -- portrayed by Dan Clegg (Major Barbara at A.C.T.; Tribes at Berkeley Rep; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Cal Shakes; A.C.T. M.F.A. alumnus,) -- has fallen under the charge of Dr. Philip Cotton (played by Strathairn). Chester is recovering from devastating injuries that have made his imagination the safest haven he has, while Cotton is tasked with figuring out the best way to heal this unusual patient. When Chester weaves a vivid fantasy about a beautiful woman from his past, Cotton -- who is wounded by his own disappointments in life and love -- is forced to make an ethical decision that calls into question everything he has ever known and believed to be true. As he is left wondering how he can pierce the bubble of Chester's illusion without leading him back to a reality of pain and loss, Cotton comes to his own realizations about the fragile nature of love and hope -- and the saving grace of the imagination.

Written by Emmy Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Joseph Dougherty (theater: Digby, My Favorite Year; television: thirtysomething and Pretty Little Liars) and directed by veteran stage and television director Ron Lagomarsino (theater: Driving Miss Daisy, Last Night of Ballyhoo; television: thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Pretty Little Liars), CHESTER BAILEY is a compelling account of regret, desire, and the lies we tell ourselves in order to find wholeness and truth. Elegant and spare, profound but unsentimental, this two-person play about unexpected connections is a poetic reverie about the endurance of memory, longing, and imagination in the midst of tragedy. The Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City held a sold-out reading of CHESTER BAILEY in 2014.

Says A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff: "CHESTER BAILEY is such a unique piece of writing, a kind of stealth bomber of a play that sneaks up on you and utterly surprises at the end. It's about the strange power of the imagination to help us survive the impossible, written with finesse and compassion by Joseph Dougherty. It will be a joy to have A.C.T. favorites David Strathairn and Dan Clegg on The Strand stage in this world premiere, directed by our longtime collaborator Ron Lagomarsino."

A.C.T.'s 2015-16 season continues with Will Eno's inventive new comedy, The Realistic Joneses (March 9-April 3, 2016); and a brand new, fully-staged production of Jason Robert Brown's powerful and intimate musical, The Last Five Years (May 11-June 5, 2016). After highly praised runs in New York, London, and Edinburgh, the award-winning solo musical, The Lion, will play a strictly limited engagement at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater from April 19-May 1, 2016.

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