Tampa Repertory Theatre to Present TRUE WEST

Tampa Repertory Theatre will present Sam Shepard's bracing comedy True West at Studio 120 on the University of South Florida campus January 7 through 24, 2016. Performances are at 7:30 PM on Thursdays, 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 PM on Sundays. Studio 120 is located at 3837 USF Holly Drive, Tampa 33620, where ample free parking is available during performances. Patrons may purchase tickets at the door or from a link on TampaRep's website at http://www.tamparep.org.

A finalist for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, True West explores an explosive conflict-over the writing of a movie script-between Californian brothers: a desert-dwelling drunk and an uptight suburbanite. Penned early in the career of American dramatist and film star Sam Shepard (Pulitzer winner Buried Child), True West has enjoyed many revivals since its 1980 debut, including a run starring real-life brothers Dennis and Randy Quaid, and a more recent revival at New York's Circle in the Square starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly.

Reviewing the latest revival, New York Times critic Ben Brantley called True West "arguably Shepard's best" play, and observed that while "True West has its cavernous depths... it also has a surface that is as accessible and entertaining as anything this playwright ever wrote."

For this funniest and fiercest brother act in the American canon, TampaRep pairs two of Tampa Bay's most accomplished actors: Jack Holloway and Dan Granke. Well-known to Tampa theatregoers, Holloway played the title role in TampaRep's Hamlet. A co-founder and current Artistic Director for Hat Trick Theatre, Holloway has appeared on many local stages, including Jobsite Theater (All New People) and the Tampa Shakespeare Festival (Macbeth), which he also co-founded. A recent arrival to Tampa theatres, Granke has appeared with New York's Egress Theatre Company, the Richmond Symphony and both the Tampa and Michigan Shakespeare festivals. He is a nationally recognized expert in stage combat and the acting techniques of Michael Chekhov.

True West also features Jamie Jones (Hat Trick's Deathtrap) and Caroline Jett (The Sugar Bean Sisters at Stageworks Theatre).

"Cain and Abel in a kitchen" is Director Megan Lamasney's catchphrase for the play, which she describes as "both dark and comedic at the same time. There is a tragedy in the jealousy that these brothers exude for each other, but there is also something incredibly comical hidden in the reality of everyday life and how we cope."

The second play in TampaRep's fifth season, dubbed "American Visions," True West will be followed in May by Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky, the true story of the women astronomers at Harvard who helped to map the known universe. More information about TampaRep and its mission is available at TampaRep.org.

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