Atlantic Will Stage World-Premiere Plays of John Guare and Melissa James Gibson in 2012-13
New plays by John Guare, Rolin Jones, Melissa James Gibson, Simon Stephens will populate Atlantic Theater Company's 2012-13 season. Two final productions, dates and additional directors will be announced shortly.
This will mark Atlantic's first full season back at its mainstage, the Linda Gross Theater, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The venue underwent a two-year $8.5 million renovation.
The season will boast world premieres by Tony Award winner Guare (House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation) and Obie Award winner Gibson ([sic], This, Suitcase) and New York premieres by Jones (The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, "Smash," "Weeds") and Stephens (Bluebird).
Here's the 2012-13 Atlantic Theater Company season at a glance:
Linda Gross Theater
New York Premiere
Harper Regan
By Simon Stephens
Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Fall 2012
"One strange evening, Harper Regan decides to walk away from her husband, her daughter and her home. She tells no one where she's going or whether she's ever coming back. She tosses family, history and fate straight up in the air, and it looks like she might be gone for good. In Simon Stephens' acclaimed play, which premiered in 2008 at the U.K.'s National Theatre, we are folded into an absorbing story about a woman who explores the limits of loyalty, morality, and the bonds of family."
Linda Gross Theater
World Premiere
What Rhymes With America
By Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Fall 2012
"A father and his teenage daughter stand on either side of a closed door. Life is unraveling for him, and is entirely uncertain for her. So begins Melissa James Gibson's poignant, funny new play about estrangement and the partially examined life. With her spare style, mordant wit, and compassionate insight, one of the most emotionally penetrating and unique voices in theatre today wonders What Rhymes With America."
Linda Gross Theater
World Premiere
Three Kinds of Exile
By John Guare
Directed by Neil Pepe
Winter 2012 / Spring 2013
"With great psychological insight and arresting theatricality, John Guare presents us with three artists, all of whom forged complicated lives in the West, having struggled and suffered amid the cultural and political turmoil of Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century. Drawing from the experiences of three real exiles from Czechoslovakia and Poland, Guare weaves the stories of these lives into a riveting dramatic tapestry and probes the meaning of home, identity and how we carry the past with us."
Atlantic Stage 2
New York Premiere
The Jammer
By Rolin Jones
Spring 2013
"In this wild theatrical adventure about New York in the late 1950s, The Jammer plunges us into the hard-boiled, bizarre world of professional roller derby. Rolin Jones, the irreverent and inventive author of Atlantic's The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, introduces us to Jack Lovington, a lovelorn Brooklynite who needs to find himself and stake a claim in the world. When he joins up with the rough and tumble Brooklyn Brown Devils, little does Jack know that his life is about to be turned completely upside down and that he's about to find himself on a most unexpected roller coaster ride. With great humor, wit and heart, Jones takes us back to the Bushwick of yesteryear and creates a romantic urban fable for our time."
Atlantic Theater Company is under the leadership of Neil Pepe, artistic director, and Jeffory Lawson, managing director.
ATC's Linda Gross Theater is at 336 W. 20th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). Atlantic Stage 2 is at 330 W. 16th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues).
For more information, visit atlantictheater.org.
For general inquiries or group sales information, contact membership@atlantictheater.org or call (212) 645-1242.
