Bill Pullman, Ed Harris Lead THE JACKSONIAN at the Geffen; Opens February 2012

Ed Harris, Bill Pullman, Amy Madigan and Glenne Headly are checking into The Jacksonian, Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley's eerie world-premiere set in a seedy motel in Jackson, Mississippi circa 1964. Ed Harris, a four-time Oscar nominee and Broadway vet who recently appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in Wrecks, is Bill Perch, a dentist with ambiguous morality who goes to The Jacksonian to bury his secrets. Estranged from his wife, played by Amy Madigan (Broadway's Streetcar Named Desire and Oscar nominee for Twice in a Life Time), Perch makes his new home in the motel's unsettling world where the subversive becomes commonplace and the passage of time becomes hauntingly unpredictable. As the Perch's lives become intertwined with the inhabitants of the motel - proprietor Fred Weber played by Bill Pullman (most recently seen on Broadway in Oleanna and on-screen in HBO's Too Big to Fail) and bar tender Glenne Headly (most recognizable for her big-screen role in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and recently seen at the Geffen Playhouse in Love, Loss, and What I Wore) - the audience is taken on a surreal trip that is rife with disturbingly dark humor. Helmed by Tony Award winner and Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls, The Jacksonian opens in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse on February 8, 2012.

"I am humbled and awestruck to be working with the artists who are involved in this premiere production," said playwright Beth Henley. "It is an honor and a joy - a sublime situation. I plan to relish every moment."

The Geffen Playhouse production marks the world-premiere of this play; however, Harris, Headly, Madigan and Pullman were all involved with Henley in early readings of the project. There is one remaining actor to be announced for the role of Rosy Perch, Susan & Bill Perch's daughter.

Tickets for The Jacksonian are currently available through subscription only. Seven-play subscription packages begin at $290 and can be purchased online at www.geffenplayhouse.com or the subscription hotline at 310-208-2028.

Biographies

ED HARRIS (Bill Perch)
Ed Harris previously appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in 2009 as Edward Carr in Neil LaBute's Wrecks (LADCC Award for Best Solo Performance), a role he originated at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Ireland as well as reprised for the New York run in 2006. Harris' theater credits include: Taking Sides, Fool for Love (Obie Award -Outstanding Actor), Precious Sons (Drama Desk Award - Outstanding Actor), Prairie Avenue (LADCC Award),Scar, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Grapes of Wrath, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Simpatico (Lucille Lortel Award - Best Actor). On screen, Harris, who will next be seen in the feature thriller, Man on a Ledge and in HBO's Game Change, has appeared in over fifty films and been nominated for four Academy Awards. He has been honored with a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and a National Society of Film Critics Award for his work in films. He has directed two films in which he also starred: Pollock and Appaloosa, which he co-wrote, directed and produced.

GLENNE HEADLY (Eva White)
Theater: Balm in Gilead ( N.Y., Chicago ), Aunt Dan & Lemon, (London's Almeida Theatre); Detachments (Los Angeles), My Brilliant Divorce, (Galway, Ireland ); Arms and the Man, (Broadway ); former longtime member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company (four Jefferson Awards); Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Geffen Playhouse). Television: On Golden Pond ( live telecast ); Bastard Out of Carolina; Lonesome Dove (both Emmy nominated for best supporting actress film/mini-series); Pronto. Film: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Dick Tracy; Mr. Holland's Opus; Mortal Thoughts, Nadine; What's the Worst that Could Happen; Sgt. Bilko: Making Mr. Right; Breakfast of Champions; The Amateurs; 2 Days in the Valley; The Jonses.

AMY MADIGAN (Susan Perch)
Theater credits: Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway), A Lie of the Mind (Mark Taper Forum,) Steven Wants to Play the Blues (LATC), The Lucky Spot (MTC), Prairie Avenue( Los Angeles), In the Boom Boom Room (Los Angeles). Film credits include: Twice in a Lifetime(Academy Award Nomination), Gone Baby Gone, Once Fallen, Winter Passing, Female Perversions, Uncle Buck, Field of Dreams, Alamo Bay, Streets of Fire, Places in the Heart, Love Child and others. Most recent television includes: Memphis Beat and Fringe, other credits include Grey's Anatomy and Criminal Minds. Received a Golden Globe Award and Emmy nomination for Roe Vs. Wade, Cable Ace Award for Best Actress for And Then There Was One and The Laundromat. Other credits include HBO Carnivale, The Laramie Project, A Bright Shining Lie and Shot in the Heart. Madigan has done many other TV films. Upcoming films include: Dustin Lance Black's What's Wrong With Virginia and Jenny Deller's Future Weather.

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