Carol Kane Set to Lead THE LYING LESSON at Atlantic Theater Company in February

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) has just announced the two final productions of its 2012-2013 season.

The world premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award® nominee Craig Lucas’s new comedy THE LYING LESSON, directed by Tony Award® winner Anna D. Shapiro, and starring Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Carol Kane, will play Atlantic’s mainstage Linda Gross Theater this spring.

THE LYING LESSON will begin previews Wednesday, February 6; officially open Wednesday, February 27; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, March 17 Off-Broadway at Atlantic’s main stage Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

In a remote seaside village in Maine, a woman who may or may not be legendary movie star Bette Davis shows up to buy the home of an elderly couple. Escorted by a young local woman who appears never to have heard of her, “Ruth” (Carol Kane) stakes a claim on her distant past, and plays a relentless game of cat and mouse with her new “assistant.” In this hilarious and unsettling new play, Craig Lucas twists and turns the audience around essential questions about memory, identity, and truth-telling in THE LYING LESSON.

Atlantic Theater Ensemble member Rod McLachlan will make his Off-Broadway debut as a playwright with the world premiere of his new play GOOD TELEVISION, directed by Bob Krakower as the final production of Atlantic’s season at the company’s Stage 2

GOOD TELEVISION will begin previews Wednesday, May 22; officially open Tuesday, June 4; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 16, 2013 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

Connie is a line producer and addiction counselor for a reality television show called “Rehabilitation,” which chronicles families who are staging an intervention to help a loved one battle addiction. As Connie and her television crew begin to interview the family of Clemmy, a teenage crystal meth addict, things quickly unravel for everyone. In his off-Broadway playwriting debut, Atlantic Ensemble member Rod McLachlan gives us a fascinating behind the scenes peek at modern television drama at its most extreme.

Additional casting and creative team will be announced for both productions.

Craig Lucas was nominated for a Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical for The Light in the Piazza as well as his celebrated Broadway play Prelude to a Kiss, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist before being adapted into the hit film comedy starring Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin. His plays include Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, God's Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy and The Singing Forest.

Director Anna Shapiro was nominated for a 2011 Tony Award® for The Motherfucker with the Hat and was awarded the 2008 Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Play for August: Osage County. She is an ensemble member at Steppenwolf, where her directing credits include the Bruce Norris plays A Parallelogram, The Unmentionables, The Purple Heart and the world premiere of The Pain and the Itch by, Up, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the world premiere of Tracy Letts’ Man from Nebraska, Warren Leight’s Side Man and Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain among many.

Beloved comedic actress Carol Kane most recently appeared on Broadway in the critically acclaimed revival of Harvey and has starred in the Broadway productions of Wicked and Sly Fox. She has appeared in over 100 motion pictures and television series and was honored with a Best Actress Academy Award® nomination for her role in the film Hester Street and two Emmy Awards® for her role in iconic series “Taxi.”

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