John Guare Makes Off-Broadway Debut in THREE KINDS OF EXILE Tonight

Atlantic Theater Company welcomes Olivier and two time Tony Award winning playwright John Guare, who will make his Off Broadway acting debut in the world premiere production of his new play 3 KINDS OF EXILE, directed by Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe, featuring Atlantic ensemble members Peter Maloney and David Pittu and guest artists Alison Cimmet, Jeffrey Kuhn, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Martin Moran, Kate Rigg, Omar Sangare and Timothy Splain.

3 KINDS OF EXILE will begin previews tonight, May 15; officially open Tuesday, June 11; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 23 Off Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company Mainstage at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

With great psychological insight and arresting theatricality, John Guare presents 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.

Prolific writer John Guare makes his Off-Broadway acting debut in the world premiere staging of his new work. His plays include Lydie Breeze; Bosoms and Neglect; The House of Blue Leaves, which won an Obie and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best American Play and four Tony Awards and Six Degrees of Separation, which received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Olivier Best Play Award. He wrote the lyrics and coauthored the book for the Tony Award winning Best Musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. His screenplay for Louis Malle's Atlantic City earned him an Oscar nomination. In 2003 he won the PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award; in 2004, the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 2005 the Obie Award for sustained excellence.

Atlantic Theater Company artistic director Neil Pepe recently staged the Broadway production of the new musical Hands on a Hardbody, the acclaimed revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow and Mamet's A Life in the Theatre. Off-Broadway highlights include Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, Mojo and The Night Heron; Ethan Coen's Happy Hour, Offices and Almost an Evening; Harold Pinter's Celebration and The Room and Adam Rapp's Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling.

Alison Cimmet recently appeared in the Broadway musicals The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Bonnie & Clyde. Jeffrey Kuhn's Broadway credits include The 39 Steps, Spamalot, Wicked, Assassins and the original cast of Ragtime. Jacquelyn Landgraf makes her Off-Broadway and Atlantic debut after most recently performing in the Drama Desk Award nominated The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays. Atlantic ensemble member Peter Maloney has appeared in twenty plays at Atlantic, most recently in David Auburn's The New York Idea, Lucy Thurber's Bottom of the World, Peter Parnell's Trumpery and David Mamet's adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. Martin Moran recently completed an Off Broadway run of his new one-man play, All the Rage, for which he received a Lortel nomination. He received an Obie and two Drama Desk nominations for his solo play, The Tricky Part. Atlantic ensemble member David Pittu recently received critical acclaim in the Encores! production of It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman. He returns to the Atlantic where he starred in CQ/CX last season, and where he premiered his own hit musical What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling. Kate Rigg returns to Atlantic after stealing scenes in Rolin Jones' comedy The Jammer, and has been featured Off Broadway in BFE, The Vagina Monologues, Dogeaters and Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Actor, director, writer and professor Omar Sangare, the founder of United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, was honored by nytheatre.com as one of their 2012 People of the Year. Tim Splain has appeared Off Broadway in Adding Machine; The Holiday Guys and in Atlantic for Kids production of The Hundred Dresses.

The design team for 3 KINDS OF EXILE will feature scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Donald Holder and original music and sound design by Josh Schmidt.

John Guare (Playwright, A / Elzbieta Erased). was born in New York in 1938 and studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama. His plays include Landscape of the Body, A Free Man Of Color (Pulitzer Prize finalist) House of Blue Leaves, (Obie/ NY Drama Critics Circle Award Best Play); Six Degrees of Separation, (Obie/NY Drama Critics Circle Award, London's Olivier Award Best Play), Two Gentlemen of Verona (NY Drama Critics Prize, Tony Award Best Musical), Muzeeka (Obie) Bosoms and Neglect, Rich and Famous, A Few Stout Individuals, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (Tony nomination Best Play), Sweet Smell of Success (Tony nomination Best book of a musical), Lydie Breeze, Bulfinch's Mythology. Women and Water. Screenplays: Taking Off (with Milos Forman, Jury Prize Cannes Film Festival), Atlantic City (NY/LA Film Critics Award/Venice Film Festival Best Film, Oscar nomination Best Screenplay), Six Degrees of Separation. His new play 3 Kinds of Exile opens at the Atlantic Theater in May 2013. He won the 2003 PEN Master Dramatist Award; the 2004 Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the 2005 Obie for sustained excellence. He is a council member of the Dramatists Guild and co-edits the Lincoln Center Theater Review. He has taught at Yale, Princeton, Harvard, NYU and Juilliard. He lives in New York City and Rome with his wife, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president of the American Academy in Rome where he was the 2012/2013 Writer in Residence. His new play Eddie in the Andes won the Greenfield Prize, awarded by the Hermitage Artists Retreat in Englewood, Florida.

Neil Pepe (Director) recently staged the Broadway production of the new musical Hands on a Hardbody Other Broadway credits include the acclaimed revival of Speed-the-Plow and David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre. Off-Broadway: Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, Mojo and The Night Heron; Ethan Coen's Happy Hour, Offices and Almost an Evening; Harold Pinter's Celebration and The Room; Adam Rapp's Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling;Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange; Hilary Bell's Wolf Lullaby; David Pittu's What's That Smell?; Howard Korder's Sea of Tranquility (all at Atlantic); David Mamet's American Buffalo (Donmar Warehouse, Atlantic); Romance, Keep Your Pantheon/School (Center Theatre Group, Atlantic); Zinnie Harris' Further than the Furthest Thing (Manhattan Theater Club); Jessica Goldberg's Refuge (Playwrights Horizons); Tom Donaghy's The Beginning of August (South Coast Repertory, Atlantic). Frank Gilroy's The Subject Was Roses with Martin Sheen (CTG). Also, Eric Bogosian's Red Angel (Williamstown Theater Festival). Since 1992, Neil has been the artistic director of the award-winning Off-Broadway company, Atlantic Theater Company.

Alison Cimmet (Ensemble / Funiage). Broadway: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Violet); Bonnie & Clyde (Stella); Baby, It's You! (stand-by for Beth Leavel); A Tale of Two Cities (Mrs. Cruncher); Chance & Chemistry: A Centennial Celebration of Frank Loesser (Actors Fund Benefit). NYC and Regional favorites: Tiffany in My Wonderful Day (Two River Theater Company); Peach the Starfish in Finding Nemo: the Musical (Disney workshop, original cast recording); Sally Cato in Mame (starring Christine Baranski, Kennedy Center); Ostrovsky (starring Kevin Kline, Manhattan Theatre Club reading); She Loves Me (Westport Country Playhouse); Viola in Twelfth Night (Prince Music Theatre). Film: March!, Conventioneers, and Chasing Taste. TV: Are We There Yet?. Training: Brown University, Tanglewood Music Institute, Cay Michael Patten Studios, and Upright Citizens Brigade. www.alisoncimmet.com.

Jeffrey Kuhn (Ensemble / Funiage). Broadway: The 39 Steps (Clown 1), Monty Python's Spamalot (Sir Bedevere), Wicked (Boq), Assassins (Zangara), original cast of Ragtime. Regional: An Enemy of the People (Centerstage), Next Fall (St. Louis Rep), Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre), Sea of Tranquility (Old Globe), Around...80 Days (Pittsburgh Public), I Am My Own Wife (Stageworks), The Fourth Wall (Alliance), The Pavilion, Dirty Blonde, (Cincinnati Playhouse), Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony & Cleopatra, The Illusion, Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet (Stratford Shakespeare Festival), Nothing Sacred (Winter Garden) The Lion King (Princess of Wales), National Tour: The Who's Tommy (Cousin Kevin). TV: "Nothing Sacred," "Romeo & Juliet," "Gotti," "Earth: Final Conflict."

Jacquelyn Landgraf (Ensemble / Funiage). Off-Broadway/Atlantic debut. She most recently performed in the Drama Desk-nominated The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays (Arena Stage, Barrow Street, The Kraine) and was named the 2012 Theater Artist-in-Residence at the Invisible Dog Art Center, to develop the American premiere of Blue-s-cat, by Koffi Kwahulé, translated by Chantal Bilodeau. From 2005-2011, Jacquelyn was an ensemble member and co-artistic director of The New York Neo-Futurists, the writer/performers of the long-running signature show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Caffe Cino Award, multiple New York Innovative Theater Awards), which she has performed extensively in New York and Chicago, and toured to Le Petit Theatre in New Orleans and Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C. Other New York theater: Sawdust Palace (Susan Marshall and Company, 92nd St. Y), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Pipeline), The Maids (WOW Café), and 365 Days/365 Plays (The Public). B.F.A., Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Jacquelyn is a proud alumna and current faculty member of the Atlantic Acting School.

Peter Maloney (Captain/Father, Funiage). has appeared in twenty plays at the Atlantic, where he is a member, most recently in David Auburn's The New York Idea, Lucy Thurber's Bottom of the World, Peter Parnell's Trumpery and the David Mamet's adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. During the past year he has received critical acclaim for his performances as 'Shelley Levene' in Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, at the La Jolla Playhouse, "Clarence" and "Old Man Potter" in It's a Wonderful Life at the Irish Rep., and "Antonio" in Much Ado About Nothing at the Duke on 42nd Street. He appeared at the Palace Theatre as "Doc" in the Broadway revival of West Side Story. Atlantic productions include: 10 x 20 (Leavings), The Room, The Cherry Orchard, Hobson's Choice, The Water Engine, Mr. Happiness, The Duck Variations, Down the Shore and The Dadshuttle. Broadway: Arcadia, Carousel, Six Degrees of Separation, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Dinner at Eight and Our Town (Lincoln Center Theater), Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley, Poor Murderer, Hughie. He was a member of Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater, appearing here and in Europe in The Serpent, Terminal and Endgame in which he played Clov to Mr. Chaikin's Hamm. Film: 50 films, including K-Pax, Boiler Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Crucible, JFK, Washington Square. Television: "Uncle Red" on Rescue Me. Writer: his plays Witness and Leash (part of his Abu Ghraib Triptych), have been published by Applause Books in the collections Best American Short Plays. His adaptation of Mandragola is published by Broadway Play Publishing, Accident by Faber and Faber. Member:The Actors Studio, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Martin Moran (Karel) recently completed an Off Broadway run of his new one-man play, All The Rage (Lortel Nomination.) He received an OBIE and two Drama Desk Nominations for his solo play, The Tricky Part, based upon his memoir of the same title. Broadway/Off-Broadway performances include: Spamalot, Cabaret, Titanic, Bells Are Ringing, How To Succeed, Fun Home, (Public Theater) Floyd Collins, (Playwrights Horizons) A Man of No Importance, (Lincoln Center) Cider House Rules. (Atlantic Theater Company). Regional work includes: La Jolla Playhouse, (Puck), Long Wharf, Williamstown Theater Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, American Conservatory Theater, The Intiman. Film/TV: The Newsroom; The Big C; The Music Never Stopped; Possible Side Affects; The Next Big Thing; Private Parts; Law &Order; Law & Order Criminal Intent; Dellaventura; Mary and Rhoda. Martin received the 2005 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers and 2005 Lambda Awards for his memoir: The Tricky Part. His recent writing has been published in Ploughshares and Pushcart. Earlier this year he wrote Book and Lyrics for the "Inner Voices" solo musical, Borrowed Dust, composed by Joseph Thalken and starring Hunter Foster.

David Pittu (Gombro / Funiage). most recently triumphed as the evil Dr Sedgwick in the acclaimed Encores! production of It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman. He returns to the Atlantic Theater, where he starred in last season's CQ/CX, and where he premiered his own critically acclaimed musical What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling (music by Randy Redd).He received Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for his work in Harold Pinter's Celebration and the Room (also at Atlantic). Mr Pittu received Tony and Drama Desk nominations, as well as an Outer Critics' Award, for his performance as Bertolt Brecht in the Hal Prince musical LoveMusik. He received his second Tony Award nomination the following year, for his turn in the Mark Twain/David Ives comedy Is He Dead? on Broadway. Other credits include Feste in Twelfth Night at the Delacorte (2009 St. Clare Bayfield Award), Equivocation at MTC (Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), Stuff Happens (Public), Bells Are Ringing and Of Thee I Sing (both at Encores).TV / film: True Story (upcoming), Men in Black III, "Person of Interest," "Made in Jersey," "Pan Am," "Damages," "The Good Wife," "Law & Order: SVU," "Fringe," "Sex and the City," "Rescue Me," The Invention of Lying, King Kong. 2010 recipient of the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award.

Kate Rigg (Ensemble / Funiage). Off Broadway: The Jammer (Atlantic), BFE (Playwrights Horizons), The Vagina Monologues,Dogeaters (NYSF), Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (NYTW). Regional: LAsians, Sez She (Mark Taper Forum/CTGLA), Birth of a nASIAN (Comedy Central Theater, Smithsonian), Wilder Rediscovered (Actors Theater Louisville). Film: That's What She Said, Race Is the Place, The Naughty Show. TV: "Law & Order SVU," "Law & Order," "Law & Order C.I.," "Family Guy," "The Dr. Phil Show" (comedy correspondent), "Women of Comedy," "Comedy Now!," "NBC Late Friday," "VH1's Awesomely Bad," "One Night Stand Up." Stand Up: Kennedy Center, Comedy Central, Carolines on Broadway. Lead Singer for Slanty Eyed Mama. Training: Juilliard.

Omar Sangare (B / Elzbieta Erased) has appeared in Six Degrees of Separation at The Dramatyczny Theatre in Poland and Othello at The Arena Players in New York. Director: A Streetcar Named Desire and The Crucible at Williamstheatre. Producer: United Solo Theatre Festival, NYC. Dr. Sangare was selected by the U.S. Department of State for a video project that appeared as part of President Obama's trip to Poland. Awards include: Person of the Year 2012 by NYTheatre.com, Best in Acting at Fringe NYC, Best Production at San Francisco Fringe, Critics' Choices by Denver Post and Chicago Reader. He has written six books and is a tenured Professor of Theatre at Williams College. www.omarsangare.com

TIM SPLAIN (Piano Player / Funiage). Off Broadway/New York: Lincoln Center: A Minister's Wife; Minetta Lane: Adding Machine; York Theatre Company: The Holiday Guys; NYMF: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Atlantic for Kids: The Hundred Dresses. National Tour: Little House on the Prairie. Regional: Writers' Theatre: A Minister's Wife, She Loves Me, A Little Night Music; MSC OPAS: Neil Berg's Phantoms of the Opera; Milwaukee Rep: Next to Normal; First Stage: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; ATC/About Face: Rent (dir. David Cromer); Hypocrites: Threepenny Opera; Paper Mill Playhouse: Little House on the Prairie. Upcoming: Arts Emerson: The Baritone Project.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater that produces great plays simply and truthfully, utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of a play and the intent of its playwright are at the core of the creative process. The plays in the Atlantic repertory, from both new and established playwrights, are boldly interpreted by today's finest theater artists and resonate with contemporary audiences. Since its inception over 27 years ago, Atlantic has produced more than 150 plays including Tony Award-winning productions of Spring Awakening and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Martin McDonagh); world premieres of Almost an Evening, Offices and Happy Hour (Ethan Coen); The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Cripple of Inishmaan (Martin McDonagh); Body Awareness (Annie Baker); Romance (David Mamet); Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman, adapted by Jenny Worton); Farragut North (Beau Willimon); Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling (Adam Rapp); Bluebird and Harper Regan (Simon Stephens); What Rhymes With America (Melissa James Gibson); The Lying Lesson (Craig Lucas); Storefront Church (John Patrick Shanley); Blue/Orange (Joe Penhall); Port Authority and Dublin Carol (Conor McPherson); Writer's Block (Woody Allen); American Buffalo and Edmond (David Mamet); The Cider House Rules (adapted by Peter Parnell); Celebration & The Room, The Collection & A Kind of Alaska and The Hothouse (Harold Pinter); Gabriel (Moira Buffini); Oohrah! (Bekah Brunstetter); Mojo, Parlour Song (Jez Butterworth); Boys' Life and The Lights (Howard Korder); Distant Fires (Kevin Heelan); Missing Persons (Craig Lucas).

Atlantic has garnered 12 Tony Awards, 12 Lucille Lortel Awards, 15 Obie Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Drama League Awards. Atlantic also operates The Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, which has an undergraduate program in conjunction with NYU, as well as a two-year professional acting program and a six-week intensive workshop every summer. Atlantic for Kids and the Educational Outreach Program partners with schools and teachers throughout the greater metropolitan area coordinating in-school visits of teaching artists and post-theater talkbacks.

Atlantic Theater Company AT THE LINDA GROSS THEATER is located at 336 West 20th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues).

Schedule: Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm, Sunday at 3pm, Tuesday and Sunday at 7pm. No Saturday matinee May 18. No Sunday evening performances May 26, June 9, June 23. Added Wednesday 2pm performances June 5 and June 19. No performance Tuesday, June 11.

All tickets are $70.00 and available by calling OvationTix (866.811.4111), visiting the Atlantic Stage 2 box office at 330 West 16th Street, or going online to atlantictheater.org.

Atlantic Members pay $30 per ticket for all Mainstage and Stage 2 productions. Members may book by contacting OvationTix, visiting the Atlantic Stage 2 box office, or going online to atlantictheater.org. For information on Atlantic Theater Company membership, group sales or other inquiries, contact the Membership Department: 212-645-1242 or membership@atlantictheater.org.

For every performance (except Friday and Saturday evenings) of Atlantic Theater Company Mainstage productions, Atlantic offers 15 seats for only $15. Seats are limited to rows in the back of the theater, and availability may vary per performance. For the ticket code and more information, visit atlantictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride