David Harbour, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ann Dowd, and Denis O'Hare to Perform in Signature Theatre Reading of Sam Shepard's TRUE WEST

Signature Theatre today will present an all-star benefit reading of Sam Shepard’s contemporary classic True West, led by acclaimed actors Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear, Girls) as Austin, David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow) as Lee, Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, Compliance) as Mom, and Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story, True Blood) as Saul. The reading is directed by Steppenwolf founding member Terry Kinney (Signature: Curse of the Starving Class; The Price on Broadway). Supporting Signature Theatre’s productions of work by today’s most vital playwrights through its groundbreaking residency model, the reading celebrates Shepard in what would have been the Signature legacy playwright’s 80th birthday season. The event is a chance to intimately encounter a cast of esteemed actors taking on Shepard’s “legendary” (The New Yorker), vicious play of brotherly collaboration and ruination. Tickets for the reading, December 11 at 7 pm (with a post-show celebration to follow) on The Irene Diamond Stage at Pershing Square Signature Center, are on sale here.

The upcoming reading of True West reunites Moss-Bachrach and Harbour 20 years after they performed together in Signature’s production of Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July. Both actors have, in recent years, been recognized for their magnetic performances on the small screen. Moss-Bachrach has brought equal portions of pandemonium and pathos to Richie in The Bear, with The New York Times noting, “That Richie is a fan favorite even as he is combative and prickly — a jagoff, in the words of his creators — is a testament to Moss-Bachrach’s heartfelt depiction.” He is currently nominated for an Emmy for the role. Harbour’s lovably gruff portrayal of Jim Hopper on Stranger Things has made him an international superstar and earned him two Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy nominations; he is also known for his prolific film and theater work, having earned a Tony nomination for his performance as Nick in the 2005 production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

The reading also brings together the immense talents of two of today’s most compelling character actors: Ann Dowd and Denis O’Hare. Dowd performed in Signature’s production of Naomi Wallace’s Night Is A Room in 2015, prior to her Emmy Award-winning run as Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid’s Tale. O’Hare is a Tony Award winner for the original production of Take Me Out, and won the Lortel and OBIE Awards for his solo performance, An Iliad.

The reading brings Terry Kinney’s keen activation of Shepard’s writing back to Signature following the 2019 production Curse of the Starving Class. His staging of that work, often considered part of a loose “Family Trilogy” with True West and Buried Child, was praised as “confident… tight and propulsive…guid[ing] the actors to unlocking pure moments of animal magnetism” (Observer). True West also continues, for Signature, a rich history of engagement with the late, iconic writer and his work. The organization’s entire 1996-97 season was devoted to his writing, following which it presented the world premiere of Heartless (2012) and the New York premieres of The Late Henry Moss (2001) and A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations) (2014).

Hannah, Walker, and Jesse Shepard, on behalf of the Estate of Sam Shepard, said, “Signature Theatre was a touchstone for Sam in the New York theater world. When he was a Playwright in Residence there for the 1996 / 1997 season, the theater fostered and celebrated decades of his work, including films he wrote and directed, his early experimental works, and the pieces that emerged from his longtime collaboration with Joe Chaikin. Sam deeply valued the work that Signature does, which continued with more recent, stellar productions of Heartless, A Particle of Dread, and Curse of the Starving Class. Sam loved and cherished Signature’s Founder Jim Houghton as a friend and fellow artist. They are both greatly missed, and we celebrate the work that Signature continues to do in their spirit of collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking in the arts. Long live the theater.”

About Sam Shepard (Playwright)

Sam Shepard (Playwright). Sam Shepard’s first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa E.T.C. and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, Tooth of Crime (Second Dance) and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.

About Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Austin)

Ebon Moss-Bachrach has worked widely on stage and screen for over 20 years. His dynamic range and gift for creating indelible and complicated characters have garnered widespread audience and critical praise and landed him his first Emmy Nomination this year for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work as "Cousin" Richie on FX’s The Bear. He’s known for bringing personal nuance and depth to unforgettable performances in everything from HBO’s Emmy® Award-winning Girls and Netflix’s The Punisher to Hulu’s The Dropout.

Ebon’s credits include dozens of films and television shows. Most recently, he starred in No Hard Feelings alongside Jennifer Lawrence and appeared in season one of Tony Gilroy’s highly anticipated Lucasfilm series Andor. Ebon lives in New York, with artist Yelena Yemchuk, and their two daughters.

About David Harbour (Lee)

David Harbour is a stage and screen actor with over twenty years of experience. Harbour’s stage credits include The Coast of Utopia, Glengarry Glen Ross, Fifth of July (at Signature Theatre), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which he received a Tony nomination in 2005.  

In 2016, Harbour gained widespread acclaim for his work as the gruff, upstanding police chief, Jim Hopper in Netflix’s wildly popularStranger Things. He went on to earn both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the role and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, alongside his castmates. Harbour can also be seen in Gran Turismo, Violent Night, Black Widow, Hellboy, Quantum of Solace, and Brokeback Mountain.  

Harbour currently lives in New York with his wife, singer-songwriter Lily Allen.  

About Ann Dowd (Mom)

Ann Dowd received an Emmy Award (and Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics Choice Awards nominations) for her acclaimed performance on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. She also received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance on HBO’s The Leftovers. Additional TV performances include the limited series Olive Kitteridge and Lambs of God; recurring roles on Good Behavior, Masters of Sex, Quarry, Nothing Sacred, Judging Amy, Third Watch, Freaks and Geeks; and appearances on True Detective, Search Party, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Louie, Girls, House, Chicago Hope, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, and nine different characters within the Law & order franchise. She can currently be seen in The Exorcist: Believer. Her role in Fran Kranz's film Mass earned Ann nominations for the BAFTA and Broadcast Film Critics Choice Awards. For her performance in Craig Zobel's film Compliance, she was the recipient of the Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review. She holds the record for having appeared in the most films in a single season of the Sundance Film Festival with the five feature films A Kid Like Jake, Tyrel, Nancy, American Animals, and Hereditary. 

Ann has been seen on Broadway in The Seagull, Taking Sides, and Candida, for which she received the Actors Equity Association Clarence Derwent Award. She has appeared in off-Broadway productions including Blood from a Stone, Night Is a Room and a one-person adaptation of Enemy of the People, which was the first play to reopen the Park Avenue Armory after the pandemic lockdown.

About Denis O’Hare (Saul Kimmer)

Denis O’Hare was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role on This Is Us and has been twice nominated for his performances on American Horror Story. His other notable television appearances include his roles on The Nevers, Trying, True Blood, American Gods, The Good Wife, When We Rise, Brothers and Sisters, and Big Little Lies (SAG Award nomination, Ensemble in a Drama Series). He won the Tony Award for his performance in Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award) and was also nominated for his work in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.  He received an Obie Award for his one-man performance of An Iliad of which he is also the playwright. His other stage credits include Sweet Charity (Drama Desk Award), Cabaret, Inherit the Wind, Major Barbara, Elling, Racing Demon, Hauptmann, Into the Woods, Ten Unknowns, and his performance at London's National Theatre in the title role of Tartuffe. His various film credits include Infinite Storm, Swallow, Late Night, The Goldfinch, Novitate, The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club (SAG Award nomination, Cast in a Motion Picture), The Proposal,Duplicity, Milk (SAG Award nomination, Cast in a Motion Picture; Critic's Choice Award, Best Acting Ensemble), Changeling, Charlie Wilson’s War, Michael Clayton, A Mighty Heart, Half Nelson, Garden State, 21 Grams, The Anniversary Party, Private Life, and The Parting Glass, of which he is also the screenwriter. He can currently be seen on stage in Here We Are, the acclaimed final musical by Stephen Sondheim.

About Terry Kinney (Director)

Terry Kinney is a co-founder and acting member of Steppenwolf Theatre.

His acting work includes Balm in Gilead, Orphans, Tracers, The Grapes of Wrath (Tony nomination), and Buried Child on Broadway. He has directed many productions, including (for Steppenwolf) – Another Marriage, And a Nightingale Sang..., A Clockwork Orange, A Streetcar Named Desire, Of Mice and Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (also Broadway, winner Tony award, Best Revival), and The Violet Hour. Other work includes reasons to be pretty (Tony nomination, best play), The Price (Broadway), The Babylon Line (LCT), and Curse of the Starving Class.

Mr. Kinney also works in film and television. His films include: Fly Away Home, Sleepers, The Firm, Last of the Mohicans, Devil in a Blue Dress, Abundant Acreage Available, The Little Things, among others.

Television work includes: Oz, thirtysomething, Black Box, Show Me a Hero, Good Behavior, Fargo, Billions, Inventing Anna, The Watcher, and most recently, the FX series Justified: Primeval.

Mr. Kinney lives in Brooklyn, NY with his daughter Maeve, and his son, Carson. 

Benefit Reading & Information  
 

Signature’s All-Star Benefit Reading of True West by Sam Shepard  takes place at The Pershing Square Signature Center at Jim Houghton Way, 480 W 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036, on the Irene Diamond Stage. 

Tickets range from $250-$500 each, and a $7,500 sponsorship level is available which includes ten tickets, a reserved table at the post-show celebration, and half-page ad in the digital program.

  

About Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre is an artistic home for storytellers. By producing several plays from each Resident Writer, Signature continues its deep dive into their bodies of work.

Signature serves its mission by hosting distinctive resident playwrights and cultural communities at its permanent home at The Pershing Square Signature Center, a three-theater facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects. At the Center, which opened in January 2012, Signature continues its original Playwright-in-Residence model with Spotlight Residency (formerly Residency 1), an intensive exploration of a single writer’s body of work. The Premiere Residency (formerly Residency 5), the only program of its kind, supports playwrights as they build a body of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched during Signature’s 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both residencies to premiere or restage earlier plays. Inaugurated in 2022, the LaunchPad Residency seeks to advance an early-career playwright's voice, body of work, and professional development. In 2020, Signature launched SigSpace, to bring free artistic programming to the Center’s public spaces and more fully activate Signature’s lobby as a free public workspace and social hub for New York artists.

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a major contribution to New York City’s cultural landscape. The Center supports and encourages collaboration among artists, cultural organizations and local communities by providing free, public access throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theaters, the Center features a studio theater, a rehearsal studio and a public café, bar and bookstore.

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans and Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon. Signature’s Resident Playwrights include: Edward Albee, Annie Baker, Lee Blessing, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Stephen Adly Guirgis, A.R. Gurney, Katori Hall, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Kenneth Lonergan, Dave Malloy, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, Sam Shepard, Anna Deavere Smith, Regina Taylor, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, Lauren Yee, The Mad Ones, and members of the historic Negro Ensemble Company: Charles Fuller, Leslie Lee, and Samm-Art Williams.

Signature and its artists have been recognized with Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants, and Lucille Lortel, Obie, Drama Desk, AUDELCO, and Artios Awards as well as the 50/50 Award for Gender Parity in Theatre, among many other distinctions. In 2014, Signature became the first New York City theater to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award for its body of work and accomplishments as an institution. For more information, please visit signaturetheatre.org.

The groundbreaking Signature Access (formerly the Signature Ticket Initiative), which in 2019 celebrated its one millionth ticket sold, guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2032. Serving as a model for theaters and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible, in part, by Lead Partner The Pershing Square Foundation.