Denis Arndt Replaces Kenneth Walsh in MTC's HEISENBERG; Rehearsals Begin This Week

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Heisenberg, the new play by two-time Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Punk Rock), directed by Drama Desk Award winner Mark Brokaw (The Lyons, How I Learned to Drive) starring Denis Arndt (The Night Alive at Geffen Playhouse, "The Practice") and Tony and Emmy Award winner Mary-Louise Parker (Proof, "Weeds") begins rehearsals Thursday.

Denis Arndt replaces the previously announced Kenneth Welsh who has withdrawn from the production due to personal reasons.

The strictly limited 6-week engagement for Heisenberg will begin previews on Tuesday, May 19 and open Wednesday, June 3 as part of MTC's 2014-2015 season of The Studio at Stage II -- Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center -- Stage II (131 West 55th Street).

"Is this the strangest thing that two people have ever done in the history of the world?" Amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, Clare spots Alex, a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This electric encounter thrusts these two strangers into a fascinating and life-changing game. Directed by Drama Desk Award winner Mark Brokaw (The Lyons, How I Learned to Drive), Heisenberg brings to blazing, theatrical life the uncertain and often comical sparring match that is human connection.

Internationally renowned for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, visionary playwright Simon Stephens returns to the New York stage with this sharply original world premiere starring Denis Arndt (The Night Alive at Geffen Playhouse, "The Practice") and Tony and Emmy winner Mary-Louise Parker (Proof, "Weeds").

Heisenberg was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club. The creative team for Heisenberg includes Mark Wendland (scenic design), Michael Krass (costume design), Donald Holder (lighting design), and David Van Tieghem (original music & sound design).

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 19 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Constellations; Casa Valentina; Outside Mullingar; The Assembled Parties; Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.' For more information on MTC, visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

The Studio at Stage II is Manhattan Theatre Club's initiative at New York City Center -- Stage II (131 West 55th Street). The initiative launched in 2012 with the sold out, critically acclaimed world premiere of Murder Ballad, the rock musical by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash and has continued with the critically acclaimed premieres of Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Taking Care of Baby by Dennis Kelly, The Lion by Benjamin Scheuer, and By The Water by Sharyn Rothstein. The Studio at Stage II has been partially underwritten with a major grant from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

In order to ensure that tickets to Heisenberg are affordable to the widest and most diverse audiences possible, MTC is pricing all tickets during the first five weeks of the run at $30 and week six at $75. A limited number of tickets will go on sale to the general public starting Wednesday, April 22 via CityTix (212-581-1212), www.nycitycenter.org, and at the New York City Center Box Office (131 West 55th Street).

BIOGRAPHIES:

SIMON STEPHENS (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright who began his theatrical career in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre, as a tutor on the Young Writers' Programme. His early work at the Royal Court includes Bluebird (1998); Herons (2001), Country Music (2004) and Motortown (2006).

In 2008, his play Harper Regan opened at the National Theatre, and Sea Wall, starring Andrew Scott, played at the Bush. Stephens then had success with his plays Pornography (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hanover, 2007 and Edinburgh Festival / Birmingham Rep, 2008 and Tricycle Theatre, 2009) and Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith / Manchester Royal Exchange, 2009) which won the 2009 Manchester Evening News Award for Best Production. 2012 saw Three Kingdoms performed in London, Tallinn and Munich, Morning at the Lyric Theatre, and a new version of Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Young Vic which subsequently transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in 2013. His adaption of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Oliver Award for Best New Play (National Theatre, 2012; Apollo Theatre, 2013; Gielgud, 2014 -- present; Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, 2014 -- present).

In 2014, Stephens premiered two new works to great critical acclaim: Carmen Disruption at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, which comes to the Almeida Theatre in London in 2015, and Birdland at the Royal Court. Stephens' new play Songs from Faraway, directed by award-winning Belgian director Ivo van Hove, will receive its UK premiere at the Young Vic in September 2015. Also in 2015, Heisenberg opens at MTC in New York, and The Funfair, his new version of Ödön von Horváth's Kasimir and Karoline, opens at Home Theatre in Manchester. Stephens is Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court. He was also on the board for Paines Plough between 2009 and 2014.

Stephens also writes for radio; plays include Five Letter Home to Elizabeth (2001) and Digging (2003), both BBC, Radio4. Simon's screenwriting includes a two-part serial Dive (with Dominic Savage) for Granada / BBC (2009), a short film adaptation of Pornography for Coming Up: Channel 4 (2009) and Cargese for Sprout Pictures (Sky Arts, 2013). Other awards include the 2001 Pearson Award for Best Play, for Port and the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play for On The Shore of the Wide World. Stephens has won the Theater Heute's Award for Motortown in 2007, Pornography in 2008 and Wastwater in 2011.

MARK BROKAW (Director) New York credits include Cinderella, The Lyons, Olive and the Bitter Herbs, The New York Idea, The Language Archive, After Miss Julie, Distracted, Suddenly Last Summer, The Constant Wife, Mouth to Mouth, The Busy World is Hushed, Cry-Baby, Reckless, The Long Christmas Ride Home, Lobby Hero, 2.5 Minute Ride, This Is Our Youth, Dying Gaul, As Bees in Honey Drown, How I Learned to Drive, The Good Times Are Killing Me. Regional includes Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Rep, Hartford Stage, La Jolla, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Sundance and the O'Neill Conference. He has directed at London's Donmar Warehouse and Dublin's Gate Theatre, is the Artistic Director of the Yale Institute for Music Theatre and is an Artistic Associate of the Roundabout Theatre.

DENIS ARNDT (Alex Priest). Recently played Maurice in The Night Alive at the Geffen Playhouse in LA. Prior to that: Prospero in Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 production of The Tempest. Also at OSF: title roles in King Lear, Titus Andronicus, Brand, The Father, and Coriolanus as well as Kurt in The Dance of Death, Burgoyne in The Devil's Disciple, James Tyrone Jr. in A Moon for the Misbegotten, Jamie Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night, Jack Rover in Wild Oats, Iago in Othello, Archie Rice in The Entertainer. New York theatre: Soapy Smith in The Ballad of Soapy Smith, Richard II (The Public Theatre). Regional theatres include Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, The Studio Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Intiman Theatre, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre. TV/Film: Basic Instinct, Distant Thunder, Metro, Dolphin Tale 2, Bandidas, Sniper 3, Anacondas, S.W.A.T., Undisputed, How To Make An American Quilt, Firebeetle, Serious Money, "Grey's Anatomy," "Supernatural," "Boston Legal," "24," "The Practice," "CSI."

MARY-LOUISE PARKER (Clare Burns). Parker's performance in Manhattan Theatre Club's production of David Auburn's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof earned her the 2001 Tony Award, as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Obie, and New York Magazine Awards, and the T. Schreiber Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. Parker made her Broadway debut in Prelude to A Kiss, garnering a Tony Award nomination, a Theatre World Award, The Clarence Derwent Award and a Drama Desk nomination. She originated the role of 'Li'l Bit' in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned To Drive, which earned Parker an Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award and an Outer Critics Circle nomination. She starred also in the Broadway revival of Reckless, for which she received her third Tony Award nomination. Parker starred in Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone for Playwrights Horizons in 2008, and in the Roundabout revival of Hedda Gabler in 2009. She appeared most recently on Broadway in Sharr White's original drama The Snow Geese for Manhattan Theatre Club and MCC, reuniting her with Proof director Daniel Sullivan.

Mary-Louise Parker's work in on Showtime's "Weeds" earned her the Golden Globe Award, as well as four Golden Globe nominations, the Satellite award, along with five nominations, three Emmy nominations, and six SAG nominations. Parker's work in Mike Nichols' Angels in America garnered her an Emmy award and the Golden Globe Award; and her work on "The West Wing" and in TV movie The Robber Bride were recognized with Emmy nominations, the latter winning her a Gemini Award. For the small screen she starred also in "Sugartime", "Saint Maybe", "A Place for Annie", "Vinegar Hill", and many others.

Audiences most recently saw Parker on the big screen in the hit action-comedies Red and Red 2 with Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. She was also featured in R.I.P.D. alongside Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges and in Jamesy Boy and Behaving Badly.

Parker's other film work includes Romance & Cigarettes, written and directed by John Turturro and produced by the Coen Brothers, and the dark Christian comedy Saved! Parker is known widely for her starring roles in Longtime Companion, Grand Canyon, Fried Green Tomatoes, Naked In New York, The Client, Bullets Over Broadway, Boys On The Side, Reckless, Pipe Dream, Red Dragon, The Best Thief In The World, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Solitary Man, Howl and The Five Senses, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award.

Additional theatre credits include Communicating Doors, Bus Stop, Four Dogs And A Bone, The Art Of Success, Throwing Your Voice, Babylon Gardens, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Up In Saratoga, The Miser, and Hay Fever. She co-founded the Edge Theater, where she performed in The Age Of Pie and The Girl In Pink, among other productions.

Parker is a contributing writer for Esquire magazine. She won the Robert Brustein Award for 'Excellence in Theater' and the Philadelphia Film Festival Award for 'Career Achievement' and was recently awarded Steppenwolf theaters' 'Excellence in the Arts'. Her personal and professional belongings, along with career memorabilia, are archived at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.