MAN FROM NEBRASKA by Tracy Letts Opens Tonight at Second Stage

Second Stage Theatre presents the New York premiere production of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts' play, Man from Nebraska, directed by David Cromer.

Joining previously announced Tony Award winner Reed Birney (The Humans), Man from Nebraska will feature Heidi Armbruster (Time Stands Still), Tom Bloom (Henry IV), Annika Boras (The Prodigal Son), Nana Mensah ("An African City"), Max Gordon MOORE (Relatively Speaking), Kathleen Peirce (Cromer's Our Town), William Ragsdale (Biloxi Blues and Getting Away With Murder) and J. Smith-Cameron (2ST's Good Boys and True, Sundance TV's "Rectify"). Man from Nebraska was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.

MAN FROM NEBRASKA began previews on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at the Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street). Opening night is tonight, February 15.

Sometimes even the most devout can lose their faith. When Ken, a middle aged Man from Nebraska, suddenly finds he's lost his, along with his sense of purpose, he goes on a wild adventure to find it. Along the way he encounters a world vastly different from his own, filled with chance meetings and romantic encounters that shake him to the core. From the playwright of August: Osage County, comes a fascinating exploration into what happens when we lose our belief system and the characters that come into our lives on the path to a meaningful existence.

MAN FROM NEBRASKA will feature scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Keith Parham, and original music and sound design by Daniel Kluger.

Second Stage Theatre's 2016-2017 Season kicked off with the New York premiere production of NOTES FROM THE FIELD, written and performed by groundbreaking theater artist Anna Deavere Smith, with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby and directed by Leonard Foglia. Performances began October 15 and the production will officially open on November 2.

The season also includes the New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Bruce Norris' A PARALLELOGRAM, directed by Tony nominee Michael Greif. The play will be staged in the summer of 2017.

Subscriptions, which include all three productions, start at $150 and are available by calling the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visiting the company's website, www.2ST.com. All productions are staged at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue). Single tickets for Man from Nebraska will go on sale Monday, December 19, 2016.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Heidi Armbruster (Pat Monday). Broadway: Time Stands Still. NY Theater: Poor Behavior (Primary Stages), Disgraced (LCT3), Tea and Sympathy (Drama League Nom), Boy (Keen), Sea of Tranquility (The Atlantic), The Fifth Column, Love Goes To Press, Susan and God (The Mint), Duchess of Malfi (Red Bull), and Hillary (New Georges), among others. Extensive regional credits include Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, NYSF, Westport Country Playhouse, Barrington Stage Company, The Guthrie, ACT, Seattle Repertory, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, George Street. TV: Michelle on TV Land's "Younger," "Louie," "House of Cards," "Blue Bloods," "Elementary," "The Blacklist," "Black Box," "30 Rock," "666 Park Ave.," "Unforgettable," "Law and Order SVU," "Law and Order." Film: Poor Behavior, My Man Is A Loser, Michael Clayton, The Northern Kingdom, The Smurfs.

Reed Birney (Ken). Broadway: The Humans (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award), Gemini, Picnic, and Casa Valentina (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award). Off-Broadway: Bug (Obie Award), Blasted (Drama Desk nomination), Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award), Uncle Vanya (Drama Desk nomination), Tigers Be Still, The Dream of the Burning Boy (Outer Critics Award nomination), You Got Older (Drama Desk nomination), and I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Drama Desk nomination). TV: "House of Cards" (Donald Blythe), "The Blacklist" (Tom Connolly), and "Girls." He is the recipient of a 2006 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, a 2011 Special Drama Desk Award honoring his career, and the Richard Seff Award from Actors' Equity. Man from Nebraska marks Mr. Birney's fourth production at Second Stage Theatre.

Tom Bloom (Bud Todd). Broadway: Henry IV, Cyrano, Racing Demon. Off-Broadway: Roundabout, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizon, MCC, Circle-In-The-Square, Manhattan Theatre Club, Classic Stage, NYSF, TFANA. Regional: ACT, Yale Rep, Guthrie, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Hartford Stage, Williamstown, Baltimore Center Stage, Portland Stage (ME), Portland Center Stage (OR), Huntington, McCarter, Two Rivers, others. Film/TV: Thomas Crown Affair, Elementary, Joshua, Taking Chance, Emperor's Club, Sly Like a Fox, Best Thief in The World, "Law & Order: SVU," "Criminal Intent," "Ed," "Max Bickford," "The Jury," "Wonderland."

Annika Boras (Ashley Kohl) was recently seen in John Patrick Shanley's The Prodigal Son (MTC). Other Off-Broadway: Chair (Lortel nom), The Broken Heart, Macbeth (TFANA), An Oresteia (Drama League nom), Orlando (CSC). Regional: JUNK by Ayad Akhtar, dir. Doug Hughes (La Jolla), The Danish Widow (NYS&F), The Importance of Being Earnest, The Miracle Worker (Paper Mill). Currently filming Kevin Williamson's "Time After Time." Select TV: Baz Luhrmann's "The Get Down," "Chicago Fire," "The Following," "The Blacklist," "Homeland."

Nana Mensah (Tamyra) is a Ghanaian-American writer, director, actor and producer. She wrote, directed and stars in the forthcoming film, Queen of Glory, and also plays the role of Sade in the popular series, "An African City" (2015 Golden Movie Award Winner, 2016 AMVCA Nominee). She starred as Clare in the 2016 OBIE Award-winning play, I'll Never Love Again (a chamber piece) by Clare Barron. Nana is a principal at Cape Coast Media, the Production Company behind a forthcoming docuseries from South African network, KweséTV. She is also a co-founding partner of Adelos Media, a Manhattan-based Production Company that has yielded commercials and a feature film. As a public speaker, she has given a TEDxBrooklyn talk and participated in a Facebook Inc. panel in Johannesburg about digital content creation in Africa.

Max Gordon MOORE (Harry Brown) is an actor and playwright. On Broadway, he was seen in Relatively Speaking, three one-act plays written by Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen. Other recent credits include Indecent (The Vineyard, Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse); The Master Builder with John Turturro (BAM); Arcadia, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Yale Rep); Time and the Conways (The Old Globe); Constellations (The Seattle Rep); Man and Superman, It's a Wonderful Life (Irish Rep); Tragedy: A Tragedy (Berkeley Rep); The Seagull (Cleveland Playhouse); Richard III, The Merchant of Venice (California Shakespeare Theater); Pleasure and Pain (Magic Theatre); Private Jokes, Public Places (Aurora Theatre). Film and TV: Gods Behaving Badly, The Terrors of Basket-Weaving, "Madam Secretary," and "The Good Wife." Herschel Williams Prize in Acting.

Kathleen Peirce (Cammie Carpenter). NY stage credits include Our Town (dir. David Cromer, Barrow Street); Summerfolk, The American Clock, Something Unspoken (all dir. Austin Pendleton); The Habitation of Dragons (dir. William Carden); The Laramie Project (Small Pond);Wonderland (HERE); Talking With..., The Beauty Part, Table Manners (Present Company). Regional: Uncle Vanya (dir. Olympia Dukakis), The Three Sisters (Two Rivers). TV: "The Blacklist," "BUNK." Web: "Soup Kitchen Nightmares." Film: Finding Graceland, Nine Lives, Black Mail, A Coda to Cody, Green Belt.

William Ragsdale (Reverend Todd) has appeared on Broadway in Biloxi Blues and Getting Away with Murder. His Off-Broadway credits include Briar Patch at EST and Blind Spot at the Laurie Beechman Theater. Regional credits include The Importance of Being Earnest at the Berkeley Rep and The Goat at Southern Rep. He was last seen as Det. Schrank in West Side Story at the Paper Mill Playhouse in June. Television credits include "Justified" on FX, "Herman's Head," and the TBS's upcoming "Search Party." Films include Fright Night, The Reaping, and Mannequin 2.

J. Smith-Cameron (Nancy Carpenter) stars in Sundance TV's Peabody Award winning series "Rectify." Her recent theatre credits include Juno in Juno and the Paycock (Joe A Callaway Award for Best Actress in a Classical Production, Drama Desk nomination), ElizaBeth Bishop in Dear Elizabeth at Women's Project, and as Jane Apple in Richard Nelson's plays That Hopey Changey Thing, Sorry, and Sweet and Sad (Obie and Drama Desk awards). She appears along with Tracy Letts in the newly released film Christine. Ms. Smith-Cameron appeared at Second Stage Theatre in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Good Boys and True.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Tracy Letts (Playwright) is the author of the plays Linda Vista, Mary Page Marlowe, Superior Donuts, August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award), Man from Nebraska (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Time Magazine's Top Ten Plays of 2003), Bug, and Killer Joe. Also an actor, he has appeared on Broadway in Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role). Film appearances include The Lovers, Christine, Imperium, Indignation, Wiener-dog, Elvis and Nixon, The Big Short. TV: "Divorce" (HBO), two seasons as Sen. Lockhart on "Homeland" (Showtime), "Seinfeld." He is an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and his appearances there include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, American Buffalo, Betrayal, Homebody/Kabul, The Dresser, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross, Three Days of Rain, many others.

David Cromer (Director) most recently directed The Effect at the Barrow Street Theatre, where he also directed Our Town and Orson's Shadow. Additional New York credits include Women or Nothing at The Atlantic Theater Company, Really Really at MCC, The House of Blue Leaves and Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway, When The Rain Stops Falling and Nikolai and the Others at Lincoln Center Theater, and Adding Machine at the Minetta Lane. Originally from Chicago, his credits there include Sweet Bird of Youth (The Goodman), A Street, Picnic and The Price (Writers Theatre).

ABOUT Second Stage Theatre

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theatre produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best Contemporary Theatre, including 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson;The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Jar the Floor by Cheryl L. West; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants by Ricky Jay; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller;Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice by Edward Albee.

The company's more than 130 citations include the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal) and Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Clarence Derwent Awards, 13 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 17 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened The Tony Kiser Theatre, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theatre Uptown" series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

In 2015 Second Stage Theatre purchased the historic Helen Hayes Theatre, located at 240 W. 44th Street. With this new home, Second Stage will be the only theatre company on Broadway dedicatedexclusively to the development and presentation of contemporary American theatrical productions. The company will continue to lease and operate their original theatres on the city's Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan. Second Stage Theatre has enlisted David Rockwell and The Rockwell Group to make renovations and updates to the 103 year old landmark building. They will begin renovations on the theatre in 2016 and plans for its first Broadway production to be staged in the Hayes during the 2017-18 season.

For more information, visit www.2ST.com.