THREE KINDS OF EXILE, THE JAMMER, et al. Set for Atlantic Theatre Company in 2012-13

Atlantic Theater Company has just announced four of its 2012-2013 Season productions, featuring world premiere plays from Olivier and Tony Award® winner John Guare and Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson and New York premieres from Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens and Emmy Award® nominated writer Rolin Jones.

Atlantic returns to its newly-renovated home at the Linda Gross Theater in Chelsea for its full first season following a two-year long, historic $8.5 million renovation of the landmark venue.

Two final productions, dates and additional directors will be announced shortly.

Olivier and Tony Award® winning playwright John Guare returns to Atlantic with the world premiere of his play Three Kinds of Exile, staged by Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe. His celebrated plays include The House of Blue Leaves, which won Tony®, Obie and New York Drama Critics Circle awards and Six Degrees of Separation, which was awarded Olivier and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and was adapted into an acclaimed major motion picture.

Olivier Award winning playwright Simon Stephens returns to Atlantic following his acclaimed Atlantic Stage 2 production of Bluebird last season with the New York premiere of Harper Regan, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, who also staged Bluebird.

Rolin Jones returns to Atlantic with the New York premiere of The Jammer following Atlantic’s New York premiere of his play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, which received an Obie Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He was a writer and producer on the first four seasons of “Weeds,” received an Emmy Award® nomination for his work on “Friday Night Lights,” and has served as a co-executive producer on the NBC series “Smash.”

Obie Award winning playwright Melissa James Gibson makes her Atlantic debut with the world premiere of What Rhymes with America, directed by Daniel Aukin. This reunites the pair following the Off Broadway productions of This, [sic] and Suitcase. He most recently staged Amy Herzog’s play 4,000 Miles which is now running Off Broadway.

2012 – 2013 Atlantic Theater Company SEASON

Linda Gross Theater
New York Premiere

HARPER REGAN
By Simon Stephens
Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Fall 2012

One strange evening, Harper Regan decides to walk away from her husband, her daughter and her home. She tells no one where she’s going or whether she’s ever coming back. She tosses family, history and fate straight up in the air, and it looks like she might be gone for good. In Simon Stephens’ acclaimed play, which premiered in 2008 at the UK’s National Theatre, we are folded into an absorbing story about a woman who explores the limits of loyalty, morality, and the bonds of family.

Linda Gross Theater
World Premiere

WHAT RHYMES WITH AMERICA
By Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Fall 2012

A father and his teenage daughter stand on either side of a closed door. Life is unraveling for him, and is entirely uncertain for her. So begins Melissa James Gibson’s poignant, funny new play about estrangement and the partially examined life. With her spare style, mordant wit, and compassionate insight, one of the most emotionally penetrating and unique voices in theater today wonders What Rhymes With America.

Linda Gross Theater
World Premiere

THREE KINDS OF EXILE
By John Guare
Directed by Neil Pepe
Winter 2012 / Spring 2013

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

THE JAMMER
By Rolin Jones
Spring 2013

In this wild theatrical adventure about New York in the late 1950’s, The Jammer plunges us into the hard-boiled, bizarre world of professional roller derby. Rolin Jones, the irreverent and inventive author of Atlantic’s The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, introduces us to Jack Lovington, a lovelorn Brooklynite who needs to find himself and stake a claim in the world. When he joins up with the rough and tumble Brooklyn Brown Devils, little does Jack know that his life is about to be turned completely upside down and that he’s about to find himself on a most unexpected roller coaster ride. With great humor, wit and heart, Jones takes us back to the Bushwick of yesteryear and creates a romantic urban fable for our time.

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 by 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 25 years ago, Atlantic has produced more than 125 plays, including: Tony Award® winning productions of Spring Awakening (Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Martin McDonagh); world premieres of Almost an Evening, Offices and Happy Hour (Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen); The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Cripple of Inishmaan (Martin McDonagh); Romance (David Mamet); Through A Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, adapted by Jenny Worton); Bluebird (Simon Stephens); Blue/Orange (Joe Penhall); Port Authority and Dublin Carol (Conor McPherson); Writer's Block (Woody Allen); revival of Hobson's Choice (Harold Brighouse); revivals of American Buffalo and Edmond (David Mamet); Dangerous Corner (J.B. Priestley, adapted and directed by David Mamet); Trumpery and 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 and Parlour Song (Jez Butterworth); New York premieres of Boys' Life and The Lights (Howard Korder) at Lincoln Center Theater; Distant Fires (Kevin Heelan); The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite and Shaker Heights (Quincy Long); Minutes From The Blue Route (Tom Donaghy); Trafficking in Broken Hearts (Edwin Sánchez); Missing Persons (Craig Lucas).

During its history, Atlantic has garnered twelve Tony Awards®, eleven Lucille Lortel Awards, fifteen 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 partners with schools and teachers throughout the greater metropolitan area coordinating in-school visits of teaching artists and post-theater talkbacks.

These special membership prices are only available until June 30. Each membership also comes with member benefits (ticket exchanges, scheduling flexibility, etc.) and an early members-only booking period in July.

Regular price tickets for all Atlantic productions will be on sale in July.

To order a membership call Ticket Central (212.279.4200, open noon to 8pm daily) or go online to www.atlantictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Monica Simoes