Tony Award Winner Reed Birney Will Star in Second Stage Theatre's MAN FROM NEBRASKA

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director, Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that Tony Award winner Reed Birney (The Humans) will star in the leading role of Ken Carpenter in the upcoming New York premiere production of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tracy Lett's 2003 play, MAN FROM NEBRASKA, directed by David Cromer. Mr. Birney has previously appeared in three Second Stage productions - The Family of Mann, Loose Knit, and Winterplay.

"Reed Birney has been part of the Second Stage family for many years, having appeared in three of our productions, most recently in The Family of Mann in 1993," says Second Stage Theatre Artistic Director Carole Rothman. "I am thrilled to welcome him back, and to have him collaborate with such esteemed artists as Tracy Letts and David Cromer on this thought-provoking and completely riveting play."

MAN FROM NEBRASKA was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004. Performances will begin in late January 2017. Opening night will be announced at a later date.

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 is the second production of Second Stage Theatre's 38th season, which includes groundbreaking theater artist Anna Deavere Smith's NOTES FROM THE FIELD, directed by Leonard Foglia, and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Bruce Norris' A PARALLELOGRAM, directed by Michael Greif. A fourth mainstage production remains to be announced.

Subscriptions for these three plays are $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).

ABOUT THE COMPANY

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.

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; The 25th 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.

Second Stage Theatre AT THE Helen Hayes

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 dedicated exclusively 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, please visit www.2ST.com