Atlantic Theater Company Opens CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT, 6/3

Atlantic Theater Company today announced the world premiere of Fernanda Coppel's new play CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT featuring Teddy Cañez, Zabryna Guevara, Alfredo Narciso, Xochitl Romero, and Carmen Zilles, directed by Jaime Castañeda.

CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT will begin previews Wednesday, May 23; officially open Sunday, June 3; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 24 off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16 Street).

Suffering from a profound sense of disappointment after her 40^th birthday, Sonia (Guevara) flees her family and goes on a binge of prescription Zoloft and greasy chimichangas.  Sonia's rebellious daughter Jackie (Zilles) and her best friend Penelope (Romero) hatch a plan to lure Sonia back home, while their fathers (Cañez, Narcisco) struggle with a secret association of their own. This irreverent story examines the search for happiness and the mysteries of sexuality through the eyes of two brazen teenagers. 

Director Jaime Castañeda staged new plays by David Mamet and Edwin Sanchez for Atlantic's 10x25 play festival. He has directed for the Atlantic Theater Company, The Old Globe, American Theater Company, Summer Play Festival, Perseverance Theatre, INTAR, Ontological, Circle Theatre, and Amphibian Stage Productions. 

Fernanda Coppel's plays include Sinaloa Cowboy, Emma Zapata, Pussy, The Leak and That Douche Bag's Play. Her plays have been developed at Atlantic, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, INTAR Theatre, The Juilliard School, The Lark Development Center and at the Old Vic in London. She is a member of INTAR Theatre's Maria Irene Fornes Hispanic Playwright's Lab and is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School.

The design team for CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT will feature scenic design by Lauren Helpern, costume design by Jessica Wegener Shay, lighting design by Grant W.S. Yeager and sound design by Broken Chord. 

 

Teddy Cañez (Ricardo Martinez). New York: Post No Bills (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre); Nights Over Erzinga (The Lark Barebones); The Blessing of the Animals (Drama League); Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue (Page 73 Productions); Regional: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Hartford Stage); Mister Roberts, The Light of Excalibur (The Kennedy Center); Our Lady of 121st Street, Homebody/Kabul (Woolly Mammoth); The Comedy of Errors, Richard II, Don Carlos, Timon of Athens, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, King Lear (The Shakespeare Theatre); All's Well that Ends Well (The Folger Theatre) Film: Now You See Me, Untitled Noah Baumbach short, Mike Birbilgia's: Sleepwalk with Me (Winner of Best of NEXT Audience Award Sundance 2012), The Feed,Red Butterfly, Man with Van, Passing Harold Blumenthal, Pervertigo, Last Night at Angelo's, Independence, Enduro. Television Series: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order: C.I.," "Conviction," "The Wire," "The War That Made America," "Bar Karma," "How to Make it in America." Mr. Cañez is a member of HERO Theatre. 

 

Zabryna Guevara (Sonia Martinez) Off-Broadway: Sonia Flew, El Paso Blue (SPF); Santa Concepción (The Public Theatre);The Cook, Tight Embrace, Now and Then (INTAR); Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue (Page 73 Productions); Bulrusher (Urban Stages).  Regional: Water by the Spoonful (Hartford Stage); Burn This (Mark Taper Forum); Scarlet Letter (Intiman Theatre); 26 Miles (Two River Theater, The Round House Theatre); The Cook (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Connecticut Critics Circle Nomination); Twelfth Night (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Sonia Flew, Love's Labour's Lost and Breath, Boom! (The Huntington Theatre); Noises Off (Studio Arena); Inana, Lidless, 1001 (CATF); Hamlet (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); Dreamlandia(Dallas Theatre Center), Scarlet Letter (The Intiman). Film & Television: Marley and Me, All Good Things, The Rebound, Pariah(Sundance Film Festival), Whispers (HBO, Sundance Film Festival, GorDon Parks Film Festival Award), "3 Lbs.," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Untitled Brenda Hampton Project," "The Sopranos," "The Jury," "Person of Interest," "Blue Bloods," "CSI," "Common Law," "Burn Notice." 

 

Alfredo Narciso (Alejandro Lopez). Broadway: The Motherf***er with the Hat, (LAByrinth/Public/Gerald Schoenfeld Theater),A Streetcar Named Desire (Roundabout/Studio 54) New York: The Ugly One (Soho Rep/Play Co.), After (Partial Comfort), Thinner than Water (LAByrinth), Measure for Measure; Chair (TFANA), Safe (Studio Dante), Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons), Ivo van Hove's Misanthrope (New York Theater Workshop), Microcrisis (Ma-Yi), Edgewise (Play Company/Page 73) among others. Regional: Art (Elliot Norton/IRNE nominations), Huntington (IRNE nomination), Two River, Long Wharf, HBO Comedy Arts Festival, Magic Theater, Sundance Theater Lab among others.  Film/TV: Elliot Loves, Living & Dining, The Guys, "Blue Bloods,""Unforgettable," "Person of Interest,"  "Law & Order," "L&O: CI," "Ugly Betty" among others. Recipient of the Charles Bowden award and member of LAByrinth, Ensemble Studio Theater and Partial Comfort. www.alfredonarciso.com 

 

Xochitl Romero (Penelope Lopez) is a California native and holds an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. Regional: Circle Mirror Transformation (B. Iden Payne Award Best Supporting Actress), Blackbird (B. Iden Payne Award Best Leading Actress), Romeo and Juliet, Drowned World, Welcome to Arroyo's (u/s). TV: "Friday Night Lights," "Temple Grandin." Film:Dance with the One, Raskin. She is co-host of the award winning web series, "The Foodie Girls." 

 

Carmen Zilles (Jackie Martinez). Atlantic Theater Company debut. Carmen is a second year MFA candidate at the Yale School of Drama, where recent credits include Wallace Shawn's A Thought in Three Parts, Caryl Churchill's Fen, The Seagull andKing Lear. Other theater includes: José Rivera's Boleros for the Disenchanted (Barksdale Theatre, Best Actress 2010, Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award), Hekabe (Oval Theatre, London, directed by MarK Wing-Davey) and Wallace Shawn's Grasses of a Thousand Colors (Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by André Gregory). 

 

Fernanda Coppel (Playwright). Plays include: Chimichangas and Zoloft, Pussy, The Leak, That Douche Bag's Play, Sinaloa Cowboy, and Emma Zapata. Her plays have been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, INTAR Theatre, The Juilliard School, The Lark Development Center, and the Old Vic (London). Fernanda was a member of the US/UK TS Eliot Exchange Program in 2010. Her work has won the Asuncion Queer Latino Festival at Pregones Theater and the John Holden Playwriting Award (NYU). She is currently a member of INTAR Theatre's Maria Irene Fornes Hispanic Playwright's Lab and is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School. Fernanda is an alum of NYU (MFA). 

 

Jaime Castañeda (Director) 10X25 (Atlantic Theater Company), Welcome to Arroyo's (Old Globe, American Theater Company, SPF), Red Light Winter (Perseverance Theatre), Biggest A**hole Ever Born (INTAR), Timberbrit (Ontological), One for the Road(Directorfest), Long Way Go Down (Harold Clurman Theater Company), A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant(Circle Theatre), This is How it Goes (Amphibian), Blue/Orange (FireStarter Productions).  He has also assistant directed productions for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Center Theatre Group and Speed the Plow on Broadway.  Jaime is a recipient of a Drama League fall fellowship, a Princess Grace Award and a TCG New Generations grant. He is an ensemble member at American Theater Company and the artistic associate at Atlantic. MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin. 

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 23 years ago, Atlantic has produced more than 125 plays, including: Tony Award^® winning productions ofSpring Awakening (Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Martin McDonagh); world premieres ofAlmost an Evening and Offices (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 for Kids and the Educational Outreach Program partners with schools and teachers throughout the greater metropolitan area coordinating in-school visits of teaching artists and post-theater talkbacks.

CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT will play Tuesday – Saturday at 7:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm. There is an added 7:30pm performance on Sunday, May 27 and no performance on Sunday, June 3 at 2:30pm.

All tickets are $45.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (www.ticketcentral.com) or at the Atlantic Stage 2 box office at 330 West 16^th Street. 

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