Atlantic Theater Company Presents Brunstetter's OOHRAH!, Begins Previews 9/1

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) presents the first production of its 2009-2010 season.

The world premiere of Bekah Brunstetter's play OOHRAH!, directed by Evan Cabnet, will feature Cassie Beck, Sami Gayle, Darren Goldstein, J.R. Horne, Jennifer Mudge, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe and Maximilian Osinski.

OOHRAH begins previews today Tuesday, September 1; and officially opens Thursday, September 10; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, September 27, 2009 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16 Street).

In Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to one of the South's largest military bases, practically everybody has somebody "Over There." Sara is relieved when her husband Ron returns home from an uneventful tour in Iraq, but he's finding it difficult to settle back into the domestic bliss that is "home improvement" and "Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals." Sara's sister Abby has set herself up for an uneventful life with a civilian fiancé who's more interested in PlayStation than the battlefield. But when a hot, mysterious Marine walks into their lives, all bets on stability are off.

Playwright Bekah Brunstetter makes her Off-Broadway debut with the world premiere of OOHRAH! She is the 2009 Playwright in Residence at Ars Nova. Plays include: Be a Good Little Widow (commissioned by Ars Nova), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (nominated for L. Arnold Weissberger Award), You May Go Now (NY IT Award for Best New Play (Babel Theater Project) and F**king Art (Winner, 2008 Sam French Short Play competition). She recently graduated with a master of fine arts degree from The New School for Drama.

Evan Cabnet directed last season's world premiere production of Mark Schultz's play The Gingerbread House Off-Broadway at the Rattlestick Theatre. He is an associate artist with stageFARM and most recently co-directed the company's 2008 series of short plays, SPIN.

Cassie Beck was awarded a 2008 Theatre World Award for her performance in Drunken City Off-Broadway. Sami Gayle recently appeared as "Baby June" in the acclaimed Broadway revival of Gypsy. Darren Goldstein received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for his performance in Abigal's Party. J.R. Horne returns to Atlantic following last season's comedy Make Me. Jennifer Mudge recently appeared on Broadway in The Philanthropist. Lucas Near-Verbrugghe appeared on Broadway in The Ritz. Maximilian Osinski has appeared on the Lifetime Television series "Army Wives" and in the feature film The Express.

The design team for OORAH! will feature scenic design by Lee Savage, costume design by Jessica Wegener, lighting design by Tyler Micoleau, sound design by Dan Baker.

Bekah Brunstetter (Playwright). Plays include Be a Good Little Widow (Commissioned by Ars Nova, 2009), OOHRAH! (Ars Nova outloud reading series, developed in London at the Finborough Theater), To Nineveh (NY Innovative Theater Award for Best new full length play, 2006) Sick (winner, Sam French short play festival 2006), Green (finalist, Alliance Theater's Kendeda Competition; national finalist, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival) Space (semi-finalist, Princess Grace Award 2007) I Used to Write On Walls (published and licensed by Samuel French,) Fat Kids On Fire (published and licensed by Playscripts, Inc), You May Go Now: A Marriage Play (Winner, 2008 NYIT award for best new Full Length Play (Babel Theater Project), Cenentary Stage 2009, Le Fou (The Atlantic Acting school), Happy Birthday/ I'm Dead (Samuel French Short Play festival Finalist, 2007), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (nominee, 2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award), Celebrity, and Torch Number 2 (SOHO Think Tank), and f-ing Art (winner, Sam French Short play Festival 2008.) Her plays have been read and produced by the Babel Theatre Project, New Georges, The Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, the Ohio Theater (Think tank), NYU, Centenary Stage, NC New Voices, The New School for Drama, Working Man's Clothes, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Phare Play Productions, Old Vic/ New Voices, Boston Theatre Works, Manhattan Theatre Source, SPF, and The Alliance Theater. Her plays are published by Sam French, Playscripts, Original Works, and Smith and Krauss. She is a member of the Ars Nova play group, the Playwright's Center, At Play Productions, and the Dramatist's Guild. She is proud to be the 2009 playwright in residence at Ars Nova, and a member of the Women's Project Writer's Lab. She received her BA (Theater/Fiction Writing) from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. Bekah is currently working on a commission for the Roundabout Underground. www.bekahbrunstetter.com.

Evan Cabnet (Director). Mark Schultz's The Gingerbread House (stageFARM at the Rattlestick, world premiere), Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Long Wharf Theater, East Coast premiere), Elizabeth Meriwether's The Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels, world premiere), new plays by Adam Rapp, Schultz, and Meriwether as part of SPIN (Cherry Lane), Lewis Black and Rusty Magee's The Czar of Rock and Roll (Joe's Pub), his own adaptations of Ubu Roi and Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Williamstown), and the 2009 TFI Sloan staged readings for the Tribeca Film Festival. He has developed new works by: Carly Mensch (Playwrights Horizons), Rajiv Joseph (Vineyard), Lucy Thurber (MCC), Molly Smith Metzler (MTC), Diana Fithian (Roundabout), Lauren Gunderson (NYU Grad), Cusi Cram (WET), Anna Ziegler (Cape Cod Theater Project), Annie Baker, Steven Levenson, Beau Willimon, Liz Flahive and many others. Five seasons at the Williamstown Theater Festival, including the 2003 Boris Sagal and 2002 Bill Foeller Fellowships. Recipient of the 2008 Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process.

Atlantic and Neil Pepe were awarded a special 2009 Drama Desk Award for exceptional craftsmanship, dedication to excellence and productions that engage, inspire and enlighten, while Atlantic and Druid's hit revival of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan was awarded an Outstanding Ensemble Performance Award.

Atlantic's acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work.

Atlantic produced five world premieres during its 2007-2008 season: Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's comedy Almost an Evening, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker; Peter Parnell's Trumpery, directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Tony Award® winner Michael Cristofer and Tony Award® nominee Manoel Felciano; Lucy Thurber's Scarcity, directed by Jackson Gay and featuring Emmy Award® winner Kristen Johnston, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael T. Weiss, Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer and Annie Baker's Body Awareness, directed by Karen Kohlhaas and featuring Academy Award® nominee JoBeth Williams, Peter Friedman and Mary McCann and the critically acclaimed New York premiere production of Oliver Award® winning and Tony Award® nominated playwright Conor McPherson's play Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper and featuring Tony Award® nominee Brian d'Arcy James, Tony Award® winner John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony Award® winner Jim Norton.

Since it's inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 120 productions including the Tony Award® winning play The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet's Romance and his new adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, the musicals Spring Awakening and 10 Million Miles, Jez Butterworth's Mojo, Tom Donaghy's Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez' Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules, the revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson's Choice. Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985.

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). Tickets are $45 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (ticketcentral.com).

BECOME A MEMBER OF Atlantic Theater Company AND GET $25 TICKETS. Call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com to sign up.

Purchase an "All -In-One Membership" and see every main stage and Atlantic Stage 2 production for $195 (plus an $8 service charge).

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For more information, visit www.atlantictheater.org.

Photo by Helen Cris.

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