David Mamet's 'GHOST STORIES' Double Bill Opens Tonight at Atlantic Theater

Atlantic Theater Company presents revivals of Ghost Stories: The Shawl and Prairie du Chien, two haunting short plays by Atlantic co-founder and Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet.

Directed by Atlantic Founding Company Member Scott Zigler, Ghost Stories: The Shawl and Prairie du Chien will feature Nate Dendy, Jim Frangione, Arliss Howard, Henry Kelemen, Jordan Lage, Mary McCann, Jason Ritter and Dereks Thomas.

Ghost Stories: The Shawl and Prairie du Chien began previews on May 27 and officially open tonight, June 16, for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 28 Off Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

The Shawl is the story of bereaved woman (McCann) who consults a small-time mystic (Howard) for guidance. As the mystic, assisted by his apprentice (Ritter), collects clues to make contact with the dearly departed, will he help this woman through her grief, or merely help himself?

In Prairie du Chien, a railroad car speeding through the Wisconsin night is the setting for a story of obsessive jealousy, murder and suicide, punctuated by a friendly card game that explodes into a moment of menace.

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet returns to the company he founded with an intimate revival of two of his haunting short plays The Shawl and Prairie du Chien. Mamet was last represented on the Atlantic main stage with a double bill of one-act plays - the world premiere of School and the New York premiere of Keep Your Pantheon and the smash hit comedy Romance, both directed by Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe. He was co-creator of the four season running hit CBS television series "The Unit." His newest play, China Doll, is scheduled to open in New York in the fall.

Atlantic founding company member and former artistic director Scott Zigler directed David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood on Broadway and The Cherry Orchard, Five Very Live, Mamet's The Woods, David Ives' Sure Thing and Shel Silverstein's Happy Endings at Atlantic. He is Director of the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University and the artistic coordinator of ART's New Play development.

Nate Dendy received an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance as 'The Mute' in The Fantasticks at South Coast Repertory and makes his Off Broadway debut at Atlantic. Jim Frangione appeared on Broadway in The Old Neighborhood and Oleanna and in Atlantic's productions of Romance The Night Heron, Hobson's Choice and Edmond. Henry Kelemen last appeared at Atlantic in Harper Regan. Stage and screen star Arliss Howard's feature film credits include Moneyball, The Time Traveler's Wife and Full Metal Jacket. He last appeared at Atlantic in Gabe McKinley's play CQ/CX and in the Broadway revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Founding Atlantic Theater Company member Jordan Lage most recently starred Off-Broadway in Simon Stephens' Harper Regan and John Patrick Shanley's Storefront Church at Atlantic and in David Mamet's Race on Broadway. Mary McCann is a founding Atlantic Theater Company member and recently starred in Atlantic's acclaimed production of Our New Girl, in the hit production of Conor McPherson's The Weir Off Broadway and in the title role in the critically acclaimed productions of Simon Stephens plays Harper Regan, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch and in the US premiere of Stephens' play Bluebird opposite Simon Russell Beale also staged by Upchurch. Emmy Award nominee Jason Ritter has appeared Off Broadway in Third and The Beginning of August, on the West End in The Distance From Here and in the television series "Girls" and "Parenthood." He will star in the upcoming Comedy Central series "Another Period." Dereks Thomas makes his Off Broadway debut at Atlantic after appearing in regional productions of The Donkey Show at American Repertory Theater and Passing Strange at Studio Theatre.

Ghost Stories: The Shawl and Prairie du Chien will feature scenic design by Lauren Helpern, costume design by Linda Cho and lighting design by Jeff Croiter.

BIOGRAPHIES:

NATE DENDY (Card Dealer).The Tempest (Ariel) A.R.T. and South Coast Rep. The Fantasticks (The Mute, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award and Helen Hayes Award nominations), Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory, Trinity Rep; Angels In America (Prior Walter), Risk Theater Initiative; Twelfth Night, Dallas Shakespeare Festival; A Christmas Carol, Trinity Rep. Film: Turtle Hill: Brooklyn. M.F.A. from Brown University/Trinity Rep. He is also a professional Magician and Magic Designer/Consultant.

JIM FRANGIONE (Gin Player). Broadway: The Old Neighborhood, Oleanna, Off Broadway and the National Tour. Also with Atlantic: Romance, The Night Heron, Hobson's Choice, Edmond and Hellhound on my Trail. Regional: Shakespeare & Company, Actors Theater of Louisville, Long Wharf, Merrimack Rep, Berkshire Theater Festival, The Alley Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Geva Theater and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). Jim has directed at WHAT, at HERE and at the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard. He is Co-Artistic Director of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, in Great Barrington, MA. Television: "Brotherhood," "The Unit," "Law & Order" (original, SVU, & CI). Films include: Transamerica, Spartan, Heist, State and Main, Claire Dolan, Maryam, Frozen Impact, The Spanish Prisoner and Homicide.

ARLISS HOWARD (John) New York Theatre Workshop: Scenes From A Marriage, A Number. Broadway: Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Off-Broadway: Ode To Joy (Rattlestick), CQ/CX (Atlantic), The Late Henry Moss (Signature), The Monogamist (Playwrights Horizons), Killer's Head (The Public Theater). Regional: Uncle Vanya, Ivanov, In The Jungle Of Cities (ART). Film & TV: Moneyball, The Time Traveler's Wife, Full Metal Jacket, Tequila Sunrise, Men Don't Leave, Wilder Napalm, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, A Map Of The World, Birth, "Medium" (also directed), "Rubicon." Wrote and directed films Big Bad Love and Dawn Anna.

Henry Kelemen (Listener's Son), age 11, played Daniel in last year's US premiere of Our New Girl at the Atlantic Theater Company. Film roles include Young Tommy Popper in Mr. Popper's Penguins, Tyler in What Maisie Knew, Apple-Cheeked Boy in The Confines, Randall in Golden Child, Michael in Parable, Young Hank Malone in Surviving Family, Justin in Life Itself, and Young Jude in Ten Thousand Saints, and David in When I Live My Life over Again. He is currently working on an independent film Cured. Television: Messenger Boy in ABC's "Zero Hour" and Charlie Portfrancis in "Damages."

JORDAN LAGE (Storyteller). Founding member, Atlantic Theater Company. Productions include Harper Regan, Storefront Church, Keep Your Pantheon, Almost an Evening, Sea of Tranquility, The Night Heron, Mojo, The Hothouse, Edmond, The Water Engine, Dangerous Corner, Distant Fires (AUDelco Award nom.), The Woods, Boys' Life (Drama Desk nom.). Broadway: Race, Speed-the-Plow, Inherit the Wind, Glengarry Glen Ross (Drama Desk Award), Gore Vidal's The Best Man, The Old Neighborhood, Our Town, A Few Good Men (National tour). Regional: American Buffalo, Race, Glengarry Glen Ross, Ride the Tiger (CT. Critics Circle Award nom.), Rabbit Hole, Love! Valor! Compassion! (Barrymore Award), Blithe Spirit. Film: Good Friday, The Girl in the Book, Shelter, You Don't Know Jack, Salt, Body of Lies, Michael Clayton, World Trade Center, The Believer, Homicide, Things Change. Television: "The Blacklist," "Elementary," "Boardwalk Empire," "Nurse Jackie," "The Good Wife," "Person of Interest," "Damages," "The Big C," "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order: SVU," "Oz," "The Sound of Music Live!"

MARY MC CANN (Miss A) is a founding member of Atlantic Theater Company. She recently starred in the Off Broadway hit production of The Weir, the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Simon Stephens' Harper Regan and the U.S. premiere of Stephens' Bluebird opposite Simon Russell Beale. She has appeared in the original casts of the world premiere productions of Ethan Coen's Almost An Evening and Offices and starred in Annie Baker's acclaimed world premiere play Body Awareness at Atlantic. Mary has appeared in many Atlantic productions including the hit musical Spring Awakening, The Cherry Orchard, The Night Heron, The Hiding Place, This Thing of Darkness, The Beginning of August, Wolf Lullaby, The Water Engine, Edmond, Dangerous Corner, Shaker Heights and 10x25.. Broadway: The Old Neighborhood, Our Town with Spalding Gray and Search and Destroy. Other Off-Broadway: Oleanna (Orpheum Theater); Uncommon Women and Others (Second Stage); Boys' Life (Lincoln Center) and Hot Keys (Naked Angels). American Repertory Theater: Oleanna and Boston Marriage. Film credits include the role of "MaryAnn" in Little Children starring Kate Winslet, The Broad Room written by Candice Bushnell, Flood, TIMBER, The Green, Sordid Things and House of the Devil, The Spanish Prisoner, Things Change and The Night We Never Met. Television: CBS Pilot "A Gifted Man" directed by Jonathon Demme, "Ruthie Cheales" in "The Unit," "Law & Order," "Law & Order Special Victims Unit," "Law & Order Criminal Intent", "Cashmere Mafia," "The Naked Brothers Band," "Sex and the City," "Sports Night," "ER," "Spin City," "Promised Land, " "It Must Be Love," "Door to Door" and "The Con." Producing credits include the films Edmond starring William H. Macy and Colin Fitz directed by Robert Bella.

JASON RITTER (Charles/Listener).Theater: Third, The Distance From Here, The Beginning of August. Television: "Girls," "Drunk History," "Another Period." "Parenthood," "Gravity Falls," "The Event," "The Class," "Joan of Arcadia," Film: The Meddler, The Steps, Embers, 7 Minutes, You're Not You, About Alex, Wild Canaries, Hits, The Big Ask, I Am I, The East, The Perfect Family, A Bag of Hammers, The Dry Land, Peter and Vandy, W., The Deal, Good Dick, The Education of Charlie Banks, Our Very Own, Happy Endings, Mumford.

DEREKS THOMAS (A Porter). Regional: The Lily's Revenge, The Light Princess, The Donkey Show (American Repertory Theater); Passing Strange (Studio Theatre); George & Martha, The Day John Henry Came to School (Imagination Stage); Twelfth Night, Final Cut, The 4th Graders Present An Unnamed Love-Suicide (ART/MXAT Institute). The Lodge (Washington Improv Theater). International: The Imaginary Invalid (Moscow Art Theatre/American Studio). Education: MFA Acting ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

SCOTT ZIGLER (Director) is an Atlantic founding member where he served as Artistic Director from 1989-1992 and was also Executive Director of Atlantic's actor training program, the Atlantic Theatre Acting School. Broadway: David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood (also world premiere at American Repertory Theatre). Atlantic: As You Like It, David Mamet's The Woods, company member Bill Wrubel's Suburban News (world premiere), David Ives' Sure Thing. National Tour: David Mamet's Oleanna. Regional: Mamet's plays Glengarry Glen Ross (McCarter Theatre), The Cryptogram (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Alley Theatre) and Oleanna (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Robert William Sherwoods' Absolution (American Repertory Theatre); Adam Rapp's Animals and Plants (world premiere, American Repertory Theatre): Rebecca Gilman's Spinning Into Butter (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishman (American Repertory Theatre); Jon Robin Baitz's A Fair Country (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Currently, Scott is Director of the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, run in collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre School and is the artistic coordinator of the New Play development at the American Repertory Theatre, where he has been on the staff since 1996. Previously, he served as Director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Apprentice/Intern Company. Scott is co-author of the widely used textbook A Practical Handbook for the Actor, which has sold nearly two hundred thousand copies since its publication in 1986.

DAVID MAMET (Playwright). Plays: Keep Your Pantheon (world premiere, Center Theatre Group 2008), Romance (world premiere Atlantic 2005, Mark Taper Forum), November, Boston Marriage, Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Award), American Buffalo, The Old Neighborhood, A Life In The Theater, Speed-the-Plow, Edmond, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Woods, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Reunion, The Cryptogram (1995 Obie Award) Race, and The Anarchist. Translations and adaptations: The Voysey Inheritance by Harvey Granville-Barker, Red River by Pierre Laville and The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov and Faustus. Films: The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables, House of Games (writer/director), Oleanna (writer/director), Homicide (writer/director), The Spanish Prisoner (writer/director), Hoffa, Wag the Dog, The Edge, The Winslow Boy (writer/director), Hannibal, State and Main (writer/director), Heist (writer/director), Spartan (writer/director), Redbelt (writer/director). Mr. Mamet is also the author of Warm and Cold, a book for children with drawings by Donald Sultan and two other children's books, Passover and The Duck and the Goat; Writing in Restaurants, Some Freaks and Make-Believe Town, three volumes of essays; The Hero Pony and The Chinaman, two books of poems; Three Children's Plays, On Directing Film, The Cabin and the novels The Village, The Old Religion and Wilson. His most recent books include True and False, Three Uses of the Knife, The Wicked Son, Bambi Vs. Godzilla, Theatre and The Secret Knowledge. Mr. Mamet was also a co-creator of the 4-season running hit CBS television series "The Unit." His newest play, China Doll, is scheduled to open in New York this Fall. He is a co-founder and member of Atlantic Theater Company.

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, 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. Celebrating 30 years of theater since its inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 150 plays including Tony Award winning productions of Spring Awakening (Steven Sater, Duncan Sheik) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Martin McDonagh); the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Between Riverside and Crazy (Stephen Adly Guirgis); New York Drama Critics Circle winner for Best New Play, The Night Alive (Conor McPherson) world premieres of Posterity (Doug Wright); I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard (Halley Feiffer); Found (Hunter Bell, Eli Bolin, Lee Overtree); Between Riverside and Crazy (Stephen Adly Guirgis); Almost an Evening, Offices, Happy Hour and Women or Nothing (Ethan Coen); the musical revival of Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera directed by Martha Clarke; Our New Girl (Nancy Harris); The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Alan Sillitoe, adapted by Roy Williams); Bluebird and Harper Regan (Simon Stephens); What Rhymes With America (Melissa James Gibson); 3 Kinds of Exile (John Guare); Storefront Church (John Patrick Shanley); The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Cripple of Inishmaan (Martin McDonagh); Body Awareness (Annie Baker); Romance (David Mamet); Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, adapted by Jenny Worton); Farragut North (Beau Willimon); Blue/Orange (Joe Penhall); Port Authority and Dublin Carol (Conor McPherson); Writer's Block (Woody Allen); American Buffalo and Edmond (David Mamet); The Cider House Rules (adapted by Peter Parnell); Good Television (Rod McLachlan); Celebration & The Room, The Collection & A Kind of Alaska and The Hothouse (Harold Pinter); Dying For It, Gabriel (Moira Buffini); Oohrah! (Bekah Brunstetter); Mojo, Parlour Song (Jez Butterworth); Boys' Life and The Lights (Howard Korder); Distant Fires (Kevin Heelan); The Lying Lesson, Missing Persons (Craig Lucas).

Atlantic has garnered 12 Tony Awards, 12 Lucille Lortel Awards, 15 Obie Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Drama League Awards and two New York Drama Critics' Circle 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.

Atlantic Stage 2 is located at 330 West 16th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). Performance Schedule: Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm. Added performance on Sunday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Regular tickets are $55.00. Back20 tickets are available on a limited basis for $20 at preview performances. Order online at AtlanticTheater.org, by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111, or in person at the at the Linda Gross Theater box office (336 West 20th Street between 8th & 9th Avenues).

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