Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to present Kate Walsh ("Private Practice," "Grey's Anatomy") and Paul Sparks (Broadway's Hedda Gabler) in the world premiere of Stephen Belber's play DUSK RINGS A BELL, directed by Sam Gold.
DUSK RINGS A BELL began previews Wednesday, May 19 and will officially open Thursday, May 27. This limited engagement announced an extension before previews began and will now play through Saturday, June 26 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16 Street).
Molly and Ray unexpectedly meet 25 years after a one-afternoon adolescent fling. She has a successful media career; he owns a small landscaping business. Both begin to romanticize their chance reunion, but a renewed connection is disrupted when Ray discloses the details of a crime that left him incarcerated for ten years. Their encounter reveals two vastly different paths taken and two lonely souls attempting to reclaim a moment of possibility, when they were young and perhaps at their very best.
Kate Walsh makes her Off-Broadway and
Atlantic Theater Company debut. She studi
Ed English Literature at the University of Arizona, trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop and The Oxford School of Drama, and appeared in The Tooth of Crime and Beauty and the Beast. She then starred in multiple theatre productions in Chicago, including Happy Birthday, Wanda June, The Danube, Moon Under Miami and Troilus and Cressida, A Pinter Landscape, Flesh and Blood and the critically-acclaimed Born Guilty. In New York, Walsh was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe Burn Manhattan and The New York City
Players Theatre ensemble. Other theatre credits include The Four Twins at the Ontological Theatre, and the world premiere of Rich Maxwell's Flight Courier Service. In Los Angeles, Walsh was in Orlando at The Actors Gang, and still performs at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre and Improv Olympic. She currently stars as "Dr. Addison Montgomery" on the ABC drama "Private Practice," following three seasons on the award-winning hit series "Grey's Anatomy." On the big screen, Walsh was most recently seen in the supernatural thriller Legion opposite
Paul Bettany and
Dennis Quaid, and has completed production on the independent film Waska.
Paul Sparks recently starred in Roundabout's revival of Hedda Gabler on Broadway, where he also appeared in Take Me Out. Off-Broadway credits include Lady, Pumpgirl, American Sligo and Blackbird. This fall he will appear in the new HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" as well as the upcoming HBO mini-series Mildr
Ed Pierce with
Kate Winslet.
Playwright and screenwriter
Stephen Belber makes his Atlantic debut with the world premiere of Dusk Rings a Bell. He has been represented on Broadway with the world premiere of his play Match starring
Frank Langella. His hit Off-Broadway play Tape has been produced in New York, Australia, Germany, Canada, Greece and Japan and was made into a feature film starring
Ethan Hawke and
Uma Thurman.
Sam Gold also makes his Atlantic debut. He most recently directed
Annie Baker's play Circle Mirror Transformation Off-Broadway and will direct her new play The Aliens this spring. He is a recipient of a Princess Grace Award, a Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship, and is a
Wooster Group Associate Artist, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect.
BIOGRAPHIES
Kate Walsh makes her Off-Broadway and
Atlantic Theater Company debut with her starring role in the world premiere of Dusk Rings a Bell. She currently stars as "Dr. Addison Montgomery" on the ABC drama "Private Practice." "Private Practice" premiered in September of 2007 as the highest-rated new series and debuted as the #1 show on Wednesday evenings. Now in its third season, "Private Practice" is one of ABC's highest rated scripted dramas in the 9pm hour. Prior to "Private Practice," Walsh co-starred on ABC's hit drama "Grey's Anatomy." In Walsh's two seasons on the show, they received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble in 2007 and received ensemble nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 2006 and 2008. "Grey's" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama in 2007 and was nominated again the following year. The show also received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006 and 2007. Walsh was most recently seen in the supernatural thriller Legion opposite
Paul Bettany and
Dennis Quaid released by Screen Gems earlier this year. She also completed production on Waska, an independent thriller centered on a small town dealing with the tragic death of a young boy starring opposite
Thomas Dekker,
Mira Sorvino and
Jeremy Piven in the film. Walsh began her acting career in Chicago where she studied at the renowned Piven Theatre Workshop before starring in multiple theatre productions at the Shakespeare Repertory, including the critically acclaimed Born Guilty, Moon Under Miami and Troilus and Cressida. Walsh then moved to New York and appeared on various television shows, including series regular roles on ABC's "The
Mike O'Malley Show," HBO's "Mind of a Married Man" and ABC's "The
Drew Carey Show." Other film credits include Under the Tuscan Sun, After the Sunset, The Family Man and Kicking and Screaming.
Paul Sparks recently starred in Roundabout's revival of Hedda Gabler on Broadway, where he also appeared in Take Me Out. Off-Broadway credits include Lady, Pumpgirl, American Sligo, Essential Self Defense (2007 Drama Desk nomination), Finer Noble Gases (Best Actor 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Landscape of the Body, Orange Flower Water (2005 Drama Desk nomination), Bug, Blackbird (2004 Drama Desk nom), Circumference of a Squirrel, Coyote on a Fence (2000 Drama Desk nomination), The Late Henry Moss, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Man and Superman, MacBeth. TV: "Brotherhood," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Third Watch," "Trinity," "Guiding Light." Film: The Missing Person; Blackbird; Deception; First Person Singular, The Treatment; Headspace; Doris; Afterschool; Synecdoche, New York; Edge of Darkness and Please Give. This fall he will appear in the new HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" as well as the upcoming HBO mini-series Mildr
Ed Pierce with
Kate Winslet.
Stephen Belber. As a playwright, Belber's work has been produced on Broadway and in over 25 countries. Plays include Match (Tony Award® nomination for
Frank Langella); Tape (
Naked Angels NY/LA/London); McReele (Roundabout); A Small, Melodramatic Story (Labyrinth); Geometry of Fire, (Rattlestick); Fault Lines (Cherry Lane); One Million Butterflies (
Primary Stages), and Carol Mulroney (
Huntington Theater Company). He was an Associate Writer on The Laramie Project (Drama Desk and Lortel nominations), and co-writer on the more recent Laramie Project Epilogue. Movies include Tape, directed by Richard Linklater, The Laramie Project (Associate Writer/Emmy Nomination for screenwriting), Drifting Elegant and Management, which he also directed, starring
Jennifer Aniston and
Steve Zahn. He is currently developing screen adaptations of both Match and McReele. Television includes "Rescue Me" and "Law & Order SVU" (staff writer). Member of
Tectonic Theater Project and the
LAByrinth Theater Company.
Sam Gold (Director). Recent credits:
Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (
Playwrights Horizons) and The Aliens (Rattlestick),
Nick Jones and Raja Azar's Jollyship the Whizbang (Under the Radar Festival;
Ars Nova),
Betty Shamieh's
The Black Eyed (New York Theater Workshop),
Noah Haidle's Rag and Bone (Rattlestick),
Alena Smith's The Sacrifices (Summer Play Festival),
Sam Forman's The Rise and Fall of
Annie Hall (Stage 13), Sam Mark's The Joke (
Studio Dante), Colin McKenna's The Secret Agenda of Trees (Cherry Lane), and Rogelio Martinez's Fizz (The Ohio Theater). Sam has developed new plays at
American Conservatory Theater, Clubbed Thumb, The Lark,
Manhattan Class Company,
Manhattan Theater Club, The Marin Theater, New York Theater Workshop, The Ojai Playwrights Conference,
Playwrights Horizons,
Primary Stages, The
Public Theater, The Sundance Theater Lab, The Vineyard Theater,
Williamstown Theater Festival, and The Yale Repertory Theater. Sam is a teaching artist and guest director at The Juilliard School and has taught and directed at NYU Graduate Acting, ACT, Williams College, and Cornell. He is a recipient of a Princess Grace Award, a Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship, and is a
Wooster Group Associate Artist, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect.
Atlantic Theater Company (
Neil Pepe, Artistic Director;
Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater company 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 maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and director
David Mamet and Academy Award® nominated actor
William H. Macy who founded Atlantic twenty five years ago in 1985.
Atlantic and
Neil Pepe were awarded a 2009 Drama Desk Award last season for "exceptional craftsmanship, dedication to excellence and productions that engage, inspire and enlighten." In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the
Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work as its critically acclaimed production of
Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore transferred to Broadway, where it was nominated for five 2006 Tony Awards® including Best Play.
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.
Last season, Atlantic and Druid's critically acclaimed production of
Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Tony Award® winner
Garry Hynes, was extended three times and received four 2009
Lucille Lortel Award nominations including Outstanding Revival, three Outer Critics Circle Award nominations including Outstanding Revival, a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Revival, and was awarded a 2009 Lortel for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
Since its inception, Atlantic has produced over 125 productions including the Tony Award® winning play The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the world premieres of Academy Award® winner
Ethan Coen's comedies Almost an Evening and Offices,
Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block,
David Mamet's Romance and his adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, the musicals Spring Awakening and 10 Million Miles,
Conor McPherson's Port Authority,
Peter Parnell's Trumpery,
Lucy Thurber's Scarcity,
Annie Baker's Body Awareness,
Beau Willimon's Farragut North,
Bekah Brunstetter's Oohrah!,
David Pittu's What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling,
Leslie Ayvazian's Make Me,
Tom Donaghy's Minutes From The Blue Route,
Edwin Sanchez's Trafficking in Broken Hearts, the American premieres of
Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange,
Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol,
Jez Butterworth's The Night Heron, the New York premieres of
David Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon and School,
Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song and Mojo,
Rolin Jones' The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and
Peter Parnell's The Cider House Rules as well as revivals of
David Mamet's American Buffalo and Edmond,
Harold Pinter's The Hothouse and the double bill of Celebration and The Room and
Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice.
DUSK RINGS A BELL plays Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30p and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm.
For general inquiries and/or group sales for both the main stage Linda Gross Theater
and Atlantic Stage 2, call 212-645-1242.
www.atlantictheater.org
Photo credit: Ari Mintz
Paul Sparks and Kate Walsh
Paul Sparks
Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh
Paul Sparks and Kate Walsh
