Public Theater to Present New Play by Sam Shepard

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) concludes its 2007-2008 downtown season with the U.S. premiere of KICKING A DEAD HORSE, a new play written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard and featuring Tony Award nominee Stephen Rea.  Following a sold-out run at Ireland's Abbey Theatre, it will preview at The Public on Wednesday, June 25 and run through Sunday, July 27 with an official press opening on Monday, July 14 at 7 PM.

 
KICKING A DEAD HORSE marks the fifth Shepard play to have its premiere at The Public, following Curse of the Starving Class (1978), Tongues (1979), True West (1980), and Simpatico (1994).  Rea reprises his role as Hobart in this arresting new play about the West, a Manhattan art dealer and a dead horse. The nonspeaking role of Young Woman is still to be cast.

 
"It is an honor to welcome Sam Shepard back to The Public. He is one of our greatest writers, and KICKING A DEAD HORSE is perhaps his most personal work to date. Funny, elegiac and moving, it is a great meditation on age and the American West," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.  "I am also delighted to continue our collaboration with The Abbey Theatre (after Under the Radar's Terminus and The Brothers Size's premiere in Dublin this month).  The Abbey is one of the greatest theaters in the world, and we have much to offer one another."

 
"I am very proud that the American premiere of Sam Shepard's KICKING A DEAD HORSE, commissioned by Ireland's Abbey Theatre, will open at The Public Theater," said Abbey Theatre Director Fiach Mac Conghail.  "Both The Abbey and The Public are committed to producing work that engages with society and politics. This co-production between our great theaters bodes well for future dialogue between our two countries and will continue to support new writing and new theatre. "

 
Sam Shepard (Playwright, Director) has a long history with The Public Theater, which presented the New York premieres of his Curse of the Starving Class (1978), Tongues (1979), True West (1980), and Simpatico (1994). His previous stage directing credits include Fool for Love at Circle Rep (Obie Award for direction); A Lie of the Mind at the Promenade; Simpatico at The Public; The Late Henry Moss at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco; and Geography of a Horse Dreamer with Rea at the Royal Court. His first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, produced by Theatre Genesis in 1963. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays have won Obie Awards including Chicago and Icaruss's Mother (1965); Red Cross and La Turista (1966); Forensic and the Navigators and Melodrama Play (1967); The Tooth of Crime (1972); and Action (1974). He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize as well as an Obie Award for his play Buried Child (1979). Fool for Love (1982) received the Obie for Best Play. A Lie of the Mind (1985) won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1986 and the Outer Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding New Play. States of Shock premiered at the American Place Theatre in 1991. When the World Was Green (Chef's Fable) was written with his long-time collaborator, Joseph Chaikin, and commissioned by Seven Stages in Atlanta; it premiered at the Olympic Arts Festival. A revival of Buried Child, under the direction of Gary Sinise, opened on Broadway in April 1996 and won a Tony Award Nomination.  Signature Theatre Company devoted its '96-'97 season to his work. Eyes for Consuela premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1998 and in 2000 The Late Henry Moss premiered in San Francisco before opening in New York at Signature Theatre the following year. His play The God of Hell received its world premiere in New York during 2004, at the same time as Sam appeared in the New York premiere of Caryl Churchill's A Number at New York Theatre Workshop.  He wrote the screenplays for Zabriskie Point; Wim Wender's Paris, Texas; Robert Altman's Fool for Love, a film version of his play of the same title. As writer/director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue in 1988 and 1992, respectively. As an actor he has appeared in the films Days of Heaven, Resurrection, Raggedy Man, The Right Stuff, Frances, Country, Fool for Love, Crimes of the Heart, Baby Boom, Steel Magnolias, Bright Angel, Defenseless, Voyager, Thunderheart, The Pelican Brief, Safe Passage, Hamlet, and most recently Don't Come Knocking, also co-written with Wim Wenders.  In 1986, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1992, he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

 
Stephen Rea (Hobart) received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for the film The Crying Game in 1992 and a Tony Award nomination for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me in 1993.  He began his career at The Abbey Theatre before moving to London, where his first theatre role was Tommy Owens in The Shadow of a Gunman with Jack Mc Gowran at the Mermaid Theatre. Stephen was first directed by Sam Shepard in Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Royal Court.  He also acted in Action at the Royal Court and Buried Child and Killers Head at The Hampstead Theatre and directed Little Ocean by Sam Shepard (also at the Hampstead).  Stephen worked extensively at the English National Theatre and the Royal Court where he worked with Samuel Beckett on Endgame. He was a founding member of Field Day Theatre Company with Brian Friel. His films include the upcoming Stuck, Sisters, Sixty Six, Till Death, V for Vendetta, Breakfast on Pluto, The River Queen, The Good Shepherd, Control, The Halo Effect, Ulysses, The I Inside, Evelyn, FearDotCom, The Musketeer, The End of the Affair, Guinevere, Still Crazy, In Dreams, The Butcher Boy, Fever Pitch, The Last of the High Kings, Trojan Eddie, Michael Collins, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, All Men Are Mortal, Prêt a Porter, Interview with a Vampire, Princess Caraboo, Angie, Bad Behaviour, The Crying Game, Life is Sweet, The Doctor and the Devils, The House, Company of Wolves, Loose Connections and Angel.

 
The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

 
Abbey Theatre, IRELAND'S National Theatre (Director Fiach Mac Conghail) occupies a unique place in the hearts and minds of Irish people at home and abroad. It opened its doors on Abbey Street, in Dublin's City Center, on December 27, 1904 with W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory as its inaugural directors.  In 1925 it was given an annual subsidy by the newly formed Irish Free State, becoming the first ever state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world. The theatre comprises of the Abbey and Peacock theatres and has an artistic policy that centers on the promotion and development of new Irish writing, the revitalization and presentation of plays from the Irish repertoire as well as classics of the European and world stages.  In its 104 year history it has nurtured and premiered the work of major playwrights such as John Millington Synge, Sean O'Casey, Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Frank McGuinness, Hugh Leonard and Marina Carr, as well as actors Donal McCann, Siobhan McKenna, Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson, Sinead Cusack, Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney amongst many, many others. www.abbeytheatre.ie

 
KICKING A DEAD HORSE, a co-production with The Abbey Theatre, begins previews on Wednesday, June 25 and runs through Sunday, July 27 with an official press opening on Monday, July 14 at 7 PM.  The performance schedule is Tuesdays at 7 PM; Wednesdays thru Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 3 PM and 7 PM.

The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.  Tickets are $50 with student tickets available in advance, at the box office only, for $25 (1 per ID).  There are a limited number of Rush Tickets sold an hour before curtain at every performance available to the general public (Two per person, $20 each, cash only).

 
To purchase tickets, please call (212) 967-7555 or visit www.publictheater.org.
 

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