Atlantic's 2007 - 08 season presents five world premieres and one NY Premiere

Atlantic Theatre Company's 2007 - 2008 season of six productions, at the Linda Gross Theater, include five world premieres and one New York Premiere. The season features plays by Lucy Thurber, Peter Parnell, Jez Butterworth, Conor McPherson, Ethan Coen and Annie Baker.

The Atlantic's Main Stage:

Scarcity by Lucy Thurber. (World premiere)

Director: TBA
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: Set in rural western Massachusetts, Scarcity tells the tale of two siblings whose aspirations to escape the confines of poverty and small town life come into direct conflict with their sense of family responsibility. When sixteen-year-old Billy is afforded an opportunity to change schools and move out of town by an unusually attentive young teacher, his family starts to unravel around him.

Previews: 29 Aug 2007
Opens: 20 Sep 2007
Closes: 14 Oct 2007

Lucy Thurber (Playwright) is the author of the plays Where We�re Born; Ashville; Killers and Other Family; Monstrosity (Encore Theatre work shop); Stay, recently staged at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Bottom of the World, which was work shopped by WET at The Eugene O�Neill Playwrights� Center, and was part of the first Tribeca Theater festival after receiving a workshop at The Public Theater.

Trumpery by Peter Parnell (World premiere)

Director: TBA
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: It is 1858. Charles Darwin struggles to finish The Origin of Species, and give the world his theory of natural selection, while coping with family illness and his own loss of faith. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, an unknown explorer is about to come up with the exact same theory.

Previews: 14 Nov 2007
Opens: 10 Dec 2007
Closes: 30 Dec 2007

Peter Parnell (Playwright) is the author of the plays The Cider House Rules, Part One, adapted from John Irving's novel (Atlantic, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep Theatre); The Cider House Rules, Part Two (Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep); An Imaginary Life; Flaubert's Latest; Hyde in Hollywood; Romance Language; The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket (all at Playwrights Horizons); Sorrows of Stephen (Public Theater, NYSF).

Parlour Song by Jez Butterworth (World Premiere)

Director: Neil Pepe
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: A demolitions expert suspects his wife is stealing from him. Parlour Song explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become.

Previews: 8 Feb 2008
Opens: 6 Mar 2008
Closes: 30 Mar 2008

Jez Butterworth (Playwright) began writing and producing plays at Cambridge University. His first full-length play, Mojo, was staged by the Royal Court in 1995, and later made into a film in 1997. His second play, The Night Heron was produced at the Royal Court in 2002 and his third, The Winterling, was staged there earlier this year. The Atlantic produced the New York premiere of Mojo and the American premiere of The Night Heron. In 2006 the Royal Court staged his third play "The Winterling" on the main stage, which this year will be revived at the Stockholm City Theatre. He wrote "Leavings", a short play for the Atlantic Theater. In 2007, Butterworth was awarded the E.M Forster Award for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Port Authority by Conor McPherson (New York Premiere)

Director: Henry Wishcamper
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of contemporary Dublin, Port Authority weaves the stories of three generations of Irishmen as they experience loss, failure and the elusiveness of love.

Previews: 30 Apr 2008
Opens: 21 May 2008
Closes: 22 Jun 2008

Conor McPherson (Playwright) attended University College Dublin, where he began to write and direct. His plays include The Seafarer; Shining City; Rum & Vodka; The Good Thief; This Lime Tree Bower; St Nicholas; The Weir and Dublin Carol. Awards for his theatre work include the Laurence Olivier Award, Evening Standard Award, Critics Circle Award, George Devine Award, Meyer-Whitworth Award and the Stewart Parker Award.

Atlantic Stage Two:

Three Short Plays by Ethan Coen (World Premiere)

Director: Neil Pepe
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: O Brother Where Art Thou?; Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

Previews: ?? Jan 2008
Opens: TBA
Closes: TBA

Ethan Coen (Playwright) makes his Off-Broadway debut as a playwright with his production of one-acts at Atlantic. With his brother, Joel, Ethan Coen has made the movies Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Miller's Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Man Who Wasn't There; Intolerable Cruelty; The Ladykillers, and the upcoming No Country for Old Men. He has written a collection of stories, Gates of Eden.

Body Awareness by Annie Baker (World Premiere)

Director:Karen Kohlhaas
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: At bucolic Shirley State College in Vermont it is Body Awareness Week, and all must go according to plan. But when radical photographer Frank Bonitatibus shows up with his passel of photographs of naked women, things start to go awry.

Previews: ?? May 2008
Opens: TBA
Closes: TBA

Annie Baker�s (Playwright) plays have been developed and performed at the Soho Repertory, Atlantic Theater Company, the Ontological-Hysteric, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Magic Theater in San Francisco (2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and the Brick Theater in Williamsburg. She has a B.F.A. from the Department of Dramatic Writing at Tisch, and is a member of the 06/07 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and EST's Youngblood.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, 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.

Since it�s inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays including the Tony Award� winning production of 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, 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 twenty years ago in 1985.

Last season, two of Atlantic�s 2005-2006 season productions headed to Broadway:

• Atlantic�s world premiere production of the new musical Spring Awakening with music by Duncan Sheik, a book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, opened to rave reviews on Broadway this season and has been nominated for eleven 2007 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
• The 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 was also awarded the 2006 Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work.

This season, founder David Mamet�s adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, directed by David Warren and starring Michael Stuhlbarg and Fritz Weaver, was extended three times, the first time in Atlantic�s history.