Adam Rapp to Direct Actors Theatre's TRUE WEST

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein today announced that award-winning playwright and director Adam Rapp will direct Sam Shepard's True West in Actors Theatre's 2012-13 Season.True West will run in the Bingham Theatre aspart of the Brown-Forman Series, November 13-December 9, 2012. Press opening is slated for November 16, 2012.

Sam Shepard's highly acclaimed dark comedy True West is the dynamic tale of two brothers from different worlds who are reunited at their mother's home where motives are questioned, jealousy is voiced, challenges are issued and many,manydrinks are downed.

"Shepard is one of the reasons why I started writing plays and True West has always been an inspiration,"said Rapp. "One of the very real reasons that I wanted to write plays was because of the Shepard plays that I'd read in my early twenties. In addition to being very,very funny to read, I was immediately drawn to the muscularity of Shepard's language, his lost drifters and the familial mysteries. His characters actually DO things to each other. They take action, they risk and inevitable things happen because of it. Shepard puts imperfect hellified animals on stage and ironically, they're the ones who show us our humanity. I am excited to return to Actors Theatre and share this play."

Les Waters adds,"Sam Shepard is quite simply one of the greatest living American writers and Adam Rapp is a contemporary writer and director for whom I have great respect.True West is a play that is at once dynamic, intense and hilarious. I think the intersection of these two unique voices­-Rapp's raw and rebellious contemporary attitude combined with Shepard's tempestuous writing-will make for an explosive evening of theatre."

Rapp is an Obie Award-winning playwright and director. He has previously directed his plays Finer Noble Gases and The Edge of Our Bodies at Actors as part of the 2002 and 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays, respectively. He's the author of numerous plays, which include Nocturne (A.R.T., New York Theatre Workshop), Stone Cold Dead Serious (A.R.T., Edge Theatre), Blackbird (The Bush, Edge Theatre), Essential Self-Defense (Playwrights Horizons), Kindness(Playwrights Horizons),The Metal Children (The Vineyard), The Hallway Trilogy(Rattlestick), Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling (The Atlantic) and Red Light Winter (Steppenwolf, Barrow Street Theatre), which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Most recently he directed the world premiere of Karen O's Psycho Opera, Stop the Virgens, at St. Anne's Warehouse, which is currently playing the Sydney Opera House.

This announcement completes the lineup of directors for Actors Theatre's 2012-13 season. Previously announced directors include: Tony Speciale,Romeo & Juliet;Les Waters,Long Day's Journey into Night; Drew Fracher,A Christmas Story &A Christmas Carol; and new Associate Artistic Director Meredith McDonough,The Whipping Man. The cast and creative team for True West have yet to be announced.

2012-2013 season ticket packages are on sale now starting as low as $118 and are available online at ActorsTheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at 502-584-1205.

More Articles by This Author...