FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 3, 2014 Contact: Chris Boneau/ Aaron Meier/ Emily Meagher/Michelle Farabaugh Follow MTC on Twitter: @MTC_NYC (#TheCountryHouse) or on Facebook Follow BBB on Twitter: @BBBway and on Facebook Manhattan Theatre Club Announces Two Productions For 2015-2016 Season On Broadway at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre Fool for Love By Sam Shepard Directed by Daniel Aukin Starring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell Presented in Association with Williamstown Theatre Festival At New York City Center – Stage I Ripcord World Premiere Comedy By David Lindsay-Abaire Directed by David Hyde Pierce Starring Marylouise Burke and Mary Louise Wilson Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the first two productions of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2015-2016 season. MTC’s Broadway season at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) will begin next fall with the Broadway premiere of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s acclaimed production of Fool for Love by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard, directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin, starring Tony Award winner Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell. MTC’s season at New York City Center – Stage I (131 West 55th Street) will feature the world premiere of Ripcord, the new comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce starring Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke and Tony Award winner Mary Louise Wilson. ON BROADWAY AT MTC’S SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE Fool for Love Broadway Premiere of Sam Shepard’s Acclaimed Play Directed by Daniel Aukin Starring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell Presented in Association with Williamstown Theatre Festival Previews Begin: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Opening Night: Thursday, October 8, 2015 Holed up in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert, two former lovers unpack the deep secrets and dark desires of their tangled relationship, passionately tearing each other apart. Beaten down by ill-fated love and a ruthless struggle for identity, can they ultimately live with, or without, each other? Led by director Daniel Aukin (Back Back Back at MTC; 4,000 Miles), Tony Award winner Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur at MTC, Born Yesterday) and Sam Rockwell (A Behanding in Spokane, The Way Way Back) bring an explosive intensity to Sam Shepard’s (Buried Child, True West) landmark myth of the new Wild West. Fool for Love is presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director). Additional casting and creative team for Fool for Love will be announced in the coming weeks. MTC AT NEW YORK CITY CENTER – STAGE I Ripcord World Premiere Comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire Directed by David Hyde Pierce Starring Marylouise Burke and Mary Louise Wilson Previews Begin: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 Opening Night: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 David Lindsay-Abaire, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers, and Good People, returns to MTC with Ripcord, a high-stakes comedy about two women of a certain age locked in a no-holds-barred battle to the death directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce. A sunny room on an upper floor is prime real estate in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility, so when the cantankerous Abby (Tony Award winner Mary Louise Wilson) is forced to share her quarters with new-arrival Marilyn (frequent Lindsay-Abaire collaborator and Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke), she has no choice but to get rid of the infuriatingly chipper woman by any means necessary. A seemingly harmless bet between the old women quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship that reveals not just the tenacity of these worthy opponents, but also deeper truths that each would rather remain hidden. As heartfelt as it is deliciously inappropriate, this hilarious world premiere marks the author’s sixth collaboration with MTC. Ripcord was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New American Play Program. Additional casting and creative team for Ripcord will be announced in the coming weeks. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country’s most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 19 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Casa Valentina; Outside Mullingar; The Assembled Parties; Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain’t Misbehavin.’ For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com. TICKETING INFORMATION To find out more about subscribing to Manhattan Theatre Club, call the Clubline at (212) 399-3050. Single ticket information and other listings information for MTC’s 2015-2016 season will be announced at a later date. BIOGRAPHIES FOR FOOL FOR LOVE SAM SHEPARD (Playwright) had 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 Icarus’s Mother (1965); Red Cross and La Turista (1966); Forensic and the Navigators and Melodrama Play (1967); The Tooth of Crime (1972); Action (1974); and Curse of the Starving Class (1976). Shepard 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 as well as for Direction. A Lie of the Mind (1985) won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1986 and the 1986 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play. A revived Buried Child under the direction of Gary Sinise opened on Broadway in April 1996 and was nominated for a Tony Award. Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) and Ages of the Moon (2009) both received their world premieres at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Kicking a Dead Horse transferred to The Public Theater in New York and to the Almeida Theatre in London, and Ages of the Moon received its U.S. premiere at Atlantic Theater Company in 2010. Shepard’s latest play, Heartless, premiered in 2012 at Signature, where his latest work, A Particle of Dread, starring Stephen Rea, is currently playing. Shepard wrote the screenplays for Zabriskie Point; Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas; and 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, Shepard 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 Theater Hall of Fame. DANIEL AUKIN (Director) co-conceived and most recently directed the New York premiere of the musical The Fortress of Solitude, based on the best-selling novel by Jonathan Lethem for the Public Theater, following a successful run at Dallas Theater Center. Aukin’s production of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love garnered extraordinary reviews for its run at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Daniel directed Bad Jews for the Roundabout Underground, to such acclaim that the production transferred to the Laura Pels Theatre, through the Roundabout Theatre Company. Other recent directing credits include The Royale by Marco Ramirez at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, and Melissa James Gibson’s What Rhymes With America for the Atlantic Theater; Daniel’s acclaimed production of 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog moved to LCT’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater following a wildly successful run at LCT3. Aukin recently directed The Ugly One at SoHo Repertory Theatre, and the critically acclaimed world premiere of This by Melissa James Gibson at Playwrights Horizons and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Other credits include: Back Back Back by Itamar Moses at Manhattan Theatre Club, Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge at Arena Stage, Melissa James Gibson’s Current Nobody at Woolly Mammoth, Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine at La Jolla Playhouse. As Artistic Director of Soho Rep., Aukin directed Mark Schultz’s critically acclaimed Everything Will Be Different (world premiere), Melissa James Gibson’s [sic] (OBIE award for direction), Quincy Long’s The Year of the Baby (world premiere), Mac Wellman’s Cat’s-Paw (world premiere), Marie Irene Fornes’ Molly’s Dream (world premiere, OBIE Award), and Melissa James Gibson’s Suitcase (also at La Jolla Playhouse). For other theatres: Melissa James Gibson’s Brooklyn Bridge at the Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis and Mat Smart’s The Hopper Collection at the Huntington Theatre. Aukin was Artistic Director of Soho Rep (1998-2006) where he commissioned over fifty new plays though the Writer/Director Lab and produced many premieres garnering eight Obie awards, four Drama Desk nominations, two Kesselring Prizes, and one Oppenheimer Award. NINA ARIANDA (May).