ETHAN HAWKE and PAUL DANO To Star in A New Broadway Production of TRUE WEST

ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY

Announces

Oscar & Tony Nominee Golden Globe Nominee

ETHAN HAWKE PAUL DANO

To Star in A New Broadway Production of

TRUE WEST

By Sam Shepard

Directed by James Macdonald

Previews begin December 27, 2018

Opening officially on January 24, 2019

Limited engagement on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) announces a new Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s Tony & Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama TRUE WEST, directed by James Macdonald (The Children), starring acclaimed screen and stage actors Ethan Hawke as “Lee” and Paul Dano as “Austin.”

TRUE WEST will begin preview performances on December 27, 2018 and officially open on Broadway on Thursday, January 24, 2019. This will be a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street).

Opposites attack in Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about two brothers with more in common than they think. Holed up in their mother’s California house, screenwriter Austin (Dano) and lowlife Lee (Hawke) wrestle with big issues—and each other. Order vs. chaos. Art vs. commerce. Typewriter vs. toaster...Shepard’s rip-roaring classic returns to Broadway, gleefully detonating our misguided myths of family, identity and the American Dream.

Shepard, Hawke and Dano have long artistic relationships, with Hawke being a longtime collaborator and friend of the late Sam Shepard. Hawke has also acted alongside Dano on film (Taking Lives) and directed him on stage (Things We Want).

Roundabout Theatre Company welcomes back Paul Dano who made his Broadway debut at age 10, in the 1995 revival of A Month in the Country starring Helen Mirren.

The remaining cast and creative team will be announced shortly.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets for True West are first made available to subscribers and donors. Whether you are interested in the best value or VIP experiences, Roundabout has a package option for you. Visit roundabouttheatre.org or call 212-719-1300 for more info. Sign up for Roundabout’s email club at roundabouttheatre.org to be notified when tickets go on sale to the public.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

True West will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8:00PM with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2:00PM and Sunday matinees at 3:00PM.

BIOGRAPHIES:

ETHAN HAWKE (Lee) is a Tony and four-time Academy Award nominated actor and writer whose diverse career as a novelist, actor, director, and screenwriter spans more than three decades. Hawke recently premiered “BLAZE” at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category, a drama he produced, co-wrote and directed about the life of country western musician Blaze Foley. The film received rave reviews and won the Special Jury Award for actor Ben Dickey’s spellbinding performance. Hawke stars alongside Rose Byrne and Chris O’Dowd in the Judd Apatow-produced romantic comedy, “Juliet, Naked,” based on the best-selling Nick Hornby novel of the same name. Directed by Jesse Peretz, the film also premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate. He also stars in Paul Schrader’s long-awaited and timely political and environmental thriller “First Reformed.” The film premiered at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival before making its way to Telluride and Toronto while garnering Hawke some of the best reviews of his career as an actor. A24 acquired the film and will release it on June 22, 2018. Hawke’s critically-acclaimed performances and collaboration with friend and filmmaker Richard Linklater in “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” and “Before Midnight” opposite Julie Delpy have become a landmark in American independent film. Hawke, Linklater and Delpy co-wrote the screenplays for "Before Sunset" and “Before Midnight” and received Academy Award and Independent Spirit Award nominations for both scripts. The trio were honored with the Louis XIII Genius Award for achievement in cinematic works for the "Before" films at the BFCA Critics Choice Awards. Hawke has collaborated with Linklater on multiple occasions, including "Fast Food Nation;" "Waking Life;" "The Newton Boys" and "Tape." Their most recent collaboration, "Boyhood," premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released by IFC that summer. Hawke starred alongside Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane in the critically acclaimed and groundbreaking film that was shot intermittently over 12 years chronicling the life of a child from age 6-18. For his performance, Ethan received Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Film Independent Spirit Award, Critics’ Choice Film Award, and Gotham Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. Throughout his career, Hawke has starred in over 50 films including “Reality Bites;” “Good Kill;” “Predestination;” “The Purge;” "Explorers;" "White Fang;" "Gattaca;" "Great Expectations;" "Hamlet;" "What Doesn't Kill You;" "Brooklyn's Finest;" "Sinister;" “Maudie,” “Maggie’s Plan,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Phenom,” “In a Valley of Violence” “Born to Be Blue.” and "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead." Hawke received Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Supporting Actor nominations for his work in Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day," opposite Denzel Washington. Behind the lens, Hawke made his directorial debut in 2001 with his drama "Chelsea Walls." Additionally, he directed Josh Hamilton in the short film "Straight to One," a story of a couple, young and in love, living in the Chelsea Hotel. He made his documentary directorial debut with “Seymour: An Introduction,” which premiered at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival and later played internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival. The project follows the life of the legendary pianist and piano teacher Seymour Bernstein. A noted writer and novelist, Hawke’s graphic novel, Indeh with illustrator Greg Ruth was published by Grand Central Publishing on June 7, 2016. Indeh captures the narrative of two nations at war who strive to find peace and forgiveness in a time of great upheaval. It debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for Hardcover Graphic Novels. In 2015, Hawke released his first children’s book Rules for a Knight which features illustrations by his wife, Ryan Hawke. The New York Times best-seller is framed as a long-lost document, recently found and republished by Hawke, a distant relative of the knight, Sir Thomas Lemuel Hawke. In addition to his work as a novelist, in April 2009, Hawke wrote an in-depth and celebrated profile of icon Kris Kristofferson for Rolling Stone. In 2002, his second novel, Ash Wednesday, was published by Knopf and was chosen for Bloomsbury's contemporary classics series. In 1996, Hawke wrote his first novel, The Hottest State, published by Little Brown and now in its nineteenth printing. In his sophomore directorial endeavor, Hawke adapted for the screen and directed the on-screen version of "The Hottest State" and also directed a music video for the film, featuring Lisa Loeb. At the age of twenty-one, Hawke founded the Malaparte Theater Co., which gave young artists a home to develop their craft for more than five years. The next year, in 1992, Hawke made his Broadway debut in "The Seagull." Additionally, he has appeared in "Henry IV" alongside Richard Easton on Broadway; "Buried Child" (Steppenwolf); "Hurlyburly," for which he earned a Lucille Lortel Award Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor and Drama League Award Nomination for Distinguished Performance (The New Group); Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia," for which he was honored with a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play and Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance (Lincoln Center); the inaugural season of The Bridge Project's double billings of "The Cherry Orchard" and "A Winter's Tale," for which Hawke received a Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Old Vic); and "Blood From A Stone" (The New Group) which earned him a 2011 Obie Award for Performance. In 2007, Hawke made his Off-Broadway directing debut with the world premiere of Jonathan Marc Sherman's dark comedy, "Things We Want". In 2010, Hawke directed Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind," for which he received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play as well as recognition in the New York Times and The New Yorker top ten lists of the leading theatre productions in 2010. In 2012, he starred in Chekov's "Ivanov" for the Classic Stage Company. In 2013, he directed and starred in "Clive," a stage adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's "Baal," by Jonathan Marc Sherman (The New Group), and completed a successful run of Lincoln Center Theatre's production of “Macbeth” in the title role. Hawke resides in New York and is married with four children.

PAUL DANO (Austin). Paul Dano will make his directorial debut in 2018 with WILDLIFE which screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Dano wrote the adapted screenplay (with Zoe Kazan) from Richard Ford’s American classic. WILDLIFE stars Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal and centers on the story of a teenage boy who witnesses the decay of his parent’s marriage after their move to Montana. Dano also produced the film which IFC will release this Fall. Dano recently wrapped the Showtime limited series ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA starring alongside Benicio Del Toro and directed by Ben Stiller. Based on the true story of the 2015 prison break in upstate New York, which spawned a manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee. Dano stars as David Sweat, a convicted cop-killer who uses his good looks to seduce Tilly (Patricia Arquette) and becomes a reluctant partner in Richard Matt’s plot. In 2017, Dano starred in the critically acclaimed Joon-ho Bong film OKJA starring opposite Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal. OKJA was nominated for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. In 2015, Dano won the Gotham Independent Film Award for “Best Actor” for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Beach Boys songwriter and musician Brian Wilson in the film LOVE & MERCY. He also received Golden Globe and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations for his performance. Directed by Bill Pohlad, the film starred Elizabeth Banks and John Cusack and was released by Roadside Attractions in June 2015. Also in 2015, Dano starred in the Fox Searchlight film YOUTH, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) and nominated for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes International film festival. In 2013, Dano appeared in Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe winning 12 YEARS A SLAVE, alongside Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Dano portrayed the role of the wrathful slave-owner, John Tibeats. Also in 2013, Dano starred in Warner Brothers’ critically acclaimed thriller PRISONERS, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and alongside Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Terrence Howard. Dano portrayed the role of Alex Jones in a chilling performance of a disturbed man with the IQ of a child who is suspected of kidnapping two little girls. In 2012, Dano starred in Sony’s action crime sci-fi film, LOOPER, directed by Rian Johnson and alongside Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt. Dano also starred in and executive produced Fox Searchlight’s fantasy comedy drama, RUBY SPARKS, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and written by Zoe Kazan – also starring Zoe Kazan and Chris Messina. RUBY SPARKS accounts the story of a novelist struggling with writer’s block (Dano) who creates a female character that comes to life as a real person (Kazan). In 2007, Dano was nominated for a BAFTA in the “Best Supporting Actor” category for his portrayal of the identical twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday in in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award nominated THERE WILL BE BLOOD, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. In 2006, Dano won a Critics Choice award for “Best Young Actor” for his portrayal as the voluntarily mute brother, Dwayne, in Fox Searchlight’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award nominated LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and starring Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Toni Collette. Dano’s first major film was at seventeen, when he portrayed the role of Howie Blitzer in the crime drama L.I.E., for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for “Best Debut Performance” and a Directors’ Week Award for “Best Actor.” L.I.E. chronicles the story of a 15-year old Long Island boy who loses everything and becomes involved in a relationship with an older man. Additional credits include: BEING FLYNN, MEEK’S CUTOFF, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, BBC television drama mini-series, WAR AND PEACE, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, SWISS ARMY MAN, FOR ELLEN, KNIGHT AND DAY, THE EXTRA MAN, THE GOOD HEART, GIGANTIC, COWBOYS & ALIENS, TAKING WOODSTOCK, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, FAST FOOD NATION, THE KING, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE and TAKING LIVES. In 2007, Dano starred in Ethan Hawke’s off-Broadway directorial debut, Things We Want, alongside Peter Dinklage, Josh Hamilton and Zoe Kazan. Paul Dano currently resides in New York City.

SAM SHEPARD (Playwright). Shepard’s first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, The Tooth of the Crime, and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind, and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.

JAMES MACDONALD (Director). Broadway: The Children, Top Girls. In New York: Escaped Alone (BAM); Cloud Nine (Atlantic); Love and Information (Minetta Lane/NYTW); Cock (Duke Theater/STP); King Lear, The Book of Grace, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Public Theater); John Gabriel Borkman (BAM/Abbey Theatre); Dying City (Lincoln Center); A Number (NYTW); 4.48 Psychosis (St. Anne’s Warehouse). Recently in London: Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Father, Glengarry Glen Ross (West End); The Children, The Wolf from the Door, Circle Mirror Transformation, Love and Information, Cock (Royal Court); Bakkhai, A Delicate Balance, Judgment Day (Almeida); Wild, #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, And No More Shall We Part (Hampstead); Roots (Donmar); Dido Queen of Carthage, The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other, Exiles (National Theatre). Film: A Number (HBO/BBC).

Roundabout Theatre Company celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills that mission by producing familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals; discovering and supporting talented playwrights; reducing the barriers that can inhibit theatergoing; collaborating with a diverse team of artists; building educational experiences; and archiving over five decades of production history.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout’s mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout’s Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout’s work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout’s season in 2017-2018 includes Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, directed by Patrick Marber.

Roundabout’s off-Broadway season dedicated to new work at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in 2017-2018 includes Amy and the Orphans, by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Scott Ellis; Skintight, by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin.

Roundabout Underground’s 2017-2018 season includes Bobbie Clearly, by Alex Lubischer.

In 2018-2019 season, Roundabout will produce a new Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate, directed by Scott Ellis and starring Kelli O’Hara; True West, by Sam Shepard, directed by James Macdonald, starring Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano. Roundabout Underground’s 2018-2019 season will include Usual Girls by Ming Peiffer, directed by Tyne Rafaeli.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Follow ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY on Twitter @RTC_NYC, Instagram and on Facebook.

# # #