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August 17 – September 8

True West

By Sam Shepard |  Directed by Joe Short

True West is a true American classic exploring the alternatives that might spring from the demented terrain of the California landscape. Sons of a desert-dwelling alcoholic and a suburban wanderer clash over a film script. Austin, the achiever, is working on a screenplay he has sold to producer Sal Kimmer when Lee, his brother and demented petty thief, drops in. He pitches his own idea for a movie to Kimmer, who then wants Austin to junk his bleak, modern love story and write Lee’s trashy Western tale. The conflict between the brothers creates a heated situation in which their roles as successful family man and nomadic drifter are somehow reversed, and each man finds himself admitting that he had somehow always wished he were in the other’s shoes.

Watch the internal revolutions of the two brothers unfold on stage with direction by Joe Short – True West runs August 17 through September 8th at Gloucester Stage. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm.

CAST

Lee – Nael Nacer*
Austin – Alexander Platt*
Saul – Mark Cohen*
Mom – Marya Lowry*
Austin (understudy) – Josh Short

*denotes Actor’s Equity 

Nael Nacer* (Lee) returns to GSC after performing in Bank Job and The Flick (IRNE Award). Area credits include: A Doll’s HouseBedroom FarceCome Back, Little ShebaAwake and Sing!Our Town (IRNE Award), The Seagull (Huntington Theatre Company), Constellations; Distracted; Sila (Central Square Theater), Calendar Girls (Greater Boston Theatre Company), 45 Plays for 45 PresidentsIt’s a Wonderful Life: a Live Radio Play (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse), Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric PlayIntimate Apparel (Elliot Norton Award), The Temperamentals; Animal Crackers (Lyric Stage Company), A NumberPattern of LifeLungsThe Kite Runner (New Repertory Theatre), A Future Perfect; Tribes (SpeakEasy Stage Company), RhinocerosWindowmen; Gary (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), The Aliens; Love Person; 1001; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Company One). Nael is also a monologue coach for My College Audition (www.mycollegeaudition.com). Next up: the title role in Macbeth at Actors’ Shakespeare Project this October. 

 

 

Alexander Platt* (Austin) is thrilled to be making his Gloucester Stage debut.Other area credits includeSocial Creatures, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Mourners Bench, Love Alone (Trinity Rep); Stage Kiss, Chinglish (Lyric Stage Company); Hamlet (Actor’s Shakespeare Project); Miss Holmes, Neville’s Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Greater Boston Stage Company); Hedda Gabler, Far Away, Festen,Paul, Why Torture is Wrong…, Don Carlos(Gamm Theatre); Arcadia, Insignificance (Nora Theatre); The Forgetting Curve (Bridge Rep of Boston) The Etymology of Bird (Providence Black Rep); King Stag, Possible Worlds (Elemental Theatre); Bad Money, Falling Up (Perishable Theatre); The Pathological Passion of the Christ (La Mama Etc.) Alexander served as the Artistic Director of Elemental Theatre Collective in Providence, RI from 2006-2012 and has an MFA in acting from Trinity Rep Conservatory.

 

 

 

 

Mark Cohen* (Saul) is very excited to be returning to Gloucester Stage. Favorite recent roles include Marius in The Road to Mecca, Uncle Peck in How I Learned to Drive (Boston Center for American Performance), Salter in A Number (Whistler in the Dark), and Watson in The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Brown Summer Rep Season 2015). He also appeared in Inmotion Theatre’s The Journey, and with many other local theatres, including Israeli Stage, Boston Playwright’s Theatre, and Sleeping Weazel. Mark is the solo performer in Abuela Luna’s Emmy-nominated film Shakespeare in the Shadows currently airing on PBS stations nationwide. He has been home-based on the fulltime faculty at Boston University for 12 years.  He is a proud longstanding member of Actor’s Equity Association.

 

 

Marya Lowry* (Mom) is delighted to return to GSC having been seen in Lettice and Lovage (IRNE Nomination Best Supporting Actress and The New Electric Ballroom (Elliot Norton Award Best Ensemble). Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Julius Caesar (Brutus), The Tempest (Prospero); Also: The Cherry Orchard, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Duchess of Malfi, Macbeth (title role), Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Richard III). Local Theatre: Gamm Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and New Repertory Theatre. Featured Performer and Narrator: Boston Pops and the Handel & Haydn Society at Symphony Hall, Cantata Singers at Jordan Hall. International and Regional: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Barter Theatre, Riverside Shakespeare Company NYC, Luminato Festival, Toronto, Roy Hart International Arts Centre, France, Bulgarian singing tour with Divi Zheni. Teaching: Brandeis University. International Teaching includes Greece, France, Italy, Poland, Cyprus, United Kingdom, and Canada. Marya is a spiritual mentor to incarcerated women.

 

Josh Short (Austin Understudy) Gloucester Stage: debut Other theaters (select) The Caretaker, Straight White Men, Ui [oo-ey], Stupid Fucking BirdGruesome Playground InjuriesWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf  (Wilbury Theatre Group); Bad Money (Perishable Theater); The Taming of the Shrew, Radio Free Emerson (Gamm Theatre).  Josh is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Wilbury Theatre Group in Providence, and the Founder of New England’s largest fringe theater festival, the Providence Fringe Festival; FRINGEPVD. In addition to his work as an actor and director, Josh has worked as an administrator with The LaJolla Playhouse, the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, and the Providence Black Repertory Company. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, he is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

 

Writer – Sam Shepard
Director – Joe Short*
Scenic Design – Jon Savage†
Lighting Design – Marcella Barbeau
Costume Design – Miranda Giurleo
Props Design – Emily Hartig
Sound Design – David Reiffel
Stage Manager – Julia Fioravanti*
Fight Director – Robert Walsh

*denotes Actor’s Equity
†denotes United Scenic Artists

True West is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.