Second Stage Theatre has announced that Tony winner Reed Birney will star in Man from Nebraska. The Tracy Letts play is set to have its New York premiere at the Off-Broadway theatre in January, with direction by David Cromer.
Birney, who currently stars on Broadway in the acclaimed production of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, will take on the leading role of Ken Carpenter in Man from Nebraska. Performances are slated for late January 2017, with an opening night yet to be announced.
In Letts’ Pulitzer Prize finalist, a middle-aged Nebraskan man named Ken Carpenter suddenly finds he has lost his faith—prompting him to go on a wild adventure. “Along the way he encounters a world vastly different from his own, filled with chance meetings and romantic encounters that shake him to the core,” describe production notes from Second Stage. “From the playwright of August: Osage County, comes a fascinating exploration into what happens when we lose our belief system and the characters that come into our lives on the path to a meaningful existence.”
“Reed Birney has been part of the Second Stage family for many years, having appeared in three of our productions, most recently in The Family of Mann in 1993,” says Second Stage Theatre artistic director Carole Rothman in a statement. “I am thrilled to welcome him back, and to have him collaborate with such esteemed artists as Tracy Letts and David Cromer on this thought-provoking and completely riveting play.”
Subscriptions for Second Stage Theatre’s 2016-17 season are available by calling the Second Stage Box Office at (212) 246-4422 or visiting 2ST.com. All productions are staged at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theatre, located at 305 West 43rd Street, New York.
