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A Play is a Poem
By Ethan Coen
Directed by Neil Pepe
Atlantic Stage 2
Postponed until further notice
If the audience laughs, it’s a comedy. If they nod with new understanding, it’s a drama. If they laugh and nod but can’t say why it’s funny or what they’ve understood, it might be A Play is a Poem, the new collection of one-acts by Academy Award winner Ethan Coen.
More Info
The hillbilly hollows of Appalachia, the executive suites of Hollywood, a New York tenement apartment, a magnolia-scented gazebo in Natchez, Mississippi—an eccentric look at life across America directed by Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe.
Please note: The status of the remainder of our 2019/2020 season remains unclear at this time. A Play is a Poem was scheduled to begin performances on May 14, but it has become clear that it will be delayed. However, given the ever-changing circumstances and guidelines, we are not certain how long that delay will last. As soon as we have determined when it is safe to open the show, we will contact all ticket holders and make arrangements for ticket exchanges, donations, etc. In the meantime, we thank you for your patience and grace; it is much appreciated.
In association with Center Theatre Group.
A Play is a Poem is made possible, in part, by leadership support from The Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater.
“Sulfuric, satanic wit infuses Coen’s work.”
The New York Times

Ro Boddie
RO BODDIE is thrilled to be making his Atlantic Theater Company debut. Off-Broadway credits: Socrates (The Public Theater), Appomattox (Summer Shorts at 59E59 Theaters). Regional credits: Blueprints to Freedom (La Jolla Playhouse); Skeleton Crew tour (Old Globe); The Mountaintop (Cleveland Playhouse); The Whipping Man (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Baltimore Centerstage); Dirt, The Three Sisters, No Sisters (Studio Theatre); Master Harold and the Boys (Round House Theatre); Every Brilliant Thing, Seven Guitars, King Hedley II (Cygnet Theatre). TV credits: “The Good Wife,” “Person of Interest,” “Elementary,” “Unforgettable.” Awards: San Diego Critics Circle Award. Education: University of the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Max Casella
MAX CASELLA. This is the third time Max has worked with Ethan Coen—previously appearing in Relatively Speaking on Broadway and Inside Llewyn Davis. Other film credits include Late Night, Night Comes On, Live by Night, Jackie, Wonder Wheel, Blue Jasmine, Old Boy, Killing Them Softly, Revolutionary Road, Analyze This, Ed Wood, Newsies, and The Rhythm Section (upcoming, directed by Reed Morano). Currently recurring on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and the recent season of “Ray Donovan.” Other television credits include “Vinyl” (series regular), “Boardwalk Empire” (recurring), “The Sopranos” (five seasons), and Vinnie Delpino on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” Broadway: Timon in the original cast of The Lion King (multiple award noms). Other theatre credits include Troilus and Cressida, Timon Of Athens (Public Theater); Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Endgame (BAM); and Simon McBurney’s adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Micaela Diamond
MICAELA DIAMOND made her Broadway debut as Babe—the youngest Cher—in The Cher Show, a role she auditioned for just weeks after graduating high school. She made her television debut in NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” appearing in the ensemble and understudying for Sara Bareilles. Diamond grew up in New York City and is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York. Favorite roles include Louise in Gypsy and Sally Bowles in Cabaret. @micaela_diamond

Peter Jacobson
PETER JACOBSON. Atlantic Theater Company: The Water Engine and Once in a Lifetime. Off-Broadway: original New York productions of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile; Four Dogs and a Bone (John Patrick Shanley dir.); The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged), Taming of the Shrew, and Comedy of Errors (Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park); Obie Award-winning June Moon, and Waiting for Lefty. TV: Dr. Taub on “House,” Proxy Snyder on “Colony,” and recurring roles on “Fear the Walking Dead,” “NCIS: L.A.,” “The Americans,” “Ray Donovan,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and “Law & Order,” as well as “Billions,” “Paterno,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Genius,” “Madam Secretary,” and “Chicago PD.” Film: White House Down, Good Night and Good Luck, and upcoming The Goldfinch, Joyful, Before You Know It, and Violet. Peter is from Chicago.

Nellie McKay
NELLIE McKAY has released seven critically-acclaimed albums, with a new EP, “Bagatelles,” coming in October. Broadway Theatre World Award for Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, co-created/starred in Off-Broadway’s Old Hats, created musical biographies of Barbara Graham, Rachel Carson, Joan Rivers, and Billy Tipton (“Best Concerts of the Year,” The New York Times). Film roles in P.S. I Love You and Downtown Express, music for Rumor Has It, Monster-In-Law, Last Holiday, Gasland, and Private Life. TV appearances on “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Conan,” “Ferguson,” “The View,” and “The Jimmy Dore Show.” Music heard on “Mad Men,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Weeds,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “NCIS,” “Nurse Jackie.” A recipient of PETA’s Humanitarian Award for dedication to animal rights, and an annoyingly vocal critic of endless war, capitalism, and the two-party system that sustains it.

Saul Rubinek
SAUL RUBINEK started his career dedicated to the development of over 50 Canadian plays. Saul’s work in television and features spans four decades including “Frasier,” “Warehouse 13,” upcoming Amazon series “Hunters” with Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Unforgiven, Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino’s True Romance, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. His play Terrible Advice (starring Scott Bakula and Sharon Horgan) premiered in London in 2011. Saul directed Paramount/Showtime’s Club Land (starring Steven Weber and Alan Alda), Jerry and Tom (Sundance 1998, starring Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell), and the award-winning indie Cruel But Necessary—the latter two produced by his wife and partner Elinor Reid. Saul also produced an award-winning documentary, So Many Miracles, chronicling his parents’ reunion with the people who saved their lives during the Holocaust.

Miriam Silverman
MIRIAM SILVERMAN. Broadway: Junk. Off-Broadway: Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Plano (Clubbed Thumb); Finks (Drama Desk nomination; EST); Tiny Beautiful Things, Hamlet (The Public); A Delicate Ship (Playwrights Realm); You Got Older (Page 73); Everything You Touch (Rattlestick); The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull). Regional: Mary Jane, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Jeff nom.; Goodman); Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Dog in the Manger (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Peer Gynt (Guthrie Theatre); Awake and Sing! (Arena Stage). Film: Bad Education (Upcoming), Sand Mama, Better Days Ahead. TV: “The Village,” “NOS4A2,” “Elementary,” “Pan Am,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Education: BA and MFA, Brown University.

Joey Slotnick
JOEY SLOTNICK. Broadway: Junk, The Front Page, Big Knife. Off-Broadway: Dying For It, The New York Idea, Offices, Happy Hour, Almost An Evening (Atlantic Theater Company). Regional: A Play is A Poem (Mark Taper Forum); Chapter Two (Bucks County Playhouse); Animal Crackers (Williamstown, The Goodman); Our Town, Wants & Needs, Great Men of Science (Lookingglass); Romance (Bay Street); Film: Pirates of Silicon Valley, The Cobbler, Humor Me, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Hollow Man, Twister. Television: “Search Party,” “Intelligence,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Good Wife,” “The Goldbergs,” “The Office,” “Boston Public,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Single Guy.”

Sam Vartholomeos
SAM VARTHOLOMEOS appeared in the world premiere of A Play is a Poem at Center Theatre Group. Born and raised in Queens, his credits include John Patrick Shanley’s Prodigal Son at MTC, “Law & Order: SVU”, “Bull”, “The Following”, “Star Trek: Discovery”, and the indie Truth Slash Fiction. Sam is a proud graduate of La Guardia H.S. of Music, Art and Performing Arts, and holds degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from the City College of New York.

CJ Wilson
CJ WILSON. Broadway: Bronx Bombers, The Big Knife, Festen, Henry IV, The Best Man. Off-Broadway: On the Shore of the Wide World, Hold on to Me Darling (Lucille Lortel nom.), Dying for It, Our New Girl, Offices, The Voysey Inheritance (Atlantic Theater); Medieval Play, The Lady from Dubuque (Signature); Bronx Bombers, Happy Now? (Lucille Lortel nom., Primary Stages); All-American (LCT3). Regional: Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Wilma. Film: Manchester by the Sea, A Vigilante, Demolition, Easy Living, The Intern. Upcoming: Irresistible. Television: “The Blacklist,” “Quantico,” “Bull,” “Elementary,” “The Looming Tower,” “The Sinner,” “Homeland,” “The Characters,” “House of Cards,” “The Sound of Music Live!,” “The Following,” “The Good Wife,” “Blue Bloods,” “Onion Sportsdome,” “The Americans,” “Brotherhood,” “Law & Order,” “L&O: SVU,” “L&O: CI,” “Without a Trace.” Fox Fellow.

Ethan Coen
Playwright
Ethan Coen has written three previous evenings of one acts, “Almost an Evening,” “Offices,” and “Happy Hour,” all directed by Neil Pepe at Atlantic Theater Company. His full-length play Women or Nothing was directed by David Cromer, also at Atlantic, and he contributed a play to Relatively Speaking, a Broadway trio of short comedies whose other contributors were Woody Allen and Elaine May. Coen has written a collection of stories, “Gates of Eden,” and two collections of poems, “The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way” and “The Day the World Ends.” He has written, produced and directed films with his brother Joel for 35 years.

Neil Pepe
Director
Neil’s recent directing credits include Juno and the Paycock at Irish Repertory Theatre, the New York premiere of Simon Stephens’ On the Shore of the Wide World, and the world premieres of George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta, Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On To Me Darling and David Mamet’s The Penitent, all at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Broadway credits include the musical Hands on a Hardbody; the acclaimed revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow; and A Life in the Theatre. Off-Broadway credits at Atlantic Theater Company include John Guare’s 3 Kinds of Exile; Moira Buffini’s Dying For It; Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, Mojo and The Night Heron; Ethan Coen’s Happy Hour, Offices and Almost an Evening; Harold Pinter’s Celebration and The Room; Adam Rapp’s Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling; Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange; Hilary Bell’s Wolf Lullaby; David Pittu’s What’s That Smell?; Howard Korder’s Sea of Tranquility; Edwin Sanchez’ Clean; Quincy Long’s Shaker Heights. Additional off-Broadway credits include David Mamet’s American Buffalo (Donmar Warehouse, Atlantic Theater Company); Romance, Keep Your Pantheon and School (Center Theatre Group, Atlantic Theater Company); Zinnie Harris’ Further than the Furthest Thing (Manhattan Theatre Club); Jessica Goldberg’s Refuge (Playwrights Horizons); Tom Donaghy’s The Beginning of August (South Coast Repertory, Atlantic Theater Company); Frank Gilroy’s The Subject Was Roses with Martin Sheen (Center Theatre Group); and Eric Bogosian’s Red Angel (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Neil has been the Artistic Director of the award-winning off-Broadway company, Atlantic Theater Company, since 1992.