Ensemble Theater Company Presents Sam Shepard's
Gothic Comedy: Buried Child.

(Santa Barbara, CA) Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara presents Sam Shepard's Buried Child, an American masterpiece by one of the most successful counter-culture playwrights of our generation. This darkly comic tale of a Midwestern family with a terrible secret achieved national recognition as an instant classic, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 and garnering outstanding critical acclaim. Like many of Shepard's plays, Buried Child is characterized by a poetic sensibility and offbeat sense of humor, as well as a startling imagery that conjures up the decline of the great American West. This production will run from January 29 to February 22, 2009. Opening night is Saturday, January 31, 2009.

When Vince returns with his girlfriend, Shelly, to his boyhood home in Illinois, his family does not seem to recognize him. Meanwhile, the family's farmland, barren for so many years, starts sprouting corn. All is not right in this Norman Rockwell landscape. This macabre look at an American Midwestern family is charged with puzzling contradictions.

"When I first saw Buried Child, as a teenager, I was blown away," said ETC's Executive Artistic Director and the director of this show, Jonathan Fox. "The play left me unsettled, and completely mesmerized. I loved its sense of mystery. The play may be more accessible to today's audiences, but no less funny and riveting."

Buried Child premiered in 1978, when it became the first Off-Off Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize. In 1995, Shepard reworked the play for a Broadway production, where it was nominated for five Tony Awards. It is the new version that ETC is presenting.

Sam Shepard is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, director of stage and screen. He has written over 30 plays, including True West, Fool for Live and Simpatico, and is the author of several books of short stories, essay and memoirs. As a film actor, he is perhaps best know for his portrayal of legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.

For Buried Child, ETC has assembled an outstanding cast of seasoned theatrical performers. The patriarch of the family, Dodge, is played by returning actor Leonard Kelly-Young, last seen on ETC's stage in The Memory of Water (2006). He has performed off-Broadway and on the west coast at such renowned theatres as the Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe Theatre, A Noise Within and Rubicon Theatre Company. The matriarch of this strange Midwestern clan, Halie, is played by Anne Gee Byrd, who has appeared at the Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Geffen Playhouse and A.C.T. in San Francisco, as well as on television in episodes of Monk, Cold Case, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Practice, Beverly Hills 90210, JAG and ER. Geoffrey Lower, who plays Tilden, the deeply disturbed eldest son, is making his return to ETC, having played Jerry in the 2006 production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. His television work includes six seasons in the long-running role of Rev. Timothy Johnson in Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, as well as N.C.I.S, JAG, Friends and NYPD Blues. Louis Lotorto will play Bradley, Tilden's brother. Lotorto toured in the Royal National Theatre production of An Enemy of the People with Ian McKellen and has performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, A Noise Within and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Graham Miller plays the prodigal son Vince, whom no one seems to remember when he arrives home after a six year hiatus. Trained and educated in London, Miller has worked in Chicago, Indianapolis and California, most recently at South Cost Repertory and Pasadena Playhouse, with guest appearances on television in The O.C., Las Vegas and Nip/Tuck. Playing Vince's girlfriend, Shelly, is Kate Steele, who played Sybil in the national tour of Noël Coward's Private Lives, as well as productions at LA Theatreworks, Pasadena Playhouse and The Old Globe Theatre. Rounding out the cast as an ineffectual and bumbling minister is Santa Barbara-based actor Lee Goncharoff, last seen on the Ensemble stage in Our Country's Good (1994).

Buried Child is made possible through the generosity of Léni Fé Bland, Gelson's Market, Santa Barbara Foundation, and the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.

Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara was founded in 1979 and is housed at the intimate Alhecama Theatre located in the historic Presidio District in downtown Santa Barbara at 914 Santa Barbara Street. Now in its 29th season, ETC is Santa Barbara's longest running, most award-winning professional resident theatre company. Under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, the 2008-09 season continues with In the Continuum by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter (3/26/09 - 4/19/09) and The Scene by Theresa Rebeck (5/28/09 - 6/21/09).

Performances run Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00 pm. Single tickets for Buried Child range from $29.00 to $42.00. Discounts available for seniors and students. Low-cost preview performances are Thursday and Friday, January 29 & 30, 2009. Subscriptions, single tickets and group tickets are available through the Ensemble Theatre Box Office at (805) 965-5400 or online at www.ensembletheatre.com.

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Calendar Listing — STAGE

Production:
Buried Child by Sam Shepard

Dates:
Thursday, January 29 through Sunday, February 22, 2009
Opening Night Saturday, January 31 at 8:00 pm

Schedule:
Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 pm.
and Sundays at 2:00 & 7:00 pm.
(no evening shows Sunday, February 1, 2009)

Producer:
Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) of Santa Barbara.
Jonathan Fox, Executive Artistic Director

Director:
Jonathan Fox, Executive Artistic Director

Where:
Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara
at the Alhecama Theatre
914 Santa Barbara Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Admission:
$29.00 – $42.00. Discounts are available to seniors, students and groups of 10 or more.

Tickets:
For reservations and information call the Ensemble
Box Office at (805) 965-5400. VISA/MC.
Box office hours are: Performance days 1:00 pm. to curtain,
non-performance days 1:00 pm. to 5:00 pm. Group Sales: (805) 965-5400.

Description:
Sam Shepard's classic American masterpiece Buried Child winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize. All is not right in the Norman Rockwell landscape. A macabre look at an American Midwestern family and a dark comic portrait of the disintegrating American dream.

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