American Repertory Theater to Stage New Play Nice Fish

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Diane Quinn, is pleased to present the new American play Nice Fish, conceived, written, and adapted by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, and directed by Claire van Kampen.

Performance dates are:

January 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29,30, February 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 @ 7:30PM

January 23, 24, 27, 30, 31, February 3, 6, 7 @ 2:00PM

Press opening: Saturday, January 23 and Sunday, January 24 at 2PM. Press invitations will be sent out in early January.

Open captioned performances: Thursday, January 28 @ 7:30PM & Sunday, January 31 @ 2:00PM

Audio described performances: Thursday, February 4 @ 7:30 PM & Sunday, February 7 @ 2:00 PM

Ticket prices from $25.00, now on sale by phone at 617.547.8300, at Ticket Services, or AmericanRepertoryTheater.org

On a lake in frozen Minnesota, the ice is beginning to creak and groan. It's the end of the fishing season, and two men are out on the ice one last time, angling for answers to life's larger questions. A play woven together from the acclaimed prose poems of Luis Jenkins, Nice Fish reflects nature with a wry surreality. As Jenkins writes, they "are after something big, something down there that is pure need, something that, had it the wherewithal, would swallow them whole.

The company includes (in order of appearance) Louis Jenkins as Wayne, Jim Lichtscheidl as Eric, Mark Rylance as Ron, Bob Davis as the DNR Officer, and Kayli Carter as Flo. Scenic design is by Todd Rosenthal, costume design by Ilona Somogyi, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, and sound design by Scott Edwards.

About the creative team and cast:

Louis Jenkins has been writing and publishing poetry for more than 50 years and most of this poetry was written in Duluth, Minnesota, Mr. Jenkins home for the last 45 years. His most recent books are Tin Flag: New and Selected Prose Poems and Before You Know It: Prose Poems 1970-2005 both published by Will o' the Wisp Books.

Mark Rylance returns to the A.R.T. where he played the title role of Hamlet and Treplev in The Seagull in 1991. In addition to the A.R.T. he played Hamlet over 400 times in his life, in high school at age 16, at The RSC at age 28, and at The Globe at age 40. His most recent credit is King Philippe V in Farinelli and the King by Claire van Kampen at London's West, first seen earlier last year at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe. Other recent theatre includes Ron in Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis in 2013; Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Richard III at Shakespeare's Globe, Apollo Theatre, West End and the Belasco Theatre on Broadway in 2013; and Johnny "Rooster" Byron in Jerusalem directed by Ian Rickson at the Royal Court, The Apollo, West End and The Music Box, Broadway in 2011. Other West End/Broadway performances have been Valere in La Bête, and Robert in Boeing Boeing. In 2007, he wrote his first play, I Am Shakespeare, which premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Matthew Warchus, published in 2012 by Nick Hern Books. He has appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theater, the Bush, The Tricycle, Shared Experience, TFANA (New York), and for his own companies, The London Theatre of Imagination (LTI) and Phoebus Cart. He was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (1996-2006) and during his career has acted in over 50 productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Rylance's most recent film roles include Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies and the title role of his upcoming BFG; Cromwell in the mini-series Wolf Hal on PBS and the BBC; Cox in The Gunman, and the documentary We Are Many directed by Amir Amirani. He is heard as Flop in Bing Bunny for the BBC. Other film and television work includes Days and Nights (Palm Springs International Film Festival 2014) directed by Christian Camargo, produced by Juliet Rylance; Anonymous, The Government Inspector; The Grass Arena; Love Lies Bleeding; Intimacy; Angels and Insects, Nocturne, and Institute Benjamenta by the Brothers Quay. He trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1978-1980) under Hugh Cruttwell, and is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall in London; trustee of The Shakespearean Authorship Trust; an ambassador of SURVIVAL the movement for tribal peoples; and a patron of PEACE DIRECT, working for non-violent resolution of conflict.

Claire van Kampen was composer and music director of the A.R.T. productions of Hamlet and The Seagull in 1991. She began her theatre career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986, followed by work at the Royal National Theatre in 1987, becoming the first woman to be a musical director with either company. She has subsequently developed an international career as a composer/performer, writing and playing for theatre, radio, television and film soundtracks and the concert hall. Since the opening of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London in1997 she was Mark Rylance's Associate Artistic Director, and the Founding Director of Theatre Music, creating both period and contemporary music for more than 35 of the Globe's productions. She is now a Senior Research Fellow and Associate for Early Modern Theatre music at the Globe. Other work includes music for La Bete on Broadway and the West End, Richard III and Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe/West End/Broadway; True West and Boeing-Boeing on Broadway; As You Like It at Theater for a New Audience/NYC. Her new play Farinelli and the King ran at the West End last fall and is to become a screenplay. Recent films featuring her music include Anonymous, Days and Nights, and the miniseries Wolf Hall (historical music arranger). She was given The Vero Nihil Verius Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon and the 2007 Sam Wanamaker Award for the founding work during the opening ten years at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Jim Lichtschiedl's credits include Tiny Kushner at Tricycle Theatre, London; The Miser, Berkeley Repertory, Alley Theater, LaJolla Playhouse, Theatre De La Jeune Lune; Santaland Diaries at Portland Center Stage; The 39 Steps at Arizona Theatre Company; Love's Labours Lost at Actors Theater of Louisville; and over 30 productions with the Guthrie Theater including Uncle Vanya, Peer Gynt, Side Man, Merrily We Roll Along, Arms and the Man, Clybourne Park and Nice Fish. Films include A Serious Man, Best Man Down, Factotum.

Bob Davis's credits include The Crucible, Othello, Nice Fish, and many more at the Guthrie Theater (26 seasons since 1987): the title role of Richard III at Ten Thousand Things Theater, Star Tribune Best Performance; Betrayal, Sylvia at Jungle Theater; Peter Pan, Children's Theatre; Sherlock Holmes, Park Square Theatre; The Foreigner, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres; Mixed Blood; New Classic; Actors Theatre of St. Paul; Cricket; Illusion; Pasadena Playhouse. TV/Film: Factotum, A Simple Plan, Trauma, and "Algo's FACTory." Awards: McKnight Fellowship, Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship.

Kayli Carter appeared in Machinal (Irene Ryan Nomination), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Spring Awakening at Savannah College of Art and Design; and in the workshop of The Aeneid. TV/Film: "Z" (Amazon, Dir. Tim Blake Nelson), "Rings" (Paramount, Dir. F. Javier Gutierrez). Performing Arts B.F.A. from Savanah College of Art and Design.

Originally commissioned and produced by The Guthrie Theater, Nice Fish will be performed at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY following the performances at the A.R.T.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work in Cambridge and beyond. The A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, who served as Artistic Director until 2002, when Robert Woodruff succeeded him. Diane Paulus began her tenure as Artistic Director in 2008. Under her leadership, the A.R.T. seeks to expand the boundaries of theater by programming events that immerse audiences in transformative theatrical experiences.

Throughout its history, the A.R.T. has been honored with many distinguished awards, including the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (2012), both of which Paulus directed; a Pulitzer Prize for Marsha Norman's 'Night, Mother (1983); a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; the Tony Award for Best Regional Theater; and numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards.

The A.R.T. collaborates with artists around the world to develop and create work in new ways. It is currently engaged in a number of multi-year projects, including a new collaboration with Harvard's Center for the Environment that will result in the development of new work over several years. Under Paulus's leadership, the A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has been an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, the A.R.T. catalyzes discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange among a wide range of academic departments, institutions, students, and faculty members, acting as a conduit between its community of artists and the university. A.R.T. artists also teach undergraduate courses in directing, dramatic literature, acting, voice, design, and dramaturgy. The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training, which is run in partnership with the Moscow Art Theater School, offers graduate-level training in acting, dramaturgy, and voice.

Dedicated to making great theater accessible, the A.R.T. actively engages more than 5,000 community members and local students annually in project-based partnerships, workshops, conversations with artists, and other enrichment activities both at the theater and across the Greater Boston area. The A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has become an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

Through all of these initiatives, the A.R.T. is dedicated to producing world-class performances in which the audience is central to the theatrical experience.

For further information, visit americanrepertorytheater.org.