Photo: Steven Busken

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to present the world premiere of Melissa James Gibson’s WHAT RYHMES WITH AMERICA, starring Atlantic ensemble member Chris Bauer leading a cast featuring Aimee Carrero, Seana Kofoed and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, directed by Daniel Aukin.

WHAT RHYMES WITH AMERICA will begin previews Monday, November 19; officially open Wednesday, December 12; and play a limited engagement through Sunday, December 30, 2012 Off-Broadway at Atlantic’s main stage Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20^th Street).

A father (Bauer) and his teenage daughter (Carrero) stand on either side of a closed door.  Life is unraveling for him, and is entirely uncertain for her. So begins Melissa James Gibson’s poignant, funny new play about estrangement and the partially examined life.

Atlantic ensemble member Chris Bauer stars as “Detective Andy Bellefleur” in HBO’s hit series “True Blood” and is known for his role as union boss “Frank Sobotka” on the long running HBO series “The Wire.” He returns to Atlantic following starring in Jezz Butterworth’s hit plays The Night Heron, Parlour Song and Mojo. He made his Broadway debut in A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.

Aimee Carrero makes her Off Broadway and Atlantic debut. She currently stars on the Cartoon Network live-action series “Level Up,” and has appeared on the Disney series “Hannah Montana” and in the Lifetime movie “Blue Lagoon: The Awakening.” Seana Kofoed last appeared on the Atlantic stage in The Bald Soprano and has appeared on Broadway in Proof and Night Must Fall.Da’Vine Joy Randolph received a 2012 Tony Award^® nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her Broadway debut performance in Ghost.

Playwright Melissa James Gibson makes her Atlantic Theater Company debut following her acclaimed Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist play This playing Off-Broadway. She received an Obie Award for her play [sic], and the prestigious 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award for her body of work. Gibson wrote the screenplay for the Untitled Christmas Tree Project, starring Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd, and is currently a staff writer on the new FX show “The Americans.”

Director Daniel Aukin recently staged Joshua Harmon’s play Bad Jews and Sam Shepard’s Heartless Off-Broadway and 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog at Lincoln Center. This production marks his fifth collaboration with Gibson, after staging her plays This, Current Nobody, [sic] and Suitcase.