Wanting it all, a father seeks to rebuild his relationship with his son and ex-wife after leaving them for 'the other man'. This hilarious, probing, irreverent musical is about contemporary family life, where things are not always what they seem to be.

A Lie of the Mind is the story of two families, one in California, the other in Montana, with the rapidly-diminishing American frontier in between. These families, interlocked in love and hatred, attempt to come to terms with their past through destruction and regeneration.

Few living playwrights have attained the stature that playwright/actor/director Sam Shepard has. His 40-some plays and his 20-year career have established him as one of the theatre’s most significant writers. A Lie of the Mind is considered to be perhaps the finest of his plays. It is a dark, mysterious, broad-reaching reverie about the love that binds man and woman, father and son. Jake and Beth are warring lovers—violence drives them apart and to their respective families, where they are again enveloped by the familial madness that spawned them. Comic, yet, intense, A Lie of the Mind evokes the primal force of love.

This production, to be staged by producing director Gregory A. Falls, marks the fourth time ACT will have presented Shepard’s work. Previous Shepard plays produced at ACT include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child (1980), Fool for Love (1984), and True West (1985).

The Diary of a Scoundrel is a comedic farce about a thorough-going rascal who decides to make his fortune through chicanery, deceit, bribery, flattery, crass opportunism, sex—whatever it takes to climb the social ladder. The play will be staged by ACT Resident Director Jeff Steitzer, who directed this same adaption last year at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Playwright Erik Brogger, who adapted Alexander Ostr0vsky’s 19th century Russian farce for the Berkeley Rep, will be in Seattle on a “rehearsal observership” (sponsored by Theatre Communications Group) and will work with director Steitzer on this production. “While directing the Berkeley Rep production,” said Steitzer, “it was hard not to think of Seattle actors in the roles…and now I’ll have a chance to see those fantasies come true. Erik and I hope to shape the play to the remarkable talents of our local comedians.” Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886) was Russia’s most popular and prolific dramatist of the 19th century, with over 80 plays to his credit, including The Forest, seen at The Seattle Rep last year. And although The Diary of a Scoundrel was written in 1868, its satire rings true today.

From the author of Beyond Therapy and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Christopher Durang's latest absurdist comedy, The Marriage of Bette 81 Boo, deftly dissects the family, the foundations of marriage, and the sanctity of the church. Through the eyes of Matt, the first-born son of Bette and Boo Hudlocke, the playwright recounts the story of a baby boom marriage gone bust. The dreams of a young, idealistic couple, their perfect marriage, model children, and hopes for a bright future fall to the wayside when life intrudes. Durang's double-edged pen counters the humor of everyday life with the unrealistic dreams of a modern world.

An electrifying look at cutthroat, big-city real estate salesmen and the underside of the American dream for riches and success, with the added spice of a "whodunnit” detective story. From the author of The Water Engine (ACT 1979), American Buffalo and Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

The Tony Award-winning sequel to Brighton Beach Memoirs. Eugene's secret memoirs continue as he heads off in 1943 to basic training and first love in the sweltering heat and swamps of Biloxi, Mississippi.