Sam Shepard's TRUE WEST Will Kick Off Paramount's Fourth BOLD Series

Sibling rivalry collides with the American dream in Sam Shepard's American classic True West, the hot start to Paramount Theatre's fourth BOLD Series.

Performances are July 16-August 31, 2025, in Paramount's intimate Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora. 

Nominated for four Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, True West made Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre a household name in the early 1980s. More than 40 years later, Shepard's explosive examination of masculinity, family roles and the American way of life remains raw, gritty and as powerful as ever.

True West is set in a home 40 miles east of L.A., where Austin, a screenwriter, just wants to finish his script for the Hollywood producer ready to buy it. One problem: Austin's estranged brother, Lee, a thief living off the grid in the desert, just popped for a visit. After five years apart, Austin and Lee discover the only thing they have in common is a sense of cutthroat ambition, no matter who stands in the way. As conflict, contradictions and chaos come to full boil between the two, nerves and family ties fray, things go from tense to savage, and the tables turn for them both.

Artistic Director Jim Corti directs Paramount's True West, one of Sam Shepard's seminal works. The cast features Paramount veterans including Jack Ball as Austin, last seen at Paramount as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. Ben Page, Mitch in Paramount's A Streetcar Named Desire, plays Lee. Joshua L. Green, Steve in A Streetcar Named Desire, is Saul Kimmer. Caron Buinis, Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, plays Mom.

 

True West premiered in 1980 at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, where Shepard was a resident playwright. It was produced Off-Broadway that same year at The Public Theatre starring Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle. Soon after, it ran at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, famously featuring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, and transferred off-Broadway to the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1982. Steppenwolf's production aired in 1984 on American Playhouse on PBS, where it gained a national audience. In 2000, True West debuted on Broadway with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, earning four Tony nominations including Best Play. It has since been revived multiple times on the West End, on TV starring Bruce Willis, and on Broadway in 2018 with Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano.

 

For Paramount's BOLD Series revival, the True West Production Team includes Lauren M. Nichols, scenic designer; Stephanie Cluggish, Costume Designer; Cat Wilson, lighting designer; Forrest Gregor, sound designer; Ivy Thomas, properties designer; John Tovar, fight and intimacy director; Creg Sclavi, associate director; Mary Zanger, stage manager; and Bridget Kearbey, assistant stage manager. Understudies include Vic Kuligoski (Austin) and Joe Edward Metcalfe (Lee).

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