Oscar Nominee Michael Shannon Headed for Our Town

Academy Award nominee and stage vet Michael Shannon will assume the role of the Stage Manager in the hit off-Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, beginning February 23. He is set to replace Stephen Kunken, who will depart on February 19. Our Town enters its second year at the Barrow Street Theatre on February 17, directed by David Cromer.

Shannon, an Oscar nominee for Revolutionary Road, has appeared off-Broadway in The Little Flower of East Orange and two plays by Tracy Letts, Bug (later reprising his performance in a feature film adaptation) and Killer Joe. At Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, he appeared in Letts’ Man from Nebraska, among other plays. Film credits include Pearl Harbor, Vanilla Sky and World Trade Center.

The cast of Our Town also includes Robert Beitzel as Howie Newsome, Susan Bennett as Mrs. Soames, Kati Brazda as Mrs. Webb, Will Brill as Joe Crowell, Nathan Dame as Sam Craig, Mark Hatton as Constable Warren, Jennifer Grace as Emily, Wilbur Edwin Henry as Professor Willard, Jake Horowitz as Wally Webb, Stephen Kunken as the ‘Stage Manager’, Ronete Levenson as Rebecca Gibbs, Ben Livingston as Doc Gibbs, David Manis as Editor Webb, Daniel Marcus as Simon Stimson, James McMenamin as George, Lori Myers as Mrs. Gibbs, Jay Russell as Joe Stoddard and Jason Yachanin as Si Crowell, with Elizabeth Audley, Dana Jacks, Kathleen Peirce, Keith Perry, and Mark Shock.

Tickets are now on sale for the off-Broadway production of Our Town through June 27, 2010.