Photo: Playwright David Rabe and The Gift’s Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton

The Gift Theatre announced today that Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe has joined the ensemble. Rabe received a Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 for Sticks and Bones and also received Tony Award nominations for Best Play in 1974 for In the Boom Boom Room, 1977’s Streamers and 1985’s Hurlyburly. His critically acclaimed play Good for Otto received its world premiere at The Gift Theatre in 2015.

“Working with The Gift on Good for Otto, holed up in a hotel, pouring over text, and forging many more rewrites than I’d anticipated, more than anything I’d ever written before on a play already in rehearsal, I went into our ongoing rehearsals every day knowing that the actors of the ensemble would be there ready to take an enthusiastic run under Mike’s simpatico eye at whatever I’d come up with,” says Rabe. “And then at a recent reading of a play whose scary, elusive tone escapes many actors, the ensemble members seated at the table with Mike and me found that tone within a few pages so effectively that their performances prompted such contagious laughter in all of us that it brought things to a halt more than once. It was some time ago that Mike invited me into the ensemble, but I’m hesitant to join anything other than unions or guilds. But a few days ago, remembering the reading, I thought: David, wake up. What are you waiting for? I wrote Mike to see if the door was still open. He checked with the cocker spaniel who he said makes these decisions, and I was told he approved. I’m ready to go.”

Gift’s Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton said “Today marks the culmination of over a decade of producing and collaborating with David Rabe and his stunning works of art. From the earliest days of The Gift, David’s ouevre — powerfully searching, poetic, magical, haunted, and yearning — has always felt absolutely central to the emotional and ethical heart of The Gift. He has been such an aesthetic north star for us for so long that we are humbled and vivified to call David Rabe an ensemble member of The Gift. We’re excited to get to work.”

The now 32-member ensemble also includes: Danny Ahlfeld, Maggie Andersen, Cyd Blakewell, Brittany Burch, Hillary Clemens, John Kelly Connolly, Paul D’Addario, Jenny Connell Davis, Brendan Donaldson, Will Eno, James D. Farruggio, Ed Flynn, Gabriel Franken, John Gawlik, Andrew Hinderaker, Marti Lyons, Alexandra Main, Laura Marks, Kenny Mihlfried, Benjamin Montague, Darci Nalepa, Keith Neagle, William Nedved, Lynda Newton, Sheldon Patinkin (in loving memory), Maureen Payne-Hahner, Mary Ann Thebus, Michael Patrick Thornton, Erica Weiss, Jay Worthington and Kyle Zornes.