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. Press openings are Wednesday and Thursday, July 23 and 24 at 7 p.m. For tickets and information, visit ParamountAurora.com or call the Paramount Theatre box office, (630) 896-6666.
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).
True West set design courtesy Lauren M. Nichols
True West performance schedule
True West starts previews Wednesday, July 16. Two previews are Pay-What-You-Can: Thursday, July 17 at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 19 at 2 p.m. Press openings are Wednesday and Thursday, July 23 and 24 at 7 p.m. Performances run through August 31: Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
All Paramount BOLD Series productions are presented at the Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd., in downtown Aurora. Single tickets are $40-$55. Go to ParamountAurora.com or call (630) 896-6666 to purchase tickets, or visit the Paramount box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days. Content warning: some adult language and content.
Note: Paramount will offer an American Sign Language interpreted performance on Friday, August 29 at 8 p.m. Paramount also offers assistive listening devices free of charge. Check in at the box office before the show to request a listening device. If you require wheelchair, special seating or other assistance, please contact the box office in advance at (630) 896-6666 or boxoffice@paramountarts.com.
Paramount’s 2025-26 BOLD Series is sponsored by Old National Bank.
True West costume designs by Stephanie Cluggish
Biographies
Samuel Shepard Rogers III (1943–2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century. New York magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation." His plays are known for their bleak, poetic, surrealist elements, black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society. His style evolved from the absurdism of his early off-off-Broadway work to the realism of later plays like Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child (winner, Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and True West. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. Shepard was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti inaugurated Paramount’s Broadway Series with President and CEO Tim Rater in fall 2011 with the critically acclaimed My Fair Lady and a subscriber base of 12,500 patrons. In 2015, Paramount’s Broadway Series became Jeff Award eligible. Since then, Paramount has garnered 124 nominations with 31 wins, including three consecutive Best Large Musical awards for Les Misérables, West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. Corti helmed all three, and won Best Director for two of them, Les Misérables and Sweeney Todd. Corti also directed Paramount’s Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, RENT, The Who’s Tommy, Oklahoma!, Mamma Mia!, Million Dollar Quartet, Once, The Producers, Newsies, Groundhog Day: The Musical, Next to Normal, The Full Monty, and co-directed Into the Woods, Fun Home, A Streetcar Named Desire, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Million Dollar Quartet at Paramount’s new Stolp Island Theatre. A Broadway veteran, he appeared in the original New York casts of Ragtime and Candide, joined the long running A Chorus Line, and toured nationally in Urinetown, Cabaret and Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Other highlights include being the only director to have two productions in the same year in the Chicago Tribune’s 2009 list of 10 Best Shows for Drury Lane’s Cabaret and Writers Theatre’s Oh, Coward! He remains the sole honoree to have won Jeff Awards as an actor (Marriott’s Grand Hotel), choreographer (Drury Lane’s Singin’ in the Rain) and director (Paramount’s Sweeney Todd and Les Misérables, Drury Lane’s Sweet Charity and Northlight’s Blues in the Night).
Jack Ball (Austin) made his Paramount debut in 2023 as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. Ball’s credits include The Book of Mormon (Broadway), Falsettos (Court), The Coast Starlight (Milwaukee Rep), Dunsinane (Chicago Shakespeare), Hit the Wall (Inconvenience) and Hansel and Gretel (Broadway Playhouse). He’s been seen on TV in Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Justice, Somebody, Somewhere and Sirens. Films include Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, Kill the Monsters, Room Six and What Rhymes with Magdalena.
Ben Page (Lee) returns to Paramount Theatre where he recently played Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire and participated earlier this year in Paramount’s Spark Lab staged reading of Blood of My Mother’s. He has also worked at Windy City Playhouse, Nebraska Rep, Rivendell Theatre, A Red Orchid, Jackalope and Shattered Globe.
Joshua L. Green (Saul Kimmer) is a Chicago-based stage and TV actor and is excited to return to Paramount’s Copley stage. Recent Paramount credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, Dreamgirls, and Sweat. Green earned his MFA at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Caron Buinis (Mom) has performed at Paramount in The Full Monty, The Wizard of Oz, Cabaret, Oklahoma! and The Music Man. She has also worked at Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire, Chicago Shakespeare, Porchlight Music Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Shattered Globe, and Timeline, and appeared on TV in NBC’s Chicago PD and Chicago Fire.
Up next in Paramount’s 2025-26 BOLD Series
After True West, Paramount presents two more thought-provoking shows as part of its 2025-26 Bold Series. Next is the Chicago premiere of the buzzy new play Covenant by York Walker, directed by Goodman Theatre’s Malkia Stampley (October 1–November 9, 2025), and the first area Equity staging of Ride the Cyclone since its debut in 2015, directed by Lauren Berman (March 18–May 24, 2026). Subscribe to Paramount’s three-play BOLD Series for little as $78.
Paramount's 2025-26 Broadway Series: Buy Two, Get Two Free
Across the street at Paramount Theatre, Paramount’s 14th Broadway Series boasts two highly anticipated Chicago-area premieres - Come from Away, directed by Trent Stork, (August 20–October 12, 2025) and Dear Evan Hansen, directed by Jessica Fisch (February 4–March 22, 2026). Add the most iconic holiday musical of all time, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, directed by Stephen Schellhardt (November 12, 2025–January 11, 2026), and the beloved 1940s World War II era musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, directed by Devon Hayakawa and Trent Stork (April 29-June 14, 2026), and that’s one enchanted season. Just as it has since it launched its first Broadway Series in 2011, Paramount still offers the same “Buy Two Shows, Get Two Shows Free” offer, with Broadway packages starting as low as $60.
Million Dollar Quartet is still rockin' at Paramount's new Stolp Island Theatre
That’s not all! Paramount’s immersive production of Million Dollar Quartet continues to rock in Paramount’s new Stolp Island Theatre, 5 E. Downer Place, Suite G in downtown Aurora. The critically acclaimed jukebox musical celebrating the music of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley has been extended a third time, through January 4, 2026. All seats remain just $65. Don’t wait, as performances continue to sell-out.
For subscriptions, tickets and information, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount Theatre box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days.
About Paramount Theatre
Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., is the center for performing arts in Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois. The beautiful, 1,843-seat theater, graced with a strong 1930s Art Deco influence and original Venetian décor, nationally known for its high-quality productions, superb acoustics and historic grandeur, has been downtown Aurora’s anchor attraction since 1931.
Since launching its own Broadway Series in 2011, Paramount has amassed more than 35,000 subscribers, making it the largest subscription house in the U.S.
For over 50 years, the Joseph Jefferson Awards has recognized excellence in Chicago area theater. Paramount has been honored to earn 124 Jeff nominations and 31 wins over the last eight years of eligibility, including six Jeff Awards in 2022 for Kinky Boots, including Best Musical-Large, Paramount’s fourth win in that category following Sweeney Todd (2017), West Side Story (2016) and Les Misérables (2015).
Paramount Theatre is one of five live performance venues overseen by the Aurora Civic Center Authority (ACCA) in downtown Aurora. ACCA also programs and manages the 165-seat Copley Theatre, home to Paramount’s BOLD Series, at 8 E. Galena in the North Island Center; Stolp Island Theatre, now open at 5 E. Downer Place, Suite G, with a wildly acclaimed immersive production of Million Dollar Quartet, extended through January 4, 2026; RiverEdge Park, 360 N. Broadway, downtown Aurora’s outdoor summer concert venue and home to Christkindlmarket Aurora; and the Paramount School of the Arts.
Paramount Theatre continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Tim Rater, President and CEO, Aurora Civic Center Authority; Jim Corti, Artistic Director, Paramount Theatre; a dedicated Board of Trustees and a devoted staff of live theater and music professionals.
For the latest updates, visit ParamountAurora.com or follow @paramountaurora on Facebook and Instagram, and Paramount Theatre on LinkedIn.