Allentown Public Theatre goes east for "True West."

"It's a Valley-wide thing, with Lehigh, Moravian, Muhlenberg, Touchstone and Pines," says Joshua Neth, Allentown Public Theatre artistic director who stars in "True West," opening Feb. 19 and continuing Thursdays - Sundays through March 1 at Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem.

"I think it's going to be memorable," says Neth, who plays one of the leads, Lee, a ruffian, who battles with his brother, Austin (Jason Roth), a screenwriter, in the two-act sibling rivalry drama.

It might seem odd that Allentown Public Theatre (APT), which lacks a permanent venue, is presenting a show in Bethlehem, but it's not the first time.

While "True West" is APT's first production at Touchstone, it's the second in Bethlehem. The previous one was at the Charles A. Brown IceHouse.

Neth has been in Touchstone's "Christmas City Follies" the past two seasons. He's in Touchstone's April production, "Journey From The East - Year Two." Neth's in the improv group, The Associated Mess, which performs at ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, Bethlehem.

Neth asked Jim Peck, Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance professor of theater, to direct "True West."

Peck directed Neth as Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar" and Bedevere in "Spamalot," both at Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre.

It's the first time Peck has directed a Shepard play and one of the few times he's directed in the Lehigh Valley apart from the Muhlenberg theater stage. He directed "Bloody Poetry" at Theatre Outlet years ago and "Alice In Wonderland" last year at Pennsylvania Youth Theatre.

"I grew up in the West, so I feel connected to his [Shepard's] world, said Peck, a Casper, Wyo. native, whose 100-year-old grandfather lives in Cheyenne, Wyo.

"One of the things the play is about is the erasure of the idea of the Old West and its replacement by the suburbs and suburban sprawl. "I grew up in that house," Peck says of the setting for "True West."

"Out my front door was any suburb in America. And out my back door was praire, mountains, deer and rattlesnakes."

The myth of the Marlboro Man looms large over "True West." Says Peck:

"It's about U.S. masculinity and kind of the myth of the rugged individualist cowboy and the way that lives inside and takes possession of even a man like Austin, who is so seemingly in control of himself."

Peck sees a parallel between the world of Shepard and that of Shakespeare:

"It's not verse in the way that Shakespeare is verse, but there's a poetry, a strongly lyrical structure to the writing. It's highly-crafted. And it's about national mythology.

"Shakespeare was writing the national mytholoogy of Elizabethan England. Some people feel he was just a flag-waving patriot. And you could say the same of Shepard. Is he celebrating myths or is he ripping it apart? It's a little bit of both."

Of Neth and Roth, Peck observes, "Rehearsals do have the feeling of brotherly love and competition. There's a feeling in the room that you really can believe these guys are siblings and have that kind of history.

"In that way I think of it as a Cain and Abel play. It starts out that it's clear who's Cain and who's Abel and by the end you sense that there's a lot of Abel and a lot of Cain in each," says Peck.

Brotherly love turns to brotherly hate in "True West."

Says Neth, "One of the major themes in the play is how that switch flips and how quickly the love that you feel for someone and the expectations that you can feel can become indignation and that really can become a venonmous hatred."

Neth's introduction to Shepard was a scene he chose from "True West" for acting class at Northern Kentucky University where he was in the theater program. He was 19.

"It's looked at as a kind of American realism. And it is that on the surface. But when you get into it, there are layers of this play that are surreal and abstract and melodramatic.

"I always knew that I wanted to come back to it ['True West']. It was a play that was on my mind for 20 years," says Neth.

That "True West" rehearsal rapport noted by Peck was born of the collaboration and friendship of Neth and Roth.

Neth directed Roth in the APT production of "The Atheist." They were in an APT staged reading of "The Glass Menagerie."

"We have a pretty close relationship," Neth says of himself and Roth. "It was a benefit to us, going into the process, that we weren't strangers."

Agreed Roth, "We had a nomenclature that we kind of clicked into right away, and we're friends."

Roth also did scene work on Shepard plays at The Trinity Rep Conservatory, where he received a Masters, following undergraduate work at Towson University and West Chester University, where he received a BA in theater.

Says Roth of Shepard's plays, "On top of what's going on in the scene in the realistic world there's an unspoken subtext in a surreal world that's just as poignant."

Roth, who lived in New York City for 12 years, where his roles included one year on the daytime drama, "As The World Turns" and movies, including "He's Just Not That Into You," is an Allentown resident.

"I'm really excited about this production team," says Neth.

Fight choreographer is Michael Chin, who was doing workshops at Muhlenberg College. "He is one of 15 fight masters in the world," says Neth.

Christopher Shorr, Moravian College theater program director, and Jp Jordan, Touchstone Theatre artistic director, designed the set.

Emma Chong, Touchstone Theatre Ensemble member, is lighting designer.

Kristian Derek Ball, Lehigh University is composer- sound designer.

Stacey Yoder, Pines Dinner Theatre, is in charge of props and costumes;

Says Roth, "What I'm excited about for the arts in the Lehigh Valley is this sense of collaboration across the Valley: The idea that the arts need to come together. And I think we're doing that."

Tickets: touchstone.org, 610-867-1689