Every day is opening night.

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Michael Jorgensen / Pete Sanders
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

MCC THEATER ANNOUNCES COMPLETE CASTING AND CREATIVE TEAM FOR NEW YORK PREMIERE OF “SEARED”

BY THERESA REBECK
DIRECTED BY MORITZ VON STUELPNAGEL

PREVIEWS BEGIN OCTOBER 3
OPENING NIGHT SET FOR OCTOBER 28 

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

New York, NY (August 26, 2019) – MCC Theater (Bob LuPone, Bernie Telsey, Will Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) announced today the complete casting and creative team for the New York premiere of Seared by Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Emmy Award nominee Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet), with direction by Tony Award^® nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel (MCC’s Hand to God).

The cast will star W. Tré Davis (“Valor”), four-time Tony Award^® nominee Raúl Esparza (Company), David Mason (Trick or Treat), and Krysta Rodriguez (Spring Awakening).

The creative team for Seared includes scenic design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Tilly Grimes, lighting design by David Weiner, sound design by Palmer Hefferan, and casting by Telsey + Company / Adam Caldwell, CSA, Will Cantler, CSA, Karyn Casl, CSA. The Production Stage Manager is Rachel Gross.
Seared begins performances on Thursday, October 3, 2019 in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space (511 West 52^nd Street), with an official opening night set for Monday, October 28, 2019. Tickets are now on sale and available at mcctheater.org/seared.

Seared is a new fit-for-foodies comedy by critically-acclaimed playwright Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet) directed by Tony® nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel (MCC’s Hand to God). Brilliant, hot-headed chef Harry scores a mention in a food magazine with his signature scallops, and his business partner Mike finally sees profits within reach. The only problem? Harry refuses to recreate his masterpiece for the masses. Mix in a shrewd restaurant consultant and a waiter with dreams of his own and it all goes to hell in this hilarious and insightful new play that asks us to consider where art ends and commerce begins. Audiences will be up close to the action as MCC’s flexible Frankel Theater is transformed into the intimate kitchen of a New York City restaurant.

The world premiere of Seared was produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 2018, Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director.

Seared will be included in the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works and Process” series on September 9, 2019 at 7:30pm with a panel featuring Theresa Rebeck and Moritz von Stuelpnagel. Tickets are now available at https://guggenheim.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=1146505

B I O G R A P H I E S

Theresa Rebeck (Playwright) is a prolific and widely produced playwright, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and abroad. Last season, her fourth Broadway play premiered, making Rebeck the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time. Other Broadway works include Dead Accounts; Seminar and Mauritius. Other notable NY and regional plays include: Downstairs (Primary Stages), The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels (Second Stage), Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons), The Understudy (Roundabout), View of the Dome (NYTW), What We’re Up Against (Women’s Project), Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Prize finalist). As a director, her work has been seen at The Alley Theatre (Houston), the REP Company (Delaware), Dorset Theatre Festival, the Orchard Project and the Folger Theatre. Major film and television projects include Trouble, starring Anjelica Huston, Bill Pullman and David Morse (writer and director), “NYPD Blue,” the NBC series “Smash” (creator), and the upcoming female spy thriller 355 (for Jessica Chastain’s production company). As a novelist, Rebeck’s books include Three Girls and Their Brother and I’m Glad About You. Rebeck is the recipient of the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, a Lilly Award and more.

Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Director) Broadway: Theresa Rebeck’s Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer (Roundabout), Noël Coward’s Present Laughter starring Kevin Kline (three Tony Award^® nominations including Best Revival), Robert Askins’ Hand to God (five Tony Award^® nominations including Best Play and Best Director). West End: Hand to God (Olivier Award nomination). Off-Broadway: Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi/Public Theater), Nick Jones’ Important Hats of the Twentieth Century (Manhattan Theatre Club), Nick Jones’ Verité (Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3), Mike Lew’s Bike America (Ma-Yi), Nick Jones’ Trevor (Lesser America), Robert Askins’ Love Song of the Albanian Sous Chef (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Mel & El (Ars Nova), Michael Mitnick’s Spacebar (Studio 42), and Adam Szymkowicz’s My Base and Scurvy Heart (Studio 42). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and more. Moritz is the former artistic director of Studio 42, NYC’s producer of “unproducible” plays. moritzvs.com

W. Tré Davis (Rodney) Tré is truly pleased to make his MCC debut. His work has been seen at The Public (Hamlet), Signature (Zooman and the Sign), Black Labs Theatre/Ars Nova (Crude), 59e59 (Glenburn 12WP), Poetic Theatre Co. (Paradox of the Urban Cliche), National Black Theatre (Carnaval ‘AUDELCO Award, SWEET) The Movement Theatre Co. (Look Upon Our Lowliness). Regionally he has been seen at Williamstown (Seared), Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Virginia Stage Co., St. Louis Rep, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis and many more. Television credits include “Valor,” “Shades of Blue,” “Orange is the New Black,” and “Chicago PD.” Film credits include Premature (Sundance 2019), Didn’t I Ask For Tea, No Alternative, and the forthcoming Violet (featuring Olivia Munn). A big thank you to my entire team! For Ro and Richard.

Raúl Esparza (Harry). Television: “Law & Order: SVU,” “Hannibal,” “The Path,” “Suspicion,” “Bojack Horseman,” “Pushing Daisies.” Film: Find Me Guilty, Custody, Ferdinand, My Soul to Take, Elian. Broadway: Leap of Faith, Arcadia, Speed-the-Plow, The Homecoming, Company, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Taboo, Cabaret, The Rocky Horror Show. Off-Broadway: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Normal Heart, Comedians, tick, tick… BOOM! ENCORES!: Anyone Can Whistle, The Cradle Will Rock, Road Show. Shakespeare in the Park’s Twelfth Night, Cymbeline.  Kennedy Center: Chess, 2002 Sondheim Celebration: Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along. Regional: Cry, The Beloved Country, Slaughterhouse-Five, Fur, What the Butler Saw, Arcadia.  Four-time Tony Award^® nominee in every acting category and recipient of the OBIE, the New York Outer Critics Award, the Barrymore, the LA Ovation Award, the Jose Ferrer Award, three Drama Desk Awards, and the Theater World Award.

David Mason (Mike). MCC debut. Off-Broadway: Trick Or Treat at 59E59, opposite Gordon Clapp. Other NYC: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Civilian Studios, Primary Stages, Present Company, NativeAliens, Red Fern Theatre, Circle East. Regional credits include: The world premiere of two Theresa Rebeck plays, The Nest at Denver Center and Dig at Dorset Theatre Festival; Chapter Two directed by Marsha Mason at Arizona Theatre Co.; numerous productions at Northern Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, Cape Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, TheatreSquared, Portland Stage, Weston Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, New Century Theatre, Public Theater, Shadowland Stages, Foothills Theatre, Opera House Arts. TV: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “The Leftovers” (HBO), “House of Cards” (Netflix), “Law & Order: SVU,” “All My Children.” www.davidmason.info

Krysta Rodriguez (Emily) will next be seen starring as “Meg” in the Public Works musical adaptation of Disney’s Hercules at the Delacorte Theater. On television, Krysta will be seen opposite Matthew Broderick in the upcoming Netflix series “Daybreak.” Other Television: “Trial & Error” (NBC); “Indoor Boys” (2019 Indie Series Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy); “Smash” (NBC); “Quantico” (ABC); “Younger” (TV Land); “Chasing Life” (ABC Family); “The Mysteries of Laura” (NBC); “Married” (FX); “Inside Amy Schumer” (Comedy Central); and “Gossip Girl” (CW).  Broadway: First Date, The Addams Family, A Chorus Line, In The Heights, Spring Awakening, Good Vibrations. Off-Broadway: What We’re Up Against (The Women’s Project). Regional highlights: West Side Story (The Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra); Seared (Williamstown Theater Festival); A Chorus Line (Hollywood Bowl). Upcoming solo appearance: Feinstein’s/54 Below debut.

ABOUT MCC THEATER

MCC Theater is one of New York’s leading nonprofit Off-Broadway companies, driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Founded in 1986 as a collective of artists leading peer-based classes to support their own development as actors, writers and directors, the tenets of collaboration, education, and community are at the core of MCC Theater’s programming. One of the only theaters in the country led continuously by its founders, Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, and William Cantler, MCC fulfills its mission through the production of world, American, and New York premiere plays and musicals that challenge artists and audiences to confront contemporary personal and social issues, and robust playwright development and education initiatives that foster the next generation of theater artists and students.

MCC Theater’s celebrated productions include Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play; Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike; Robert Askins’ Hand to God (Broadway transfer; five 2015 Tony Award^® nominations including Best Play); John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair; Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Really Really; Sharr White’s The Other Place (Broadway transfer); Jeff Talbott’s The Submission (Laurents/Hatcher Award); Neil LaBute’s Reasons to Be Happy, reasons to be pretty (Broadway transfer, three 2009 Tony Award^® nominations, including Best Play), Some Girl(s), Fat Pig, The Mercy Seat, and All The Ways To Say I Love You; Michael Weller’s Fifty Words; Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride; Bryony Lavery’s Frozen (Broadway transfer; four 2004 Tony Award^® nominations including Best Play, Tony Award^® for Best Featured Actor); Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone; Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living (2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Margaret Edson’s Wit (1999 Pulitzer Prize); and the musicals Coraline, Carrie, and Ride the Cyclone. Many plays developed and produced by MCC have gone on to productions throughout the country and around the world.

Blake West joined the company in 2006 as Executive Director. MCC opened the doors to its new home in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, on January 9, 2019, unifying the company’s activities under one roof for the first time and expanding its producing, artist development, and education programming.

ABOUT THE ROBERT W. WILSON CHARITABLE TRUST

A successful investor from the 1960s through the 1980s, Robert W. Wilson devoted his life to philanthropy after his retirement, focusing on supporting organizations on preservation and conservation initiatives worldwide. An avid New Yorker, Wilson was also deeply engaged with a number of New York’s cultural institutions. He was a major supporter of, and held leadership roles with, the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Opera, where he was a board member for many years. In addition, the Trust continues to support the New York Public Library, Central Park Conservancy, BAM, Wildlife Conservation Society, EDF, Nature Conservancy, WMF, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, organizations he championed during his lifetime. He played a leading role in transforming many of these institutions.

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