MCC Theater Announces Casting for 2012-2013 Season
Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Jon Dimond / Scott Braun
rick@oandmco.com / jon@oandmco.com / scott@oandmco.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
MCC THEATER
ANNOUNCES COMPLETE CASTING FOR
2012-2013 SEASON PRODUCTION
“D O N’ T G O G E N T L E”
AND
ADDITIONAL CASTING FOR
“S M A L L E N G I N E R E P A I R”
3-PLAY SUBSCRIPTIONS
NOW ON SALE
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS ON SALE
MONDAY, AUGUST 13
New York, NY – MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) today announced full casting for Don’t Go Gentle and additional casting for Small Engine Repair, two productions in their upcoming 2012-13 season, which marks the company’s 27th consecutive year producing and developing new work by today's most provocative and vibrant artists.
The complete cast of Stephen Belber’s Don’t Go Gentle includes David Wilson Barnes (Broadway’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Becky Shaw at Second Stage), newcomer Maxx Brawer, Michael Cristofer (NBC’s hit series “Smash,” Broadway’s A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber), Angela Lewis (Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights Horizons), and Jennifer Mudge (Roundabout Theatre Company’s The Philanthropist).
Additionally, Tony Award-nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (Young Frankenstein, Finian’s Rainbow) will join the cast of John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair. Fitzgerald joins the previously announced Jon Bernthal, of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” and actor/playwright John Pollono, whose dazzling play took home nearly every theater award in the city of angels, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Playwriting.
Stephen Belber’s world premiere Don’t Go Gentle (September 27 – November 4, 2012) follows Judge Lawrence Driver: conservative powerhouse on the bench, failure at home. Now retired, widowed, and seeking redemption, Lawrence volunteers to do pro bono legal work with Tanya, a vulnerable ex-con with a troubled teenage son, while working to repair the increasingly complicated relationships with his own adult children. But do-overs don’t come easy, and when his newfound generosity is perceived as condescension, Lawrence runs the risk of losing everything.
Don’t Go Gentle is a world premiere by Stephen Belber, an MCC Theater Playwrights’ Coalition member, whose chronicles of moral ambiguity include Tape, Dusk Rings a Bell, and Match on Broadway. Belber is also a member of MCC Theater’s Playwrights’ Coalition, the theater’s play development fellowship. Acclaimed director Lucie Tiberghien, a frequent collaborator with Belber, directed his play Geometry of Fire at the Rattlestick Theater. She most recently directed the West Coast premiere of Blood and Gifts at the La Jolla Playhouse.
John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair (May 16 – June 23, 2013) tells the story of Frank, Swaino, and Packie – buddies since high school, now past their prime – who meet off-hours in Frank’s out-of-the-way repair shop under cloudy circumstances that only Frank has a handle on. Enter Chad, a plugged-in preppy college jock, whose arrival ignites an explosion of long-simmering resentment and rage in this taut, twisty, comic thriller.
A hit at L.A.’s Rogue Machine Theatre last spring, Small Engine Repair makes its New York premiere at MCC Theater with a new production directed by MCC veteran Jo Bonney (Neil Labute’s The Break of Noon, Some Girls(s), Fat Pig).
MCC Theater’s season will also include the New York Premiere of Paul Downs Colaizzo’s startlingly funny, boozed-soaked Really Really (January 31 – March 10, 2013) directed by David Cromer, whose visionary take on Our Town took New York by storm in 2009, and whose Tribes is one of this year’s biggest Off Broadway hits. Casting for this production is forthcoming.
Season subscriptions for all three 2012-2013 mainstage productions are priced at $115-$155 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org. Additionally, MCC Theater offers a $60 “Under 30” subscription for patrons 30 years or younger as of September 27, 2012. Individual tickets will go on-sale Monday, August 13. All performances will take place at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC).
MCC Theater – founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company – is committed to developing and producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences. Our mission is carried out through an annual season of world, American, and New York premieres, literary development programs for emerging writers, and ground-breaking education programs that enable more than 1,000 New York City high school students to find – and use – their own unique voice each year through the creation and performance of original theater pieces. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute, The Pride, Fifty Words, the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living, Marsha Norman’s Trudy Blue, Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone, Alan Bowne’s Beirut, The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays, and last season’s newly reworked and fully re-imagined production of Carrie, the musical. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards.
For a complete production history, visit www.mcctheater.org.
Bios_____________________________________________________________________
David Wilson Barnes. Broadway: The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Off-Broadway: The Big Meal (Playwright’s Horizons, Lucille Lortel Nomination), All New People (Second Stage), Becky Shaw (Second Stage/ATL, Drama League Honor), Lady, St. Crispin’s Day (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), Vengeance (stageFARM), The Attic (The Play Company), Men Without Shadows (The Flea), The Square (Ma Yi Theatre Company/The Public Theatre), Hamlet (The Public Theatre), Jail Bait (The Cherry Lane). International: Becky Shaw (London, The Almeida, Evening Standard Nomination). Regional: The Geffen, The A.R.T., Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Geva Theatre, The City Theatre, The Long Wharf, Virginia Stage Company, The Cape Playhouse. Television: “A Gifted Man”, “30 Rock”, “The Eastmans” (pilot, series regular), “Sex and the City”, “Law & Order/CI/SVU”, “Conviction”, “All My Children”, “As The World Turns”. Film: The Bourne Legacy, You Don’t Know Jack, Love and Other Drugs, Company Men, Taking Woodstock, The Scene, Capote, How to Seduce Difficult Women, Ozark Savage.
Maxx Brawer is pleased to be making his professional theatrical debut. He’s a native New Yorker, having attended PS11, Simon Baruch Jr High, Bronx Science, and BHSEC, as well as a brief stint at CCNY. His feature debut was in Joel Shumacher's Twelve. He has appeared on Law & Order, All My Children and 100 Centre Street.
Michael Cristofer. A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Park), Trumpery (Atlantic Theater), Body of Water with Christine Lahti, The Seagull with Joanne Woodward, The Cherry Orchard with Irene Worth (Theater World Award), Chinchilla (Obie Award), The Intelligent Homosexual… (Public Theater). He recently played the infamous Truxton Spangler on AMC's “Rubicon” and is currently appearing in “Smash” on NBC. Writer: The Shadow Box (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), Amazing Grace with Marsha Mason (American Theater Critics Award), Lady and the Clarinet with Stockard Channing, The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Falling in Love with Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep, Bonfire of the Vanities, O’Keefe with Joan Allen (Writers' Guild Award), Casanova with Heath Ledger. DIRECTOR: Original Sing with Antonio Banderas, Body Shots (New Line Cinema), GIA with Angelina Jolie (Director’s Guild Award).
Christopher Fitzgerald stars opposite Kristin Wiig and Annette Bening in the 2012 Toronto Film Festival feature, Imogene. Broadway: The Merchant of Venice, Finian’s Rainbow (Drama Desk Award, Tony and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), Young Frankenstein (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), Wicked original cast, Amour (Drama Desk nomination). OffBroadway: Celebrity Autobiography (Triad Theater), Gutenberg! The Musical! (Actor’s Playhouse), Stairway to Paradise, Babes In Arms and Broadway Bash (City Center’s Encores!), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Lincoln Center), Fully Committed (Cherry Lane Theatre), Saturday Night (Second Stage, Drama Desk Award nomination), Wise Guys (New York Theater Workshop), Corpus Christi (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Public Theater). TV: “Twins” (series regular, The WB), “Next Caller” (NBC pilot), “The Electric Company” (PBS). Film: Personal Velocity (dir. Rebecca Miller), Dedication (dir. Justin Theroux). M.F.A. American Conservatory Theater.
Angela Lewis is a New York actor whose theater credits include: Good Goods (Yale Rep), World Premiere of Milk Like Sugar (La Jolla Playhouse, Playwright's Horizon's/Women's Project), Pidgeon (Ensemble Studio Theater), Brother/Sister Plays and Unconditional (New York Public Theater), Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizions), Sand (Womens Project), and Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre/AUDELCO Award Nominee-Best Lead Actress). Film credits: Fair Game, Soft Focus, Even So, and Frijolito Go! Ms. Lewis is a graduate of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (BFA-Acting), and a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company.
Jennifer Mudge. Broadway: Reckless, The Philanthropist. Other New York Theater: The Big Meal (Playwrights Horizons), Oohrah! (Atlantic), Fault Lines (Naked Angels), Villa America (Williamstown), Dutchman (Cherry Lane, Drama Desk nomination), Only the End of the World (Directors Company). Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fifth of July, As You Like It, Angels in America: Parts I & II, Guys and Dolls, Into the Woods, Othello. Film/TV: upcoming Dead Man Down, Price Check, The Stand Up, Things We Know, Drifting Elegant, Play it by Ear, “Boss,” “The Good Wife,” “Mercy,” Law & Order,” “Hope & Faith,” “Hack.”
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