Every day is opening night.

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Michael Jorgensen / Pete Sanders
rick@omdkc.com / michael@omdkc.com / pete@omdkc.com
212 695 7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

MCC THEATER
EXTENDS
NEW YORK PREMIERE OF
“ALL THE NATALIE PORTMANS”
BY POPULAR DEMAND

BY C.A. JOHNSON
DIRECTED BY KATE WHORISKEY

NOW PLAYING THROUGH MARCH 29

PRODUCTION PHOTOS NOW AVAILABLE

“BLACK QUEER SELFHOOD ON AMERICAN STAGES”
PANEL DISCUSSION ADDED ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29

New York, NY (February 20, 2020) – MCC Theater (Bob LuPone, Bernie Telsey, Will Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) is pleased to announce the extension of the New York premiere of All The Natalie Portmans by C.A Johnson (MCC Theater’s 2019/20 Tow Playwright in Residence) with direction by Kate Whoriskey. Previously scheduled for a limited run through March 15, All The Natalie Portmans will now play through Sunday, March 29 at the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space (511 West 52^nd Street).

Production photos of All The Natalie Portmans have also been released today, and are available here.

On Saturday February 29^th at 5:30pm, MCC’s “Let’s Engage” series presents a Panel Discussion titled: “Black Queer Selfhood on American Stages: A conversation exploring how the queer self and queer womanhood are articulated and the crafting of identity through storytelling.” The panel will feature playwrights C.A. Johnson, Kirya Traber, Donja R. Love, and Michael R. Jackson, and moderated by Ianne Fields Stewart. The conversation will explore the shifts in the American Theater landscape in producing plays written by queer playwrights. Even with the widespread popularity of specifically queer plays, the lion’s share of the attention is still white male-centric. The panel will take a deeper look into plays that explore the black experience and black queer womanhood on stage. It will also dive into how the plays tell stories through conflict, the embracing dreaming inside theatrical work, and the presence of elders or the lack thereof.

As previously announced, the cast of All The Natalie Portmans features Joshua Boone (Network-Broadway), Montego Glover (Tony Award nominee, Drama Desk winner Memphis, Hamilton), Elise Kibler (Mies Julie, Indian Summer), Raphael Peacock (OJ/Othello), Renika Williams (The Climb), and Kara Young (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven).

All The Natalie Portmans is currently in performances at the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space (511 West 52^nd Street) with official opening night set for Monday, February 24^th. Tickets are available at www.mcctheater.org.

All The Natalie Portmans is a fantastical new coming of age comedy.  Sixteen-year-old Keyonna and her older brother Samuel live on the brink of eviction while dreaming of a better tomorrow. Too smart, “too gay” and too lonely to fit in, Keyonna escapes into a world of rom coms, red carpets and all the iconic characters played by her muse, Natalie Portman. But when “all the Natalie Portmans” start talking back to her, Keyonna finally has to face her off-screen drama in this imaginative new play that reminds us to embrace life on the ground while still reaching for the stars.

The creative team includes scenic design by Donyale Werle, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Stacey Derosier, sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar, hair and make-up design by Cookie Jordan, movement direction by Warren Adams, fight direction by J. David Brimmer, and casting by Telsey + Company/ Williams Cantler, CSA, Destiny Lilly, CSA. The Production Stage Manager is Alexandra Hall.

All the Natalie Portmans was developed, in part, at the 2018 Sundance Theatre Lab. This production is supported by the Tow Foundation and the R&S Shulman Fund at MCC Theater. The R&S Shulman Fund supports artistic development and production of new plays, with a focus on work by African American playwrights.

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 Bob LuPone, Bernie Telsey and Will 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; Theresa Rebeck’s Seared,  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 The Wrong Man, Alice By Heart, 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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