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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

New York, NY – MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) has announced the line-up for their Fall 2010 PlayLab play readings of three new plays by members of the company’s Playwrights’ Coalition: Jason Chimonides, Adam Szymkowicz and Gary Sunshine, to be held on October 18, 25 and November 8, 2010. Thomas Sadoski and Marin Ireland, both of whom received Tony nominations for MCC’s Broadway production of Reasons to Be Pretty have signed on to appear in the reading series. Additional casting news includes the participation of actors Michael Chernus (The Aliens), Erin Gann (The Aliens) and Kellie Overbey (The Coast of Utopia). MCC Theater is now celebrating its 25th anniversary season.

MCC’s Monday night series offers a special opportunity to experience works in development by some of New York’s most exciting playwrights. As an added bonus, audience members are invited to mingle with the artists at post-performance receptions to be held each night. Now in its tenth year, MCC’s Playwrights' Coalition is a diverse group of some of the most talented, exciting playwrights working today. The Coalition's programs give writers the resources and support to generate, develop and showcase new work. Through intensive workshops and roundtable readings, member playwrights develop dynamic and challenging new plays, and twice-a-year PlayLab readings put these plays in front of an audience, providing a showcase and celebration of the writers' work. Plays developed through the Playwrights' Coalition have gone on to production at MCC and other notable theaters in the U.S. and abroad.

2010 Fall PlayLab Readings___________________________________________

Monday, October 18, 2010
Serverlove
By Jason Chimonides
With Thomas Sadoski and Marin Ireland
Directed by Josh Hecht

Welcome to the future. Log on to Serverlove. Register and meet your perfect virtual lover. You can even have a “botrod” implanted which guarantees perfect mutual monogamy forever. Turns out, the brain (in tandem with technology) can do anything. Trouble is, the heart keeps getting in the way.

Monday, October 25, 2010
The Fat Cat Killers
By Adam Szymkowicz
With Michael Chernus, Erin Gann and TBA
Directed by Ethan McSweeny

When Steve and Michael get laid off from their work-a-day “lives,” their heads start swimming with sexy possibilities – i.e., pristine Mexican beaches flush with bikini babes. The road to bikiniville begins with a plan to kidnap their ex-boss, and quickly devolves into a hilariously ill-conceived mission to bring down and destroy The System itself. One CEO at a time.

Monday, November 8, 2010
Good Deeds for a Weary World
By Gary Sunshine
With Kellie Overbey and TBA
Directed by TBA

At the peak of NY summer, Jess and Gordon make an unexpected journey to rural Utah to try to sort out the domestic issues of their in-laws. As emotions come to the surface, and their marriage begins to falter, their family together confronts the clash between the deep need to leave and even deeper need to pull each other closer.

All readings will take place at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (entrance on the south side of 25th St. between Lexington and Third Avenue.) at 7:00 p.m.

The series is offered free of charge, but reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by phoning 212-727-7722 ext. 244 or visiting www.mcctheater.org.

MCC Theater is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season as one of New York City's leading Off Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and world premieres each season. When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to theater-going audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through three programmatic areas: its mainstage works; its Playwrights’ Coalition, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers; and its Education & Outreach Programs, including the Youth Company, which allow more than 1,200 students yearly to experience theater, increase literacy and discover their own voices through the creation of original theater pieces. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute, last season’s 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 and Alan Bowne’s Beirut. 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.

About the Authors_________________________________________________

Jason Chimonides’ full length plays include The Optimist, The Stone Age and The Bluest Water, in addition to numerous short plays and monologues. The Optimist was produced Off Off Broadway in the Spring of 2008 by Ground Up Productions, directed by Jace Alexander and The Bluest Water, was produced in 2008 and 2009 by Endstation Theatre Company in Amherst, Virginia. His work has been developed at MCC Theater, Ars Nova, Naked Angels, Baliwick Rep, Endstation Theater, Slippery Rock University and Florida State University. Jason has held residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Blue Ridge Summer Theater Festival and holds an MFA in Directing from Florida State University. The Optimist is published by Dramatist Play Service and excerpted monologues will appear in two Smith and Kraus anthologies in December of 2010. An Assistant Professor of Theater at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Jason lives in Indiana, PA and Brooklyn, NY.

Adam Szymkowicz graduated in May of 2007 from The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. In 2004, he received his playwriting MFA from Columbia University where he was the Dean’s Fellow. His work has been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands and Lithuania. His plays have been presented or developed at such places as MCC Theater, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons, The Lark, Kitchen Dog, HotINK, Theatre of Note and Studio Dante among others. Plays include Deflowering Waldo, Open Minds, Anne, The Art Machine, Pretty Theft, Food For Fish, Herbie, Incendiary, Old Fashioned Cold Fusion, Bee Eater, Temporary Everything, Susan Gets Some Play and Nerve. Several of his plays have been published by Dramatists PlayService. Szymkowicz is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the MCC Playwright’s Coalition and of the Ars Nova Play Group. He is currently working on a commission from South Coast Rep. For more, go to www.adamszymkowicz.com.

Gary Sunshine has been the recipient of a NYFA fellowship and a Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights. His play Sweetness was produced in the Summer Play Festival (SPF); Mercury was produced at HERE in association with Eve Ensler; The Names of Foods was produced by the eXchange; other recent productions include Kahn & Kant (Drama League Directors Project), Al Takes a Bride (Actors Studio; Sydney Mardi Gras Festival; King’s Theater) and My President (Echo Theater Company). His work has been seen/developed at the Royal National Theatre Studio, New York Stage & Film, Playwrights Horizons, NYTW’s Just Add Water Festival, Theatre of Note, P73 Productions, Rattlestick, the New Group, the New Company (London), Underwood Theater, MCC Theater, the Actors Studio and Rising Phoenix Rep. His one-act play Al Takes a Bride was published in “The Best American Short Plays of 2001” (Applause), and by Playscripts, Inc. Gary wrote, co-created, and co-produced the documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You (Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival; Audience Award, Lake Placid Film Festival; Crystal Award, Heartland Film Festival; HBO Audience Award for Top Documentary, Provincetown International Film Festival), which premiered nationwide on PBS’s “P.O.V.” He is a staff writer on HBO’s “Hung” and has written for CBS’s “As the World Turns” (WGA Award nomination). His first screenplay, Moscows, is currently in preproduction with Starry Night Entertainment. He received an A.B. from Princeton and an M.F.A. from NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program, and is a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

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