Every day is opening night.

MCC’s “The Village Bike” Completes Casting & Tickets Now on Sale for Greta Gerwig’s Stage Debut

Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Scott Braun / Michael Jorgensen
rick@oandmco.com / scott@oandmco.com / mike@oandmco.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

MCC THEATER’S
“ T H E   V I L L A G E   B I K E ”
STARRING GRETA GERWIG
ANNOUNCES
COMPLETE CASTING

AMERICAN PREMIERE BY PENELOPE SKINNER
DIRECTED BY SAM GOLD

REHEARSALS BEGIN TODAY
TICKETS NOW ON SALE

New York, NY (Monday, April 21, 2014)MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce that indie film star Greta Gerwig will now be joined by Max Baker, Jason Butler Harner, Lucy Owen, Cara Seymour, and Scott Shepherd in the American premiere of Penelope Skinner’s celebrated play The Village Bike, the final production of MCC’s 2013-14 Main Stage season.  This completes casting.  The Village Bike—which begins rehearsals today—will be directed by Sam Gold, who recently directed the much-raved new musical Fun Home and this season’s The Realistic Jones on Broadway.  The Village Bike will premiere at The Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) beginning May 22, 2014 with an official opening on June 10, 2014.  Tickets for The Village Bike are now on sale at www.mcctheater.org.

As previously announced, Greta Gerwig will lead the cast of The Village Bike in her New York stage debut.  Gerwig rose to fame this past year with her critically-acclaimed and Golden Globe-nominated performance in Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, which she also co-wrote with Baumbach.  She will next lead the cast of the 20th Century Fox comedy pilot “How I Met Your Dad,” a spin-off of the popular “How I Met Your Mother.”  A full biography appears below. 

Gerwig (Becky) is joined by Max Baker (Mike), seen in the Tony® winning play Jerusalem; OBIE winner Jason Butler Harner (John), recently of “Homeland,” Non-Stop and the hit Off-Broadway play COCK; Lucy Owen (Alice), of the upcoming films The Mend opposite Josh Lucas and Kelly & Cal with Juliette Lewis; Cara Seymour (Jenny), soon to be seen co-starring in Steven Soderbergh’s Cinemax new original series “The Knick” starring Clive Owen; and two-time OBIE Award winner Scott Shepherd (Oliver).  Full bios for all cast members appear below.

In Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike, Becky is pregnant – and friskier than ever. But she can’t seem to get the attention of her husband, who is preoccupied with preparing for the baby’s months-away arrival. So Becky takes matters into her own hands and sets out on an adventure that starts with the purchase of a used bike from a man in town and takes her further than she ever expected she’d go.  Playwright Skinner won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright for The Village Bike in 2011, which premiered to rave reviews and sold-out audiences at The Royal Court Theatre in London. 

All performances of The Village Bike will offer $30 Under 30 seating, available two hours prior to each curtain, pending availability, for $30 for audience members 29 years old or younger on the day of the performance. Limited advanced $30 Under 30 seating is also offered online for each performance, with tickets available for pick-up at will call with valid ID including proof of age.  One ticket per ID. No exceptions.  Additionally, pending availability, $20 Student Rush tickets for full-time high school and college students can be purchased 20 minutes before curtain (cash only) with valid ID.  General tickets are $49-$99 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org or calling 212-352-3101.

MCC Theater – founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company – is driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would.  Led by Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, and Executive Director Blake West, MCC fulfills its mission by producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences, and by nurturing the development of playwrights and students through a variety of literary and education programs that enable nearly 1,200 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.  MCC currently produces its annual season at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) and will open its own two-theater complex on West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue in 2017.  Notable productions include the recent hits Hand to God and Small Engine Repair; The Other Place; Really Really; The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays; The Pride; Fifty Words; Nixon's Nixon; The Grey Zone; the Tony Award-winning Frozen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; the re-imagined production of the musical Carrie; and eight plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and last season’s hit Reasons to Be Happy.

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ACTOR BIOS
GRETA GERWIG has rapidly emerged as one of Hollywood’s most engaging actresses.
She will next star in, write and produce the 20th Century Fox pilot HOW I MET YOUR DAD — CBS’ spinoff from long-running comedy series HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.   Gerwig will star as Sally, a female Peter Pan who has never grown up and has no idea of where she’s going in life. After breaking up with her husband of less than a year, she finds a solid circle of support in her friends and family.
Gerwig recently wrapped production on Barry Levinson’s THE HUMBLING opposite Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest. She is also set to star in MAGGIE’S PLAN, a romantic comedy of manners, which is written and will be directed by Rebecca Miller. 

She was last seen in FRANCES HA, a comedy she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach about an aspiring dancer who moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks. For her performance, she earned a Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nomination in the category of “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.”  The film, which also earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for “Best Feature,” premiered at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and New York Film Festival and was released by IFC in May 2013.

The actress also co-starred in Woody Allen’s TO ROME WITH LOVE opposite Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page. Other credits include Whit Stillman’s comedy DAMSELS IN DISTRESS and the title character of “Lola” in Fox Searchlight’s LOLA VERSUS.

Gerwig first received critical acclaim for her breakout role as “Florence” in GREENBERG which marked her first collaboration with writer/director, Noah Baumbach. In the film, she starred opposite Ben Stiller and her performance earned her several nominations including a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Performance and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.  Gerwig then went on to star alongside Russell Brand and Helen Mirren in the comedy ARTHUR, which she followed with a supporting role in the romantic comedy NO STRINGS ATTACHED with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.    

A darling of the independent film scene, Gerwig’s prior credits include Ti West’s “art-house horror film” HOUSE OF THE DEVIL; the Duplass brothers’ genre-bender BAGHEAD. She has twice collaborated with director and actor Joe Swanberg, first on HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS as a writer and actress, and then for NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS, which she also co-wrote and co-directed.

Gerwig graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, and currently resides in New York City.

MAX BAKER (Mike) Broadway: Cyrano De Bergerac (twice), Jerusalem (also West End); Public: Mother Courage, Roundabout: Howard Katz, MTC: The Explorers Club, New Group:  Abigail's Party, Comedians, What The Butler Saw, Goose-Pimples. Film: Newlyweds, The Island, Constantine, Pirates of the Caribbean II, Revolutionary Road, The Lynch Pin, Life or Something Like It and The Time Machine. Max is also a playwright.

JASON BUTLER HARNER (John) has appeared on and off Broadway, in the West End and in theatres across the country. American premieres include COCK, Through a Glass Darkly, The Coast of Utopia, The Invention of Love, Celebration / The Room, Experiment with an Air Pump, The Paris Letter, Transit of Venus, and The Gingerbread House. Other productions of note include Our Town, Orange Flower Water, Observe the Sons of Ulster, The Ruby Sunrise, Five Flights, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Front Page, Ivanov, Platonov, The Cherry Orchard, Serenading Louie, The Glass Menagerie, Hydriotaphia, Hamlet, Macbeth, Hedda Gabler and the forthcoming A LIFE by Adam Bock. He is an OBIE winner and Drama Desk nominee. Recent television credits include Homeland, Blacklist, Betrayal, Alcatraz, Newsroom and The Good Wife. Film credits include Non-Stop, Cyber, John Adams, Letters from the Big Man, The Green, Extra Man, Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Changeling.

LUCY OWEN (Alice) can be seen in the upcoming films The Mend (opposite Josh Lucas) and Kelly & Cal (with Juliette Lewis). Recent theater credits include Clybourne Park at the Long Wharf Theatre, Body Language (Active Theatre), Complete (NY Fringe Encore). Regionally at: Berkeley Rep (Cloud Nine), San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, Winter’s Tale), PCPA Theatrefest (Arcadia, Amadeus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Romeo and Juliet, Skylight) Theatreworks in Mountainview (Shakespeare in Hollywood), Porchlight Theatre Co. (The Seagull, An Ideal Husband). Other Film/ TV: Shadows and Lies, Higher Ground (with Vera Farmiga), “The Big C”, “Law and Order SVU”, “Delocated”, “Inside Amy Schumer”, and “The Americans”.

CARA SEYMOUR (Jenny) co-founded Trouble and Strife as an undergraduate in England – the company produced three original plays and won the Time Out award for Now and at the Hour of Our Death. She co-wrote her NYC debut at The Cucaracha Theater: Stairway to Heaven. She appeared in New Group's award winning productions of Mike Leigh's Ecstasy and Goose Pimples, Caryl Churchill's The Stryker at The Public Theater, Present Laughter on Broadway, David Cale's Betwixt, Freedom of the City and Gibralter The Irish Rep. Film Work: American Psycho, Dancer in the Dark, Gangs of New York, Adaptation, Silent Grace, Birth, Hotel Riwanda, The Savages, An Education, Jack and Diane and I Origins. Cara co-stars in Cinemax’s new 10-part original series, “The Knick,” starring Clive Owen and directed by Steven Soderbergh to debut this summer.

SCOTT SHEPHERD (Oliver) has performed with the Wooster Group (dir. Elizabeth LeCompte) for over 15 years, in Cry, Trojans!; Vieux Carré; Hamlet; Poor Theater; To You, The Birdie!; North Atlantic; and others. He has also worked extensively with Elevator Repair Service (dir. John Collins), most recently as the Narrator of Gatz, a marathon staging of the unabridged text of The Great Gatsby that played at the Public Theater, in London's West End, and in 21 other cities around the world. He has received two Obie Awards, for Gatz and Poor Theater. Other theater credits include Blood Knot (dir. Athol Fugard) and Straight White Men (dir. Young Jean Lee). Films include Meanwhile (dir. Hal Hartley), Side Effects (dir. Steven Soderbergh), and And So It Goes (dir. Rob Reiner).

 

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