Performances Begin for Mcc Theater’s “Small Engine Repair”
Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Scott Braun / Michael Jorgensen
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
START YOUR ENGINES!
PERFORMANCES BEGIN
FOR MCC THEATER’S
NEW YORK PREMIERE OF
“ S M A L L E N G I N E R E P A I R ”
BY JOHN POLLONO
DIRECTED BY JO BONNEY
OPENING NIGHT SET FOR NOVEMBER 20th
$20 STUDENT RUSH & $30 UNDER 30 TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
New York, NY – MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) begins performances today, October 30th, for the New York Premiere of John Pollono’s celebrated Small Engine Repair, the comic thriller that premiered to rave reviews and sold-out audiences at L.A.’s Rogue Machine Theatre, where it won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Playwriting, among many other honors. Keegan Allen, James Badge Dale, playwright/actor John Pollono, and James Ransone star in the production directed by longtime MCC collaborator Jo Bonney (MCC’s The Break of Noon, Fat Pig). Small Engine Repair at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) has its official opening night on November 20, 2013. For more info, please visit www.mcctheater.org.
In Small Engine Repair, former high school buddies Frank (Pollono), Swaino (Badge Dale) and Packie (Ransone)—now past their prime—meet off-hours one night in Frank’s out-of-the-way repair shop under cloudy circumstances that only Frank seems to have a handle on. Enter Chad (Allen), a plugged-in preppy college jock, whose arrival ignites a long-simmering resentment that sets this taut, twisty, comic thriller on its breathless course.
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Playwright John Pollono will appear in Small Engine Repair alongside “Pretty Little Liars” star Keegan Allen; film and television actor James Badge Dale of the international blockbuster World War Z and HBO’s Emmy Award®-winning miniseries The Pacific, among many others; and James Ransone, memorably of HBO’s “The Wire” and currently seen on the AMC series “Low Winter Sun.” Full biographies appear below.
All performances of Small Engine Repair 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 $69-$89 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org or calling 212-352-3101.
Content Warning: Small Engine Repair contains graphic language, strong sexual content, and adult situations. May not be appropriate for those under 17.
Small Engine Repair is part of the previously announced MCC Theater 2013-14 Season which also includes: the Broadway premiere of the Mary-Louise Parker-starrer The Snow Geese by MCC alum Sharr White, which is a co-production with Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) now playing through December 15, 2013 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre; the Off-Broadway premiere of Robert Askins’ Hand to God, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starring Steven Boyer (Modern Terrorism, The Wolf of Wall Street), at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, beginning on February 20, 2014 with an official opening on March 11, 2014; and the North American premiere of Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike, directed by Sam Gold (Circle Mirror Transformation), starring Academy Award® nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre beginning May 21, 2014 with an official opening on June 9, 2014.
MCC Theater offers 3-Play (all 3 Off-Broadway productions at the Lortel) or 4-Play (all Lortel productions plus Broadway’s The Snow Geese) Subscriptions, as well as Discounted First-Look Subscription (access to one of the first 10 performances of each production), and Flex Tickets. Visit www.mcctheater.org or call 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, Will 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 more than 1,100 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 2016. Notable productions include 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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BIOGRAPHIES
Keegan Allen (Chad) currently portrays male lead, Toby Cavanaugh on ABC Family’s #1 rated series “Pretty Little Liars.” His work has been recognized twice with Teen Choice nominations, the first in 2011 and again in 2013 when he won male lead in a series. Keegan graduated from AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy). This MCC production marks his stage debut in New York. He recently completed work in Gia Coppola’s feature film, Palo Alto, as well as, Bukowski, directed by James Franco. His art expands beyond the stage and screen, he is currently working on a photography journal of his, “Life and Love” as well as preparing his debut music project which will show us his songwriting as well as guitar, piano and harmonica efforts. Keegan grew up just off the famous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and has been influenced by the arts from an early age, both at home and throughout his life.
James Badge Dale (Swaino) will next be seen in Peter Landesman’s Parkland, out October 4th. The film recounts the dramatic true story of the chaotic events that occurred at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd 1963. Dale plays ‘Robert Oswald’ the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald in the ensemble cast which includes Jacki Weaver, Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, Zac Efron and Marcia Gary Harden. Dale recently appeared in three major summer films: Shane Black’s Ironman 3 opposite Robert Downey Jr.; Marc Forster’s World War Z opposite Brad Pitt; and Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger opposite Johnny Depp. His extensive film credits also include: Flight, opposite Denzel Washington; Shame, opposite Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan; The Grey, opposite Liam Neeson; and the Academy Award® winner for Best Picture, The Departed, by Martin Scorsese. For television, James memorably starred in HBO’s Emmy Award®-winning 10-hour miniseries The Pacific. He also led the cast of the AMC original series “Rubicon,” and appeared on the hit FOX series “24.” He made his Off Broadway debut in 2003 with The Flea Theatre Company’s Getting Into Heaven. Since then, he has returned to the New York stage to work with The New Group and New World Stages. James is the son of late Broadway, film and television star Anita Morris and two-time Tony Award-winning Director/Choreographer, Grover Dale.
John Pollono (Frank), who wrote and will co-star in Small Engine Repair, is an actor and playwright from New England. He won the LA Ovation and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Awards for Best Play the 2011 LA production of Small Engine Repair, for which he also received the LADCC Award for Best Writing. As an actor, John has appeared in “Grey’s Anatomy,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Major Crimes” and Showtime’s upcoming “Masters of Sex.” This winter he will appear in the new series “Mob City,” written and directed by Frank Darabont. He is a founding member of Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles, which produced Small Engine Repair as well as his plays Lost and Found, Razorback and Lost Girls.
James Ransone (Packie) recently shot the independent feature Cymbeline, opposite Ed Harris, Ethan Hawke and Milla Jovovich in addition to the AMC series “Low Winter Sun” playing the lead role of Damon Callis. James recently wrapped Spike Lee’s feature film Old Boy, opposite Josh Brolin, along with Tristan Patterson’s independent feature Electric Slide, opposite Jim Sturgess and Chloe Sevigny. He is best known for his work on HBO’s critically acclaimed shows, “Generation Kill,” “Treme” and his tour de force performance in “The Wire.” He was last seen on the big screen in Scott Derrickson’s thriller Sinister, opposite Ethan Hawke. His other credits include Broken City opposite Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg, The Son of No One opposite Channing Tatum and Al Pacino, and The Next Three Days opposite Russell Crowe.