Manhattan Theatre Club: more info about 2010/11 season

Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) have announced four productions for their upcoming 2010-2011 theatrical season.

At MTC's Broadway theatre, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre , MTC will produce the American premiere of Tony Award winner Lee Hall's The Pitmen Painters and the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People. Off-Broadway at New York City Center - Stage I, MTC will present: Carl's Sister, the world premiere of the new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry, based on the book "Apples and Oranges" by Marie Brenner; and Spirit Control, a world premiere of the new play by Beau Willimon.

MTC's upcoming season will include three world premieres and one American premiere. Two of this season's world premieres were commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club. Two more productions will be announced in the coming weeks: one additional production at the Friedman and one additional production at City Center.

Full details for each production will be forthcoming.

Broadway - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
American Premiere
The Pitmen Painters
Playwright: Lee Hall
Director: Max Roberts
Cast: Christopher Connel, Michael Hodgson, Ian Kelly, Brian Lonsdale, Lisa McGrillis, Deka Walmsley, David Whitaker and Phillippa Wilson
Dates: Previews from 14 Sep 2010, opens on 30 Sep 2010

Direct from a sold-out engagement at London's National Theatre, this new play by Tony Award winner Lee Hall (writer of Broadway's 'Billy Elliot') comes to Broadway with its entire original London cast intact. The Pitmen Painters is based on the triumphant true story of a group of British miners who discover a new way to express themselves and unexpectedly become art-world sensations. A salute to the power of individual expression and the collective spirit, The Pitmen Painters takes you on a journey from the depths of the mine to the heights of fame.

The Pitmen Painters cast have been with the production since it premiered at Live Theatre in 2007.

The creative team for The Pitmen Painters includes Gary McCann (scenic and costume design), Douglas Kuhrt (lighting design), and Martin Hodgson (sound design).

Manhattan Theatre Club, by special arrangement with Bob Boyett, is producing the Live Theatre, Newcastle /National Theatre of Great Britain's co-production of The Pitmen Painters on Broadway.

Broadway - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
World Premiere
Good People
Playwright: David Lindsay-Abaire
Director: Daniel Sullivan
Cast: to be announced
Dates: Previews from 8 Feb 2011, opens on 3 Mar 2011

Together, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and MTC have brought four new plays to the New York stage. Their most recent collaboration, 'Rabbit Hole,' earned a Tony Award and garnered Lindsay-Abaire the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Now, he returns to MTC, along with Rabbit Hole director and Tony Award winner 'Daniel Sullivan,' to premiere his newest work, Good People.

Good People welcomes you to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo... where this month's paycheck covers last month's bills... and where Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break, Margie thinks an old fling who has made it out of Southie might be her ticket to a fresh new start. But is this apparently self-made man secure enough to face his humble beginnings? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out.

Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America.

Good People was commissioned through MTC's Bank of America Commissioning Program.

Off-Broadway - New York City Center - Stage I
World Premiere
Carl's Sister
Playwright: Alfred Uhry, based on the book Apples and Oranges by Marie Brenner
Director: Lynne Meadow
Cast: to be announced.
Dates: to be announced.

Marie Brenner's acclaimed memoir about her strained, heartwarming, and funny relationship with her brother, "Apples and Oranges," is adapted for the stage by Pulitzer, Tony, and Academy Award winning author Alfred Uhry.

A medical crisis brings Marie, a classic New York liberal and investigative journalist for Vanity Fair and Carl, a conservative apple grower living in Washington State, together after many years apart. While Marie abandons her life to help her dying brother, Carl fights her every step of the way. Carl's Sister tells the story of their attempts to heal and understand one another.

Alfred Uhry's body of work includes the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning 'Driving Miss Daisy,' the Tony Award winning 'The Last Night of Ballyhoo' and 'Parade' as well as the book for MTC's 'LoveMusik.' Directing will be MTC's Lynne Meadow ('Collected Stories,' 'The Tale of the Allergist's Wife').

Carl's Sister was commissioned through MTC's Bank of America Commissioning Program.

Off-Broadway - New York City Center - Stage I
World Premiere
Spirit Control
Playwright: Beau Will
Director: Doug Hughes
Cast: to be announced.
Dates: to be announced.

Spirit Control: Adam Wyatt has the perfect family and a perfect record as an air traffic controller. But when the pilot of a small plane suffers a heart attack, Adam must talk a terrified passenger through an emergency landing. What happens next will link him inextricably to a woman he's never met, and set the life he once knew irrevocably adrift.

Tony Award winner Doug Hughes ('The Royal Family,' 'Doubt') returns to MTC to direct this new work from Beau Willimon, the young talent behind the play 'Farragut North,' currently being developed into a Warner Brothers film.