MCC announce new season

MCC theater's 2011-2012 season will present two world premieres: The Submission by Jeff Talbott and Wild Animals You Should Know by Thomas Higgins, as well as a fully-re-imagined version of the musical Carrie by Michael Weller, starring Marin Mazzie as Carrie's evangelical mother 'Margaret White,' and Molly Ranson as 'Carrie.'

MCC Artistic Director Bernard Telsey says, "Jeff Talbott's The Submission was developed entirely at MCC; it's his playwriting debut and has already won the Laurents/Hatcher Award, and we are really excited to put him together with Walter Bobbie as director. Our pal Trip Cullman returns to direct a play Joe Mantello introduced to us, Thomas Higgins' Wild Animals You Should Know, and yes, Thomas is another author receiving a New York debut. And what can I say about Carrie? We've been in love with this piece since we heard a reading two years ago, and we can't believe the amazing work that Larry, Michael, and Dean are already doing with Stafford to reconceive the show for the MCC stage. It's so moving, and Marin Mazzie and Molly Ranson are going to knock people out."

The plays will be presented in the following season order:
Casting announcements and full scheduling dates for each production will be forthcoming.

World Premiere
The Submission
by Jeff Talbott
Directed by Walter Bobbie
Cast: tba
Venue: Lucille Lortel Theatre
Dates: 8 Sep - 16 Oct 2011.

Synopsis: An alcoholic black mother and her card sharp son trying to get out of the projects has just been accepted into the nation's preeminent theater festival. Trouble is, Shaleeha G'ntamobi doesn't exist, except in the imagination of wannabe-playwright Danny Larsen, who created her as a kind of affirmative-action nom-de-plume. But a nom-de-guerre may prove more useful as the lies pile up, shaky alliances are forged, and everyone dear to Danny must decide whether or not to run for cover as the whole thing threatens to blow up in his lily white face.

New York-based actor Jeff Talbott makes his play-writing debut with The Submission after taking home the first-ever Laurents/Hatcher Award for the play earlier this year. Walter Bobbie ('School for Lies' and 'Chicago') directs MCC Theater's world premiere production of this funny and furiously intelligent new play.

World Premiere
Wild Animals You Should Know
By Thomas Higgins
Director: Trip Cullman
Cast: tba Venue: Lucille Lortel Theatre
Dates: 3 Nov - 11 Dec 2011

Synopsis: Matthew and Jacob are an unlikely pair of friends. Matthew is a soccer star, full of brio and teenage swagger. Jacob is, well, not. Beneath the surface, though, the two are locked in an innocently erotic game of cat and mouse. When Matthew's reluctant father, Walter, is wrangled into chaperoning the boys' trip to a wilderness scout camp, he finds himself drawn into their adolescent game.

Playwright Thomas Higgins makes his New York debut with this tale of ruin and redemption that takes a magnifying glass to the sometimes blurry line between predator and prey. Trip Cullman, ('A Small Fire' and 'The Bachelorette'), will direct.

World Premiere
Carrie
Book by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on Stephen King's Novel
Music: Michael Gore
Lyrics: Dean Pitchford
Director: Stafford Arima
Choreography: Matt Williams
Cast: Marin Mazzie (Margaret White) and Molly Ranson (Carrie). Further cast tba. Venue: Lucille Lortel Theatre
Dates: Performances begin 31 Jan 2012 - further scheduleing dates tba.

Synopsis: Carrie White is a misfit. At school, she's an outcast who's bullied by the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home, she's at the mercy of her loving but cruelly over-protective mother. But Carrie's just discovered she's got a special power, and if pushed too far, she's not afraid to use it...

Based on Stephen King's bestselling novel, the musical of Carrie hasn't been seen since its Broadway premiere in Spring of 1988 which played only sixteen previews and five regular performances. The New York Times critic Frank Rich called that production 'a musical wreck.' Now, the show's original authors have joined with director Stafford Arima (Altar Boyz) and MCC Theater for a newly reworked and fully re-imagined vision. Set today, in the small town of Chamberlain, Maine, Carrie features a book by Lawrence D. Cohen (screenwriter of the classic film), music by Academy Award winning composer Michael Gore ('Fame' and 'Terms of Endearment'), and lyrics by Academy Award winning lyricist Dean Pitchford ('Fame' and 'Footloose').

The cast will be led by Tony Award nominee Marin Mazzie ('Next to Normal' and 'Kiss Me Kate') as Carrie's evangelical mother, 'Margaret White,' and Molly Ranson ('Jerusalem' and 'August: Osage County') as Carrie White - the lonely, vengeful, yet fragile girl at the center of it all.