MCC Theater today announced that John Behlmann (The 39 Steps), MCC Theater founding member Patrick Breen (The Normal Heart), Gideon Glick (Spring Awakening), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Catch Me If You Can), Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley (Next To Normal), and Daniel Stewart Sherman (Desire Under the Elms) will star in the world premiere production of Wild Animals You Should Know, by Thomas Higgins. The production will be directed by Trip Cullman (A Small Fire, Bachelorette). Tickets go on-sale October 3, 2011. Performances begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on November 3, 2011 and continue through December 11, 2011. An official opening is set for Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Matthew (Johnson) and Jacob (Glick) 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, (Breen) is wrangled by his wife Marsha (Ripley) into chaperoning the boys' trip to a wilderness scout camp, he finds himself drawn into their adolescent game. But Matthew has secretly decided just how far he's willing to go for his final act of scouting and everyone might do well to heed the scouts' motto: Be Prepared.
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.
MCC's world premiere production of The Submission, by Jeff Talbott is now running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre under the direction of Tony Award-Winner Walter Bobbie (School for Lies, Chicago). The cast of The Submission features Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, "Glee"), Will Rogers (When the Rain Stops Falling), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, HBO's "How to Make It in America"), and Rutina Wesley ("True Blood," The Vertical Hour). Later in the season, MCC Theater will present the newly reworked and fully re-imagined production of Carrie, the musical. Season subscriptions for all three 2011-2012 mainstage productions are priced at $109-$149 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org. All performances will take place at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
MCC Theater recently celebrated 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 more information on MCC Theater, visit www.mcctheater.org.
