MURDER BALLAD & CHOIR BOY to Launch MTC's Studio at Stage II

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director), Barry Grove (Executive Producer), and Mandy Greenfield (Artistic Producer) announced that Manhattan Theatre Club will launch The Studio at Stage II where bold, new work meets bold, new audiences at New York City Center – Stage II (131 West 55th Street). The Studio at Stage II will launch this fall with the world premiere production of MURDER BALLAD, a new musical by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash, directed by Trip Cullman, and the American premiere of MTC's commission CHOIR BOY, a play with music by Tarell Alvin McCraney.

The play series in The Studio at Stage II has been partially underwritten with a major grant from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the project will be known as "The Studio at Stage II - The Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series."

Michael Steinberg, a Steinberg trustee, commented on the gift, "We are pleased to support Manhattan Theatre Club. We applaud MTC's commitment to new work and are proud to name the new play series." David C. Hodgson, Manhattan Theatre Club Board Chairman, noted, "The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust has been a generous and loyal supporter of MTC for more than two decades and has been instrumental to our success. We are enormously grateful to the trust for its gift to name the new play series at The Studio at Stage II."

As part of The Studio at Stage II, MTC and Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director) will partner on The Writer's Room a program to commission, develop and support playwrights in the process of creating new work for the stage. MTC and Ars Nova look forward to announcing members of The Writer's Room later this year.

In order to ensure that these new works are affordable to the widest possible, most diverse audiences, MTC is pricing all tickets for MURDER BALLAD and CHOIR BOY at $30. Additional ticketing information for The Studio at Stage II will be announced in the coming weeks.

In a statement, Mandy Greenfield, MTC's Artistic Producer said, "Launching The Studio at Stage II affords MTC the opportunity to present thrilling new work in a way which invites audiences into the
artistic process. MTC's producing history in Stage II includes early works from many playwrights who, over time and with many productions across MTC's campus of venues, became part of the fabric of MTC. The Studio at Stage II will be a place for artists to work and for audiences with an appetite for risk, adventure, and bold theatricality to meet that work."

MURDER BALLAD
A New Musical by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash
Directed by Trip Cullman
First Preview: Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Opens: Thursday, November 15, 2012

A love triangle gone wrong, MURDER BALLAD centers on Sara, an Upper West Sider, who seems to have it all, but whose downtown past lingers enticingly and dangerously in front of her. This sexy, explosive, new rock musical explores the complications of love, the compromises we make, and the small betrayals that can ultimately undo us.

MURDER BALLAD is co-written by Jonathan Larson Award winner and two-time Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist, Julia Jordan and indie rock singer/songwriter Juliana Nash. Trip Cullman (Paul Weitz's Lonely, I'm Not; Adam Bock's A Small Fire) will direct.

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