Robin Tunney & Julia Garner Join Zachary Quinto for MCC's SMOKEFALL
By: Caryn Robbins Nov. 25, 2015
MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) is thrilled to announced that film and television star Robin Tunney will make her stage debut opposite the previously announced Zachary Quinto in the New York premiere of Smokefall,by Noah Haidle and directed by Anne Kauffman, who directed The Nether for MCC last season to great acclaim. Tunney is best known for her breakthrough performances in films such as Empire Records, The Craftand Niagara, Niagara, and most recently seven seasons on CBS's hit drama "The Mentalist." Tunney and Quinto will also be joined by rising star Julia Garner, currently starring opposite Lily Tomlin in the Oscar-buzzed independent film Grandma; and NYC theater veterans Jon DeVries and Brian Hutchison. Smokefall will play the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) with previews beginning February 4, 2016 and an opening night set for February 22. It is scheduled through March 13. Single tickets will go on saleJanuary 5, 2016, but advanced tickets are currently available via subscription packages at www.mcctheater.org.
MCC Theater is currently in performances with the acclaimed run of John Pollono's Lost Girls starring Piper Perabo, which has been extended through December 4th at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Lost Girls, directed by Jo Bonney, also stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Meghann Fahy, Tasha Lawrence, Lizzy DeCelement, andJosh Green.
Smokefall had its world premiere, smash-hit run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where the Chicago Tribune called the play "a haunting, not-to-be-missed new family drama." In Smokefall, magical realism collides with manic vaudeville in a family drama unlike any you've ever seen. The Twins swap philosophy while awaiting their birth, Beauty eats dirt and doesn't speak, Father is about to drive away and never return, and a man named Footnote acts as our guide. Whipping from astonishing tenderness to profound humor and back again, this wholly original play uncovers the extraordinary family connections we all stretch and warp across the years but can never quite break. Smokefall marks the MCC debut of playwright Haidle.
The design team for Smokefall includes scenic design by 2015 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" recipientMimi Lien (An Octoroon; Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812); lighting by David Weiner (The Normal Heart, Break of Noon), costumes by Asta Hostetter (You Got Older), and sound by Lindsay Jones(The Brothers Size). Casting by William Cantler, Telsey+Company.
MCC's 2015-16 Season will conclude with Halley Feiffer (I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard) making her MCC Theater playwriting debut with her play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City. All productions will be staged at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street).
Robin Tunney (Violet) stepped onto the film scene in the teen cult classics The Craft and Empire Records. She then starred in the independent film Niagara, Niagara which earned her the Volpe Cup for Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival and a Spirit Award Nomination for Best Lead Actress in a film. She also appeared in Allen Coulter's film Hollywoodland and Sundance favorites Cherish and The Secret Lives of Dentists, and won Best Actress at The Boston International Film Festival for her role in Mia Goldman's Open Window. Television credits include her role as Veronica Donovan on Fox Television's hit series "Prison Break" and the role of Theresa Lisbon on CBS' hit show "The Mentalist." Ms. Tunney is making her stage debut inSmokefall.
Zachary Quinto (Footnote/Fetus Two/Samuel) Broadway: The Glass Menagerie directed by John Tiffany (Drama League Award nominee.) Off Broadway: Angels in America, Signature Theatre Company (Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nomination.) Theatre: Side Man, Gross Indecency, City Theatre Company; The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Old Globe; Endgame, Odyssey Theatre Company, Los Angeles; The Bear, Tintreach Company, Galway, Ireland. Television: "American Horror Story," "American Horror Story: Asylum" (Critic's Choice Award, Emmy Award nomination), "The Slap." "Heroes," "24," "Six Feet Under." Film: Spock inStar Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, and the upcoming Star Trek Beyond; I Am Michael, the upcomingSnowden directed by Oliver Stone; Produced and starred in Margin Call; Produced All is Lost starring Robert Redford; Will executive produce the film adaptation of Vicky Ward's novel "The Liar's Ball"; Will produce and star in the upcoming independent film Aardvark opposite Jenny Slate. BFA, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
Julia Garner (Beauty) can currently be seen opposite Lily Tomlin in Paul Weitz's Grandma, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance film festival and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. She just wrapped the title role in Oscar nominee Juanita Wilson's film, Tomato Red, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell. Julia recurs on the FX spy drama "The Americans," opposite Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell and will next shoot an arc on Baz Luhrmann's Netflix series "The Get Down." She can next be seen in Chris McCoy's Good Kids opposite Nicholas Braun, Zoey Deutch, Demian Bichir and Ashley Judd. Her other feature credits include Sin City 2, We Are What We Are, Electrick Children and Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Brian Hutchison (Daniel/Fetus One) Broadway: Man and Boy, Looped, Exit the King, Proof, The Invention of Love. Off-Broadway: Regrets, Spirit Control, From Up Here (MTC), Pocatello, Go Back to Where You Are, People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons), Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout), Oh, The Humanity... (Flea Theater), Can't Let Go (Keen). Regional: Bay Street, Huntington, Williamstown, Yale Rep, Westport. Film and TV: Vinyl, The Path, Show me a Hero, Killing Kennedy, Winter's Tale, Love & Other Drugs, Vino Veritas, "Person of Interest", "Do No Harm","The Good Wife," "Law & Order" (SVU&CI); MFA: Old Globe/USD.
Jon DeVries (Colonel/Johnny) Broadway: Devour the Snow, Execution of Justice, Major Barbara, Loose Ends, Inspector General. Off-Broadway: Wayside Motor Inn (Drama Desk), Regular Singing (Lortel Award nom./outstanding lead actor/play, NY Drama Critics Circle Special Citation/outstanding ensemble.), That HopeyChangey Thing, Sweet and Sad (Drama Desk/Obie Awards), Sorry, One Flea Spare, As You Like It, The Cherry Orchard, Agamemnon, Ballad of Soapy Smith, Titus Andronicus, Galileo, Accomplices, Goodnight Children Everywhere, General from America, Sight Unseen, Hamlet, Richard II, Oedipus. With the LaMama/Great Jones Repertory Company/International Tours: Medea, Electra, and Fragments of a Trilogy, Good Woman of Setzuan. National Tours: August: Osage County, Forbidden Christmas, Doctor and Patient (with Mikhail Baryshnikov). European Tour 2015 Apple Family Plays; Regional: Two Rooms (Dramalogue Award), Left, Ethan Frome, The Winter's Tale, etc... Select Film/TV: Kill Your Darlings; American Gangster; The International; Evening; The Baxter; Lianna; Sarah: Plain and Tall; Skylark; The Joy Luck Club, etc... "Law & Order," "Law and Order CI," "Bluebloods," "Boardwalk Empire," "Elementary," etc.
Noah Haidle's plays have premiered at the Goodman, Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, the Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Summer Play Festival in New York City, HERE Arts Center, as well as many others around the United States and abroad. He is a graduate of Princeton University and The Juilliard School, where he was a Lila Acheson Wallace playwright-in-residence. He is the recipient of three Lincoln Center Lecompte Du Nouy awards, the 2005 Helen Merrill Award for emerging playwrights, the 2007 Claire Tow Award and an NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant. He is published by Methuen in London, Suhrkamp in Berlin, and through Dramatists Play Service in New York City. His original screenplay Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, produced by Lionsgate and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, opened in February 2013. He is currently working on commissions from Lincoln Center Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and is set to direct his screenplay The Rodeo Clown, produced by Olive Productions and Mosaic. Haidle is a proud resident of Detroit.
Anne Kauffman is an Obie Award-winning director whose production highlights include You Got Older (Page 73 Producitons), Buzzer at the Public Theater, The Nether at MCC Theater, Smokefall at the Goodman Theatre, Somewhere Fun at Vineyard Theatre; Your Mother's Copy of the Karma Sutra, Maple and Vine and Detroit at Playwrights Horizons; Belleville at New York Theatre Workshop, Yale Repertory Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Tales from My Parents' Divorce at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Flea Theater; This Wide Night at Naked Angels; Becky Shaw and Body Awareness at The Wilma Theater; Slowgirl and Stunning at LCT3; Sixty Miles to Silver Lake with Page 73 Productions at Soho Rep; God's Ear at Vineyard Theatre and New Georges; The Thugs at Soho Rep; the musical We Have Always Lived in the Castle at Yale Repertory Theatre; Cherokee at the Wilma Theater and 100 Days at Z Space. Ms. Kauffman is a recipient of the 2015 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction, Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, a Lilly Award, the Alan Schneider Director Award and several Barrymore awards. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Soho Rep's Artistic Council, on the New Georges' Kitchen Cabinet, an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and the Drama League, a founding member of The Civilians and an associate artist with Clubbed Thumb.
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, William 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 nearly 1,200 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 2017. Notable productions include the recent hit Hand to God, which is currently having a celebrated run on Broadway; The Nether; the Obie-winning Punk Rock; Small Engine Repair; The Village Bike; 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 ten plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy.
Photo courtesy of CBS
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