Ayad Akhtar and Doug Hughes Chat JUNK as Part of Lincoln Center Theater's Platform Series Tonight

Lincoln Center Theater's Platform Series, a forum for public discussion between Lincoln Center Theater artists and interested theatergoers, continues tonight, October 24, at 6pm with Ayad Akhtar and Doug Hughes, the playwright and director, respectively, of LCT's production of the new play Junk, currently in previews for an opening on Thursday, November 2 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Series events take place in the early evening in the lobby of the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65th Street). Admission is free and open to all; however, seating in the lobby is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis only, beginning at a half hour before the talk. (Speakers and schedules are subject to change. Call 212-501-3100 to confirm on the day of the event.)

It's 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm SackeR Lowell, has just landed on the cover of Time Magazine. Hailed as "America's Alchemist," his proclamation that "debt is an asset" has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to re-shape the world.

JUNK is the story of Merkin's assault on American capitalism's holy of holies, the "deal of the decade," his attempt to takeover an iconic American manufacturing company and, in the process, to change all the rules. What Merkin sets in motion is nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and ultimately, pitting every one against themselves.

Set over 30 years ago, this is a play about how, while most of us weren't watching, money became the only thing of real value.

Ayad Akhtar returns to Lincoln Center Theater where his plays Disgraced and The Who & The What were produced by LCT3. Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama forDisgraced and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play for Disgraced's subsequent Broadway production co-produced by The Araca Group and LCT. Akhtar was named the most produced playwright during the 2015-2016 season by American Theatre. His other plays include the Obie Award-winning The Invisible Hand, which was long-listed for the 2016 Evening Standard Theatre Award. Mr. Akhtar is also a novelist and author of American Dervish, published in over 20 languages worldwide. He is currently the Resident Playwright with Arena Stage at Washington, D.C.'s Mead Center for American Theater.

Doug Hughes directed the LCT productions of The City of Conversation and The House in Town. A Tony Award winner for his direction of Doubt, his other Broadway credits include The Father, Outside Mullingar, The Big Knife, An Enemy of the People, Born Yesterday, Oleanna, The Royal Family, A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, Inherit the Wind, A Touch of the Poet, and Frozen (Tony Award nomination). In addition to the Tony Award, he has been awarded Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Callaway awards for his productions.

Lincoln Center Theater's Platform series was introduced in the summer of 1998. Transcripts of the previous talks are available on-line at www.lct.org.