Dominique Morisseau Play PIPELINE Will Tackle School Politics at Lincoln Center Theater

This summer, Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop) will produce PIPELINE, a new play by Dominique Morisseau. PIPELINE, which will be directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, will begin performances Thursday, June 15 and open on Monday, July 10 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

In Dominique Morisseau's PIPELINE, Nya Joseph is a dedicated, inner-city public high school teacher who is committed to her students' achievement, while she sends her only son, Omari, to a private boarding school. When Omari is involved in a controversial incident which threatens him with expulsion from his school, Nya is forced to reconcile Omari's rage and her own parental decisions, as she rallies to save her son.

PIPELINE will have sets by Matt Saunders, costumes by Montana Blanco, lighting by Yi Zhao, sound by Justin Ellington, and projections by Hannah Wasileski. Casting for the production will be announced at a later date.

Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Detroit '67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages). She is alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group, Women's Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab and Eugene O'Neil Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Women's Project, South Coast Rep, People's Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She currently serves as Executive Story Editor on the Showtime series "Shameless." Awards: Stavis Playwriting Award, NAACP Image Award, Spirit of Detroit Award, Weissberger Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper New American Play Prize, TEER Spirit Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama (Detroit '67), and OBIE Award (Skeleton Crew).

Lileana Blain-Cruz returns to Lincoln Center Theater where she directed last season's LCT3 production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War. Her other credits include The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre Company); Salome (Governors Island); Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Soho Rep.); Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); a new translation of The Bakkhai (Fisher Center at Bard College); Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Christina Anderson's Hollow Roots (Under the Radar Festival, The Public); Project Realms (La Sala); A Guide to Kinship and Maybe Magic (with choreographer Isabel Lewis and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; Dance New Amsterdam); and the Yale Rep. production of War. Yale School of Drama: Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, The Taming of the Shrew, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, Buffalo Maine, Cavity, Fox Play (Carlotta Festival of New Plays). She was one of the co-artistic directors of the 2011-2012 Yale Cabaret and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Education: Princeton University; M.F.A. in directing, Yale School of Drama.

This season, in addition to PIPELINE, Lincoln Center Theater is also producing Richard Greenberg's new play The Babylon Line, directed by Terry Kinney, through Sunday, January 22 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; and the upcoming productions of How To Transcend A Happy Marriage, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Rebecca Taichman, beginning Thursday, February 23 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; the LCT3 production of Bull in a China Shop, a new play by Bryna Turner, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, beginning performances Saturday, February 11 at the Claire Tow Theater; and the return of its hit production of J.T. Rogers' Oslo, directed by Bartlett Sher, which begins its Broadway run Thursday, March 23 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. LCT is also co-producing the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, starring Sally Field, directed by Sam Gold, beginning Tuesday, February 7 at the Belasco Theatre; and earlier this season produced the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of William Finn and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical Falsettos at the Walter Kerr Theatre.