Kimberly Senior to Direct LCT3's DISGRACED; Opens 11/18

LCT3 will open its 2012-2013 season with DISGRACED, a new play by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior beginning Monday, October 15 through Sunday, November 18 at LCT3's new home at Lincoln Center Theater, the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Monday, October 22. LCT3 is producing this New York premiere of DISGRACED by arrangement with The Araca Group.

DISGRACED is the story of Amir Kapoor, a successful Pakistani-American lawyer who is rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his cultural roots. When Amir and his wife Emily, a white artist influenced by Islamic paintings, host a dinner party, what starts out as a friendly conversation escalates into something far more damaging.

Casting and design team for DISGRACED, which premiered earlier this year at Chicago's American Theatre Company (Artistic Director, PJ Paparelli) and developed as part of the AracaWorks bi-annual reading series, will be announced at a later date.

Playwright Ayad Akhtar is a writer and actor whose first novel American Dervish was published to critical acclaim earlier this year by Little Brown. He is the co-author of numerous screenplays and co-wrote and played the lead role in the film The War Within, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay . His plays, in addition to DISGRACED, include The Invisible Hand which recently premiered at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

Kimberly Senior is a Chicago-based director whose credits include productions at Steppenwolf, Strawdog, American Blues and Next Theatres. She is an Artistic Associate at Next Theatre, Strawdog Theatre and Chicago Dramatists.

LCT3 will open the Claire Tow Theater (just one component in a new rooftop addition atop the Vivian Beaumont Theater which will also house rehearsal space and new administrative offices for Lincoln Center Theater) in June with the world premiere of Slowgirl, a new play by Greg Pierce, directed by Anne Kauffman, June 4 through July 15. LCT3 was established in 2008 as a programming initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists as well as developing new audiences. Tickets to all LCT3 productions are $20.

This spring Lincoln Center Theater is presenting Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles, directed by Daniel Aukin at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through June 17 and its ongoing productions of The National Theatre of Great Britain production of War Horse, winner of the 2011 Tony Award for Best Play, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, adapted by Nick Stafford with the Handspring Puppet Company, and directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris in the Vivian Beaumont Theater and Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, directed by Joe Mantello, at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. Next fall, in addition to Disgraced, LCT will present the 75th Anniversary production of Clifford Odets' classic drama Golden Boy, to be directed by Bartlett Sher beginning Thursday, November 8 at a Broadway theatre to be announced and Christopher Durang's new play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (a co-production with the McCarter Theater), to be directed by Nicholas Martin, beginning Thursday, October 25 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.