LUCE, STOP HITTING YOURSELF, & More Featured in LCT3's 2013-14 Season

Lincoln Center Theater Producing Artistic Director André Bishop and LCT3 Artistic Director Paige Evans have announced a slate of three new works to be produced by LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's programming initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists and developing new audiences, during the 2013-2014 season. First up will be the world premiere of LUCE, marking the professional debut of playwright JC Lee, directed by May Adrales (Saturday, October 5 through Sunday, November 17 - opening Monday, October 21). LUCE will be followed in January with a second world premiere, STOP HITTING YOURSELF, created by Rude Mechs (Monday, January 13 through Sunday, February 23, 2014 - opening Monday, January 27). The season will conclude with the New York premiere of 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar's new play THE WHO AND THE WHAT, directed by Kimberly Senior (Saturday, May 31 through Sunday, July 13, 2014 - opening Monday, June 16).

In addition LCT3's Special Event series will continue this summer with the return engagement of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company's WE'RE GONNA DIE, written and performed by Young Jean Lee, with music by Future Wife, choreography by Faye Driscoll and direction by Paul Lazar, for 10 performances only Monday, August 5 through Saturday, August 17, also in the Claire Tow Theater.

WE'RE GONNA DIE

Written and performed by Young Jean Lee

Monday, August 5 through Saturday, August 17

A LCT3 Special Event

Young Jean Lee's Theater Company will return to LCT3 with their Obie Award-winning show WE'RE GONNA DIE. Provocative playwright/director Young Jean Lee will once again take the Claire Tow Theater stage with her band, Future Wife (Mike Hanf, Andrew Hoepfner, Nick Jenkins and Ben Kupstas), in this life-affirming show about the one thing everyone has in common: WE'RE GONNA DIE. You may be miserable, but you won't be alone.

WE'RE GONNA DIE has choreography by Faye Driscoll, direction by Paul Lazar and costumes by Roxana Ramseur. Associate Director is Morgan Gould. Mike Farry is Dramaturg, Sunny Stapleton in the Production Supervisor and Aaron Rosenblum is the Producer for the Young Jean Lee's Theater Company.

Young Jean Lee, who is currently under commission to create a new piece for LCT3, is a

two-time Obie Award-winning playwright and director who has been called "the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation" by the New York Times. She has written and directed nine shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, and toured her work to over twenty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, The Shipment andLear) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee).

LUCE

by JC Lee

directed by May Adrales

Saturday, October 5 through Sunday, November 17

Opening night Monday, October 21

When a teacher makes a damaging discovery about Luce, an all-star high school student, Luce's parents are forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted years ago from a war-torn African country.

Luce marks JC Lee's professional playwriting debut. He is is a recent graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School and was a 2011-12 writing fellow at The Playwrights Realm. His plays have been in various stages of development throughout the United States at such theaters as South Coast Rep, the Magic Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

May Adrales' Off-Broadway credits include David Henry Hwang's The Dance and the Railroad at the Signature Theatre Company and Lauren Yee's Chino Chong Chinaman at Pan Asian Rep. Her production of Bereaved was named one of 2009's "Ten Best of the Year" by Time Out/NY and she has also directed in New York at The Public Theater, Second Stage, New York Theater Workshop and Primary Stages. Her regional theater credits include productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage and the Cleveland Playhouse.

LUCE will have sets by Timothy R. Mackabee, costumes by Kaye Voyce, lighting by Tyler Micoleau and sound by Jill BC Du Boff.

STOP HITTING YOURSELF

Created by Rude Mechs

Monday, January 13 through Sunday, February 23, 2014

Opening night is Monday, January 27

Part Pygmalion, part Busby Berkley, part self-help lexicon, Stop Hitting Yourself borrows from the plots of 1930's musicals to dig deep into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor steely individualism without disavowing the virtue of charity -- all the while tap-dancing around a queso fountain. Commissioned by LCT3, Stop Hitting Yourself will be a world premiere.

An ensemble-based theater collective, Rude Mechs has created a mercurial slate of original theatrical productions that represent a genre-defying cocktail of big ideas, cheap laughs, and dizzying spectacle. They perform their productions at their home base in Austin, Texas, as well as nationally and internationally. Rude Mechs productions seen previously Off-Broadway include Dionysus in 69 and Method Gun.

THE WHO AND THE WHAT

By Ayad Akhtar

Directed by Kimberly Senior

Saturday, May 31 through Sunday, July 13, 2014

Opening night is Monday, June 16

An examination of the chasm between our traditions and our contemporary lives, The Who and the What is the story of Zarina, an outspoken and brilliant writer, who clashes with her traditional father and sister over her book about women and Islam, a work that threatens to tear her family apart for good.

Ayad Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Disgraced, which enjoyed an extended run when it was produced by LCT3 last season. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel American Dervish and the play The Invisible Hand. He co-authored and starred in the film The War Within, which was released internationally, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screen play. As an actor, he starred in HBO's adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big To Fail.

Kimberly Senior directed Disgraced last season at LCT3, as well as the play's world premiere at Chicago's American Theater Company. She 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.

The Who and the What will have sets by Jack Magaw, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Japhy Weideman and sound by Jill BC Du Boff.

Casting for all three productions will be announced at a later date.

LCT3's 2013-2014 season is supported by generous grants from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Time Warner Foundation.