LaBute's FAT PIG announces full cast

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone & Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; John G. Schultz, Executive Director) will re-team with NEIL LaBUTE for the world premiere of his latest work, FAT PIG starring in alphabetical order: Ashlie Atkinson (Theresa on F/X's "Rescue Me"); Andrew McCarthy (Broadway: Side Man; feature films: Less Than Zero; Pretty in Pink; St. Elmo's Fire); JEREMY PIVEN (Ari Jacobs on HBO's "Entourage") and Keri Russell (Golden Globe winner for WB's "Felicity"). Jo Bonney (Living Out; Fifth of July) directs.

Performances of FAT PIG begin off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on Tuesday, November 23. Opening night is Wednesday, December 15 (7pm curtain).

What do you do when you meet the love of your life and she's more than you ever imagined…about seventy-five pounds more?

In Neil LaBute's poignant comedy, FAT PIG, Tom (Jeremy Piven) is falling for Helen (Ashlie Atkinson) a bright, sexy woman who happens to be "generously proportioned." She challenges his mind and makes him laugh. Trouble is, his friends are laughing too. Forced to defend his new relationship and bear the brunt of insults from Jeannie (Keri Russell) and Carter (Andrew McCarthy), Tom must come to terms with his own preconceptions of conventional good looks.

In the age of no carbs, nip tucks and extreme makeovers, will Tom destroy his chance for true happiness?

DESIGN TEAM for FAT PIG

Louisa Thompson (Set Design); Mimi O'Donnell (Costume Design); Matt Frey (Lighting Design); and Rob Kaplowitz (Sound Design). Casting by Bernard Telsey Casting. Production Stage Manager is Joel Rosen. Production Photography by Joan Marcus.

MCC THEATER and NEIL LaBUTE - Production History

MCC THEATER concluded its 2003-2004 season with the US premiere of LaBute's THE DISTANCE FROM HERE, directed by Michael Grief (Rent), featuring Anna Paquin in a Drama Desk-winning ensemble cast performance. In March of 2004, LaBute wrote and directed a star-studded cast in AUTOBAHN, a staged-reading benefit for MCC of five new, one act-plays, all set inside a car. In November 2002, MCC presented the critically acclaimed, sold-out run of LaBute's 9/11 drama THE MERCY SEAT, starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver.

NEIL LaBUTE - Playwright

Neil LaBute received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre. Films include: In the Company of Men (New York Critics' Circle Award for Best First Feature, Filmmakers' Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession and The Shape of Things, a film adaptation of his play by the same title. Plays include: The Mercy Seat; The Distance From Here; The Shape of Things; and bash: latter-day plays. Other plays include Filthy Talk For Troubled Times, Lepers, Rounder, Sangunarians and Sycophants, and Ravages. Other works include two additional world premieres in the 2004-2005 theatrical season: Union Square part of "The Downtown Plays" for the Tribeca Theater Festival, and This is How it Goes for The Public Theater in Spring 2005. His first collection of short stories, "Seconds of Pleasure," was published earlier this month by Faber Books.

JO BONNEY - Director

Credits include: Living Out (Second Stage Theater); Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, Lucille Lortel Award (Signature Theater); Jose Rivera's Adoration of the Old Woman (La Jolla Playhouse) and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (The Public Theater); Eric Bogosian's Humpty Dumpty (McCarter Theatre) and Suburbia (Studio Theatre); Diana Son's Stop Kiss (The Public Theater); Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing (The New Group); Slanguage by Universes (New York Theater Workshop); John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Classic Stage Company). Bogosian's Funhouse; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead, and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee; Danny Hoch's Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop. Philip Ridley's The Fastest Clock in the Universe and Seth Zvi Roxefeld's The Flatted Fifth (The New Group); Patrick Breen's At Midnight and Morning Rain and Warren Leight's Stray Cats (Naked Angels). Bonney is the recipient of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction and the editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century.

Ashlie Atkinson - Helen

Ashlie Atkinson appears in a recurring role as Theresa, the sexy, outspoken lady-love of rookie firefighter Mike Siletti on FX's Rescue Me - the critically-acclaimed new drama series about NYC firefighters, starring Denis Leary. Ashlie trained at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre (NY), Hendrix College (Arkansas) and Barnard (NY). Other TV: "Law & Order." Film: Another Gay Movie (shooting 2005). Radio: Host, Rush Hour Radio for LICK 101.1 FM (Arkansas). Regional Theater: All The King's Men; ATrainMusical (TheATrainPlays); Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Arkansas Shakespeare Festival. Member: Gotham Girls Roller Derby aka "Margaret Thrasher." Fat Pig is her Off-Broadway stage debut.

Andrew McCarthy - Carter

Theatre: B'way: Sideman (also Kennedy Center), Boys of Winter. Off B'way: The Exonerated; Psychopathia Sexualis (MTC); Bodies, Rest and Motion (Lincoln Center), among others. Regional: Glass Menagerie (A.R.T., Hartford Stage), Long Day's Journey Into Night (Hartford Stage), Death Of Papa, A Distant Country Called Youth (Williamstown), Trumbo (Bay Street), among others. Film: More than two dozen including: News For The Church (Writer and Director), New Waterford Girl, I'm Losing You, Mulholland Falls, Joy Luck Club, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Year of the Gun, Quiet Days in Clichy, Weekend at Bernie's, Mannequin, Less Than Zero, Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Heaven Help Us, Class, among others. TV: "Kingdom Hospital" (ABC), "Straight From the Heart" (Hallmark), "Jackie: A Life" (CBS Miniseries), "The Sight" (F/X), "Christmas Tree" (ABC), "A Father for Brittany" (CBS), "The Common Pursuit" (BBC), "Monk" (USA), among numerous others.

JEREMY PIVEN - Tom

Jeremy Piven stars in HBO's new original series Executive Produced by Mark Wahlberg, "Entourage," which debuted on July 18, 2004. He stars as Ari Jacobs, a slick, hard talking agent who is the leader of an up-and-coming actor's entourage. Piven has graced the big screen in over 40 films including Chasing Liberty, Scary Movie 3, Runaway Jury, Old School, Serendipity, Black Hawk Down, Very Bad Things, Rush Hour 2 and The Family Man. On the small screen, Piven has been a series regular on "Cupid" and "Ellen" and has appeared on "The Larry Sanders Show" and in the telepic "Don King: Only in America."

Piven was born and raised in Chicago where his parents founded the Piven Theatre Workshop. His father, Byrne, taught the likes of John and Joan Cusack, Rosanna Arquette and Aidan Quinn. Fat Pig is his New York stage debut.

Keri Russell - Jeannie

A familiar face to television audiences, Keri Russell played the title role in "Felicity." In just four months after the show's acclaimed premiere on the WB, Russell was honored with a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Series. Russell's upcoming projects for 2005 include the New Line feature The Upside Of Anger opposite Joan Allen and Kevin Costner, directed by Mike Binder and "Into the West," executive produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Simon Wincer, for DreamWorks and TNT. Feature Film credits include, Mad About Mambo, The Curve and Eight Days A Week. Keri now makes her home in New York City. Fat Pig is her stage debut.

FAT PIG PERFORMANCE VENUE/ TICKET INFORMATION

FAT PIG will perform at the LUCILLE LORTEL THEATRE (121 Christopher Street, NYC).

To reach the Lucille Lortel Theatre by Subway, Take the number 1 or 9 (red line) train to Christopher Street station. Walk west one and a half blocks down the street. The Lucille Lortel Theatre is between Bleecker and Hudson Streets

Tickets for FAT PIG are $50.00, and are available beginning October 28 through Ticket Central, 212-279-4200, or online at (www.TicketCentral.com). Student Rush Tickets: subject to availability, are $15.00, on sale 30 minutes prior to curtain, in-person ONLY at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Box Office, with valid student ID (NOTE: limit of one pair, per student daily.)

FAT PIG PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

November 23-27: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 8pm (Dark, no perf: Thanksgiving 11/25), Friday at 2:30pm & 8pm; Saturday at 2:30pm & 8pm.

November 29-December 4: Monday-Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday matinee at 2:30pm.

December 7-11: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday matinee at 2:30pm.

December 13-18: Monday-Wednesday at 7pm, Wednesday matinee at 2:30pm, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday matinee at 2:30pm. NOTE: Opening Night Is Wednesday, December 15 at 7pm.

December 20-25: Monday-Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 2:30pm & 8pm, Thursday at 8pm, (Dark, no perf: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 12/24 & 12/25).

December 27-January 1: Monday-Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2:30pm.

January 3-January 15: Monday-Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday matinee at 2:30pm.

ABOUT MCC THEATER

MCC THEATER is one of New York City's leading Off-Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and World Premieres Off-Broadway each season. Under the artistic direction of Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, and William Cantler, MCC Theater has brought many artists' names into the spotlight in its eighteen-year history. John G. Schultz serves as Executive Director.

When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to theater-going audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through presentation of its season works; its Literary Program, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers; and its Education Outreach Program, allowing more than 1,200 students yearly to experience theater, increase literacy and discover their own voices in the arts.

Notable highlights from the MCC 18-year history include: the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery's Frozen, Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone, Margaret Edson's Wit, Marsha Norman's Trudy Blue, Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living and Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for their production of Wit in 1999.

MCC THEATER recently presented Bryony Lavery's LAST EASTER, directed by Doug Hughes (closing: Oct. 23, 2004). MCC concluded its 2003-2004 season with Neil LaBute's THE DISTANCE FROM HERE, directed by Michael Greif; the sold-out run (and Tony-winning Broadway transfer) of Bryony Lavery's FROZEN directed by Doug Hughes; and Eric Coble's BRIGHT IDEAS, directed by John Rando.