MCC Announces Final Extension for THE NETHER, Starring Merritt Wever

MCC THEATER has announced that the New York premiere of Jennifer Haley's The Nether directed by Anne Kaufman has now extended for a final time through Sunday, March 29, 2015. This extension announcement comes on the heels of playwright Haley's Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play for the current West End production at Duke of York's Theatre. The production opened on Tuesday, February 24th and was previously scheduled through March 22, 2015 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street). The play had its world premiere in Los Angeles in 2013 at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre. For info and tickets, please visit www.mcctheater.org.

The Nether stars "Nurse Jackie" Emmy Award winner Merritt Wever; Tony Award winner Frank Wood; Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman; Ben Rosenfield, memorably of the final two seasons of "Boardwalk Empire"; and rising talent Sophia Anne Caruso.

The Nether, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, is a haunting thriller that will make you question when the fantastic becomes too real. There is a new immersive realm for the senses online, a virtual playground where those who plug in are coaxed into acting out their darkest fantasies - with no consequences in the "real" world. Or so it seems...until a young female detective begins an investigation to determine if there is a point at which thought or intention may actually constitute a crime within -- and outside of -- this new frontier.

Following The Nether, MCC Theater will present the world premiere of Robert Askins' Permission, set for April 29 - June 7, 2015 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. As previously announced, Alex Timbers will direct. Timbers is a two-time Tony-nominated writer and director and the recipient of Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as two OBIE Awards. On Broadway, he co-directed Peter and the Starcatcher and directed and wrote the book for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, among others. Off-Broadway, he has memorably directed Here Lies Love and Love's Labours Lost-both at The Public. Permission marks the return of playwright Robert Askins to MCC Theater, where last season he debuted his critically-acclaimed Hand to God-a play which will open on Broadway in Spring 2015 with its MCC Theater cast and creative team reprising their work.

MCC Theater - founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company - is driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Led by Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, and Executive Director Blake West, MCC fulfills its mission by producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences, and by nurturing the development of playwrights and students through a variety of literary and education programs that enable nearly 1,200 New York City high school students to find - and use - their own unique voice each year through the creation and performance of original theater pieces. MCC currently produces its annual season at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) and will open its own two-theater complex on West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue in 2017. Notable productions include the recent hits Hand to God and Small Engine Repair; The Village Bike; The Other Place; Really Really; The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays; The Pride; Fifty Words; Nixon's Nixon; The Grey Zone; the Tony Award-winning Frozen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; the re-imagined production of the musical Carrie; and eight plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy.