MCC Theater Youth Company to Kick Off FRESHPLAY FESTIVAL this Weekend

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) have announced plans for its 2013 FreshPlay Festival, featuring plays written by members of the MCC Theater Youth Company, a free, after-school program of New York City high school students interested in exploring self-expression and developing their acting and dramatic writing skills. All performances of FreshPlay Festival will take place atTelsey + Company (311 W 43rd Street, 10th Floor) and are free and open to the public.

The FreshPlay Festival merges the voices and creativity of urban youth with the experience of professionals, creating provocative, innovative, and fresh theater. This year, the FreshPlay Festival will focus on the process of workshopping with five original plays penned by MCC Theater Youth Company playwrights. These young writers will work with a roster of professional directors, actors and with their peers from the Youth Company's Acting Lab.

Over the course of three days, our five young playwrights will receive a combined 100 hours of workshops under the guidance of five professional directors and with the participation of over 30 performers. After 20-25 hours of process-based workshops, each play will receive a culminating reading.

The FreshPlay Festival creative team includes Lucy Thurber (Artistic Director), Caroline Azano (Producer), Alec Silberblatt (Co-Producer), and Lyssa Deehan (Co-Producer).

The lineup of readings is as follows:

Friday, July 12th at 8pm
Red Door
By Lily Houghton
Directed by Jenna Worsham
With Dylan Clark Markshall ("The Following," "The Carrie Diaries," "30 Rock") and Charlie Thurston (Trinity Rep, Baltimore Stage, Arden Theatre Co.)

Saturday, July 13th at 3pm
Over the Horizon
By Sasha Duprey
Directed by Margaret Hoffman
With Yadira Guevara-Prip (Rattlestick, Middle Voice, MCC Youth Company member) and Philippe Bowgen (Atlantic, The Shakespeare Theater Co., Guthrie)

Saturday, July 13th at 5pm
Adonis the Great and Icarus's Wings
By Michael Sypa
Directed by Emily Zemba
With Tom Butler ("Fringe," "The Killing," "Flight 93") and Terrell Sledge (Actors Theater of Louisville, Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre)

Sunday, July 14th at 3pm
All Rants and Prom Night Pep Talk
By Yadira Guevara-Prip
Directed by George Carruth
With Noah Brody (founder and Co-Artistic Director of Fiasco Theater; Into the Woods) and Lynnette Freeman (Arkansas Rep)

Sunday, July 14th at 5pm
Dennis and Sarah
By Isaiah Leaks
Directed by Steve DiUbaldo
With Rachel Christopher, (Trinity Rep, Fault Line, Williamstown Theater Fest), Peter Jay Fernandez ("House of Cards," "The Good Wife," Broadway'sJulius Caesar), Phyllis Stickney (Arkansas Rep, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, HBO's "The History of Blacks in Comedy")

The MCC Theater Youth Company is a free after-school program for New York City public school students, ages 14 -20, who are interested in acting and playwriting. The Youth Company is designed to inspire young people to find and express their voices through the creation and performance of original theater pieces, while providing them with a safe artistic environment where they may grow and learn.

MCC Theater recently announced its 2013-14 Main Stage Season which includes: the Broadway premiere of the Mary-Louise Parker-starrer The Snow Geese by MCC alum Sharr White, which is a co-production with Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) set for October 1 through December 15, 2013 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre; the New York Premiere of John Pollono's celebrated Small Engine Repair, the comic thriller that premiered to rave reviews and sold-out audiences at L.A.'s Rogue Machine Theatre, which will begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on October 30, 2013 with an official opening on November 18, 2013; the Off-Broadway premiere of Robert Askins' Hand to God, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starring Steven Boyer (Modern Terrorism, The Wolf of Wall Street), at Lucille Lortel Theatre, beginning on February 20, 2014 with an official opening on March 11, 2014; and the North American premiere of Penelope Skinner's The Village Bike, directed by Sam Gold (Circle Mirror Transformation), starring Academy Award nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre beginning May 21, 2014 with an official opening on June 9, 2014.

For its 2013-14 Season, MCC Theater will offer subscribers the opportunity to book 3-Play (all 3 Off-Broadway productions at the Lortel) or 4-Play (all Lortel productions plus Broadway's The Snow Geese) Subscriptions, as well as a First-Look Subscription (access to one of the first 10 performances of each production), Under 30 Tickets, and Flex Tickets. Regular ticket prices are $69 and $89.

For more information, visit www.mcctheater.org.