MCC's DON'T GO GENTLE Begins Performances

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) begins previews today for the world premiere production of Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, who also directed Belber's play Geometry of Fire at the Rattlestick Theater. Don't Go Gentle features David Wilson Barnes (Broadway's The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Becky Shaw at Second Stage), newcomer Maxx Brawer, Michael Cristofer (NBC's hit series "Smash," Broadway's A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber), Angela Lewis (Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights Horizons), and Jennifer Mudge (Roundabout Theatre Company's The Philanthropist). Performances of Don't Go Gentle take place at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) through November 4, 2012. An official opening is set for Sunday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m.

MCC Theater is also pleased to announce a series of talkbacks taking place directly after the following upcoming performances of Don't Go Gentle:

Tuesday, October 2nd - Guests will include: Caprice Royal, Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 20+ years experience; and James Rudolph, former T&E attorney, now a senior trust officer at US Trust. Moderated by MCC Theater Director of Development Erica Lynn Schwartz.

Tuesday, October 23rd - Playwright Stephen Belber, director Lucie Tiberghien, moderated by MCC Theater Co-Artistic Director, Robert LuPone.

Tuesday, October 30th - Members of The cast, moderated by MCC Theater Co-Artistic Director, William Cantler.

Don't Go Gentle follows Judge Lawrence Driver (Cristofer): conservative powerhouse on the bench, failure at home. Now retired, widowed, and seeking redemption, Lawrence volunteers to do pro bono legal work with a young African American woman, Tanya (Lewis), a vulnerable ex-con with a troubled teenage son, while working to repair the increasingly complicated relationships with his own adult children. But do-overs don't come easy, and when his newfound generosity is perceived as condescension, Lawrence runs the risk of losing everything.

Playwright Stephen Belber, an MCC Theater Playwrights' Coalition member, has built an impressive career with plays that, like Don't Go Gentle, chronicle moral ambiguity, including his works Tape, Dusk Rings a Bell, and Match on Broadway. Director Lucie Tiberghien, Belber's frequent collaborator, most recently directed the West Coast premiere of Blood and Gifts at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Scenic Design for Don't Go Gentle is by Robin Vest, Costume Design is by Jenny Mannis, Lighting Design is by Matthew Richards, and Sound Design and Original Compositions are by Fabian Obispo.

MCC Theater's 2012-1013 season will also include the New York Premiere of Paul Downs Colaizzo's startlingly funny, booze-soaked Really Really (January 31 – March 10, 2013) directed by David Cromer, whose visionary take on Our Town took New York by storm in 2009, and whose Tribes is one of this year's biggest Off Broadway hits. Really Really chronicles the hazy aftermath of a wild undergraduate party, where morning-after gossip turns ugly, peeling back the veneer of loyalty and friendship to reveal a vicious jungle of sexual politics, raw ambition, and class warfare where only the strong could possibly survive. A hit at last season's Signature Theater in Washington D.C., casting for Really Really will be announced shortly.

The final show of the 2012-13 season is John Pollono's Small Engine Repair (May 16 – June 23, 2013) which tells the story of Frank, Swaino, and Packie - buddies since high school, now past their prime – who meet off-hours in Frank's out-of-the-way repair shop under cloudy circumstances that only Frank has a handle on. Enter Chad, a plugged-in preppy college jock, whose arrival ignites an explosion of long-simmering resentment and rage in this taut, twisty, comic thriller. A hit at L.A.'s Rogue Machine Theatre last spring, Small Engine Repair makes its New York premiere at MCC Theater with a new production directed by MCC veteran Jo Bonney (Neil LaBute's The Break of Noon, Some Girls(s), Fat Pig). The Cast includes Tony Award-nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (Young Frankenstein, Finian's Rainbow) who joins Jon Bernthal, of AMC's "The Walking Dead," and actor/playwright John Pollono, whose dazzling play took home nearly every theater award in the city of angels, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Playwriting.

Tickets for Don't Go Gentle are $59 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org or calling 212-352-3101. Tickets for Really Really (January 31 – March 10, 2013) and Small Engine Repair Repair (May 16 – June 23, 2013) will go on-sale at a later date. Season subscriptions for all three 2012-2013 mainstage productions are priced at $115-$155 and are now available by visiting www.mcctheater.org. Additionally, MCC Theater offers a $60 "Under 30" subscription for patrons 30 years or younger as of September 27, 2012.

MCC Theater – founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company – is committed to developing and producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences. Our mission is carried out through an annual season of world, American, and New York premieres, literary development programs for emerging writers, and ground-breaking education programs that enable more than 1,000 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. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute, The Pride, Fifty Words, the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery's Frozen, Neil LaBute's Fat Pig, Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living, Marsha Norman's Trudy Blue, Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone, Alan Bowne's Beirut, The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays, and last season's newly reworked and fully re-imagined production of Carrie, the musical. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards.

For a complete production history, visit www.mcctheater.org.