MCC's SMOKEFALL, Starring Zachary Quinto, Begins Tonight Off-Broadway

MCC Theater welcomes film and television star Robin Tunney, making her stage debut opposite Zachary Quinto in the New York premiere of SMOKEFALL by Noah Haidle, directed by Anne Kauffman, who directed The Nether for MCC last season to great acclaim.

Tunney and Quinto will also be joined by Tom Bloom, Brian Hutchison, and Taylor Richardson.

SMOKEFALL will play the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) with previews beginning tonight, February 4, 2016, and an opening night set for February 22. It is scheduled through March 13.

SMOKEFALL had its world premiere, smash-hit run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where the Chicago Tribune called the play "a haunting, not-to-be-missed new family drama." In SMOKEFALL, magical realism collides with manic vaudeville in a family drama unlike any you've ever seen. The Twins swap philosophy while awaiting their birth, Beauty eats dirt and doesn't speak, Father is about to drive away and never return, and a man named Footnote acts as our guide. Whipping from astonishing tenderness to profound humor and back again, this wholly original play uncovers the extraordinary family connections we all stretch and warp across the years but can never quite break. SMOKEFALL marks the MCC debut of playwright Haidle.

The design team for SMOKEFALL includes scenic design by 2015 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" recipientMimi Lien (An Octoroon; Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812); lighting by David Weiner (The Normal Heart, Break of Noon), costumes by Asta Hostetter (You Got Older), and sound by Lindsay Jones(The Brothers Size). Casting by William Cantler, Telsey+Company.

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 hit Hand to God, which is currently having a celebrated run on Broadway; The Nether; the Obie-winning Punk Rock; 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 ten plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride