MTC Will Present World Premiere of John Patrick Shanley's PRODIGAL SON in 2016

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) has just announced Manhattan Theatre Club will produce the world premiere of Prodigal Son, the new play written and directed by Tony, Pulitzer Prize, and Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley.

The limited engagement of Prodigal Son will begin previews Tuesday, January 19, 2016 for a Tuesday, February 9, 2016 opening night at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

Prodigal Son is a passionate, explosive portrait of a young man on the verge of salvation or destruction, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (of Tony, Academy Award, and Pulitzer Prize fame). A 17-year-old boy from The Bronx finds himself suddenly in a private school in New Hampshire. He's violent, gifted, alienated, on fire with a ferocious loneliness. Two faculty members wrestle with the dilemma: Is the kid a star or a disaster?

The world premiere of Prodigal Son marks another exciting step forward in the collaboration between Manhattan Theatre Club and this visceral New York playwright (Doubt, Outside Mullingar).

Casting, creative team, and other listings information for the production will be announced in the coming weeks.

MTC's 2015-2016 Broadway season will feature the Broadway premiere of Sam Shepard's Fool for Lovestarring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell, directed by Daniel Aukin presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival and the New York premiere of Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair, directed byLynne Meadow starring Linda Lavin. The 2015-2016 Off-Broadway season will include David Lindsay-Abaire's new comedy Ripcord, directed by David Hyde Pierce starring Marylouise Burke and Mary Louise Wilson; the world premiere of Prodigal Son written and directed by John Patrick Shanley; the American premiere ofIncognito written by Nick Payne, directed by Doug Hughes; and the new comedy Important Hats of the Twentieth Century written by Nick Jones, directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel.

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive ProducerBarry Grove, has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 19 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions includeConstellations; Casa Valentina; Outside Mullingar; The Assembled Parties; Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird;Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; andAin't Misbehavin.' For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

New and renewing subscribers can join the 2015-2016 season by calling The MTC Clubline at 212-399-3050. Single ticket information along with other listings information for MTC's 2015-2016 season will be announced at a later date.

JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY (Playwright, Director) is from The Bronx. His plays include Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Italian-American Reconciliation, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His theatrical work is performed extensively across the United States and around the world. For his play, Doubt, he received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the arena of screenwriting, he has nine films to his credit, most recently Doubt, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis; Doubt, directed by Shanley, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films include Five Corners (Special Jury Prize, Barcelona Film Festival), Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Live From Baghdad for HBO (Emmy nomination). For his script of Moonstruck he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, the Writers Guild of America awarded Shanley the Lifetime Achievement in Writing.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos