Boxing Tale THE ROYALE, Branden Jacob-Jenkins' WAR & More Announced for Lincoln Center's 2015-16 Season

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Producing Artistic Director André Bishop) has announced the upcoming productions of three new plays during its 2015 - 2016 season, BroadwayWorld has learned.

Currenly on tap are THE ROYALE by Marco Ramirez, directed by Rachel Chavkin, beginning performances Thursday, February 11, opening Monday, March 7 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street); and the LCT3 productions of HER REQUIEM by Greg Pierce, directed by Kate Whoriskey, beginning performances Saturday evening, February 6, opening Monday, February 22, and WAR by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, beginning performances Saturday evening, May 21, opening Monday, June 6, both at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). The casting for all three productions will be announced at a later date.

THE ROYALE
by Marco Ramirez
directed by Rachel Chavkin

Loosely based on the real-life experiences of Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight world champion, THE ROYALE tells, in six rounds, the fictional story of Jay "The Sport" Johnson, a charismatic Negro Heavyweight Champion. It's 1905 and as Johnson faces his opponents - and confronts his demons - he exposes the troublesome events in his life that have propelled him into the ring with a burning desire to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Marco Ramirez has had plays produced at The Kennedy Center, Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays, San Diego's Old Globe, London's Bush Theatre, and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. His honors include Juilliard's Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship, the Lecomte du Nouy Award, and TCG's Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. A WGA and Emmy Award nominated television writer, his credits include "Sons of Anarchy" (FX), "Orange is the New Black" (Netflix), "Fear The Walking Dead" (AMC), and Marvel's "Daredevil" (Netflix).

Rachel Chavkin developed and directed the recent, critically-acclaimed LCT3 production of Dave Malloy's Preludes and previously directed THE ROYALE at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Her Off-Broadway credits include Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova); Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Ars Nova, Kazino); The TEAM's RoosevElvis (Bushwick Starr, Vineyard Theatre with PS122); Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy's Three Pianos (Incubator, New York Theatre Workshop, ART); Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge (Act II, HERE); James Monaco and Jerome Ellis' Aaron/Marie (with Annie Tippe, Under the Radar Incoming). Regional/UK: The TEAM and Heather Christian's Mission Drift (London's National Theatre), Meg Miroshnik's Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (Northern Stage, English National Tour). She is Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based experimental ensemble The TEAM.

The design team for THE ROYALE will be announced at a later date.

HER REQUIEM
World Premiere
by Greg Pierce
directed by Kate Whoriskey

Commissioned by LCT3, (Paige Evans, Artistic Director/LCT3 in HER REQUIEM Caitlin takes her senior year off from high school to compose a full-scale requiem. Inspired by her dedication, her father, Dean, becomes obsessed with requiems and the people who love them, while her mother, Allison, becomes concerned about Caitlin's isolation from everyone aside from her music teacher. As their once-cozy Vermont home becomes a nexus for lost souls, Dean and Allison must confront the fact that their daughter's project is destroying their family.

HER REQUIEM will have sets by Derek McLane, costumes by Jessica Pabst, lighting by Amith Chandrashaker, and sound by Matt Tierney.

Greg Pierce is a playwright, lyricist, and fiction writer. He returns to LCT3 where his play Slowgirl premiered, opening the Claire Tow Theater before being produced at many theaters including the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Geffen Playhouse. His original musical The Landing, written with John Kander, premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. His second musical collaboration with Kander, Kid Victory, premiered at the Signature Theatre and will open Off-Broadway at the Vineyard in the fall of 2016. Greg's stage adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, co-written with director Stephen Earnhart, premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival and went on to play the Singapore Arts Festival. His play The Quarry, with music by Randal Pierce, premiered at the brothers' hometown theater, Vermont Stage Company. His work has been developed with Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, Naked Angels, and The New Group. A graduate of Oberlin College, Greg received his MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College.

Kate Whoriskey most recently directed Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her other credits include Ping Pong and Manahatta at The Public Theater's studio program, The Miracle Worker on Broadway, Tales from Red Vienna and Ruined at Manhattan Theatre Club (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel nominations), How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage Theatre, The Piano Teacher at the Vineyard Theatre, Oroonoko at Theatre for A New Audience, the world premiere of Fabulation and Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons, and Massacre at the LAByrinth Theater Company (of which she is a member). Internationally, she directed Magdalena at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris and Teatro Municipal de Sao Paolo, and regionally she has directed at The Goodman Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre, South Coast Repertory, American Repertory Theater, the Geffen, Baltimore Center Stage, Perseverance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Fisher Center, and The Eugene O'Neill Center.

WAR
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

Tensions escalate between Tate and Joanne after their mother has a stroke. As they attack each other in their mother's hospital room, they are ambushed by two strangers who make a shocking claim about their grandfather during WWII. With bold theatricality and disarming humor, WAR follows a fractured family as its members navigate the landmines of the past and try to broker peace with each other - and themselves - in the present.

WAR will have sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Montana Blanco, lighting by Matt Frey, and sound by Bray Poor.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' plays include Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Obie Award; Outer Critics Circle nomination; Signature Theatre), Neighbors (The Public Theater), and An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience). He is currently a Residency Five playwright at the Signature Theatre. His work has been seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Matrix Theatre in LA, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, CompanyOne in Boston, and the HighTide Festival in the UK. He is under commissions from LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Center Theatre Group and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Honors include a Paula Vogel Award, a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams award. He has taught at NYU and Queens University of Charlotte and holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU and a BA from Princeton University. Brandon is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School.

Lileana Blain-Cruz's credits include the premiere of War at the Yale Rep; a new translation of The Bakkhai at the Fisher Center at Bard College; Much Ado About Nothing at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Christina Anderson's Hollow Roots which premiered in the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater; Project Realms, an electric pop opera performed at Sala, and A Guide to Kinship and Maybe Magic, a collaboration with choreographer Isabel Lewis and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Dance New Amsterdam. She is the co-founder and director of The Ensemble Company Overhead Projector which devises new work. A graduate of Princeton University, she received her MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama, where she directed the opera Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, The Taming of the Shrew, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, Buffalo Maine, Cavity and lastly, Fox Play, as part of the Carlotta Festival of New Plays. She was one of the co-artistic directors of the 2011-2012 Yale Cabaret and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.

The LCT3 2015-2016 season program is supported by generous grants from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, The Educational Foundation of America, the J & AR Foundation, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Endowment support is generously provided by Daryl Roth.

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