Matthew Perry's END OF LONGING Will Make US Debut at MCC; Full Season Announced!

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director)-which recently celebrated the groundbreaking of its first-ever home, a two-theater complex on West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue- has just announced its30th Anniversary Season, which will bring together frequent MCC collaborators alongside artists new to the family for a three-play-and-a-musical season, running September 2016 through June 2017. Anchored by four mainstage premieres, the Theater will also continue its new works in development PlayLabs series and robust education initiatives throughout the season. This year's PlayLabs programming will be announced at a later date. All productions will be performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street). For more info, visit www.mcctheater.org.

The season will include the world premiere of MCC Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's new play, All The Ways To Say I Love You, a solo piece that will star multi-Tony and Emmy Award winner Judith Light and directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman; the NYC playwriting and stage acting debut of Emmy-nominated "Friends" star Matthew Perry who wrote and will star in his play The End of Longing, directed by Lindsay Posner, following its hit London run; the American premiere of Anna Jordan's Bruntwood Prize-winning play YEN directed by OBIE winner Trip Cullman, the latest play to make its American premiere at MCC after making its world premiere at the Royal Court following The Pride and The Nether; and what will mark MCC's third musical ever, Ride the Cyclone, direct from its hit run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The musical features book, music and lyrics by Jacob Richmond andBrooke Maxwell and direction by Rachel Rockwell.

"As we celebrate 30 incredible years and look ahead to our first permanent home, it is thrilling to be surrounded by some of our favorite collaborators and several artists new to MCC for this 30th Anniversary Season," said Co-Artistic Director Bernard Telsey, speaking on behalf of the company's artistic leadership. "We look forward to sharing these extraordinary new works with our longtime subscribers and our audiences, old and new, who are in for a treat: three exciting, wildly different new plays and something MCC audiences rarely get to see-a musical-just the third in our history."

In honor of its 30th Anniversary Season, MCC will offer a $30-per-show preview subscription package. The 30th Anniversary subscription package affirms MCC's commitment to helping ensure its work is accessible to a wide range of audiences. Subscriptions can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101 or visiting mcctheater.org.

MCC is currently in the midst of its acclaimed 2015-16 Season, with the World Premiere of Halley Feiffer's comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, directed by Obie winner Trip Cullman and starringBeth Behrs (CBS's "2 Broke Girls"), Obie winner Lisa Emery, and stage veterans Erik Lochtefeld and Jacqueline Sydney. Previews begin May 19th, with an opening night set for June 7.

MCC Theater broke ground on its first permanent home on March 22 of this year. Set to open in 2018, the space will unite MCC's diverse roster of programs under one roof for the first time in the company's three-decade history. The new facility will also allow MCC to expand its programming and establish it as a cultural anchor within the Clinton neighborhood. The $35 million project is funded by a public-private partnership between the Theater and the City of New York, which has contributed $25.7 million to the project. The campaign has raised $30 million to-date.

The MCC Theater 2016-17 Mainstage Season:

World Premiere

ALL THE WAYS TO SAY I LOVE YOU
by Neil LaBute
directed by Leigh Silverman
with Judith Light

First Preview: September 6, 2016
Opening: September 28, 2016
Closing: October 9, 2016

Faye Johnson is a high school English teacher and guidance counselor in a long-time, loving marriage. As she recounts her experiences with a favored student from her past, Faye slowly reveals the truth that is hidden just beneath the surface details of her life. All The Ways To Say I Love You is a solo play about love, hard choices, and the cost of fulfilling an all-consuming desire.

All The Ways To Say I Love You marks Neil LaBute's 10th play produced by MCC in a 15-year collaboration that includes some of the playwright's seminal works: Fat Pig, The Mercy Seat, The Distance from Here, and reasons to be pretty, the latter of which transferred to Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. Judith Light, an MCC mainstay onstage and off, returns to the Lortel following her performances in Margaret Edson'sWit and Laura Wade's Colder Than Here. Leigh Silverman was last seen at MCC with Coraline.

New York Premiere

RIDE THE CYCLONE
book, music and lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell
directed by Rachel Rockwell

First Preview: November 9, 2016
Opening: December 1, 2016
Closing: December 18, 2016

The Saint Cassian High School Chamber Choir will board the Cyclone roller coaster at 8:17pm. At 8:19 the front axle will break, sending them to their tragic demise. A mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell the story of a life interrupted - with the promise of a prize like no other. Ride the Cyclone is a wildly original new musical - part comedy, part tragedy, and wholly unexpected.

American Premiere

YEN
by Anna Jordan
directed by Trip Cullman

First Preview: February 2, 2017
Opening: February 21, 2017
Closing: March 12, 2017

Bobbie and Hench are home alone. Days are filled by streaming porn, playing Call of Duty, watching the world go by. Their mom rarely visits these days, and it's chaos when she does. But when animal-loving neighbor Jenny takes an interest in their dog Taliban, the boys discover a world far beyond what they know. YEN explores a childhood lived without boundaries.

YEN marks playwright Anna Jordan's MCC debut. Director Trip Cullman returns to MCC following his OBIE-winning direction of Punk Rock and this season's highly anticipated A Funny Thing...

American Premiere

THE END OF LONGING
by Matthew Perry
directed by Lindsay Posner

First Preview: May 18, 2017
Opening: June 5, 2017
Closing: June 24, 2017

An alcoholic, an escort, a self-diagnosed neurotic and a well-intentioned dimwit walk into a bar... Broken and deeply flawed, they find their lives irreversibly entwined no matter how hard they try to break free of one another. The End of Longing is a bittersweet comedy that proves that broken people don't need to stay broken.

Iconic "Friends" star Matthew Perry makes his NYC playwriting and stage acting debut with The End of Longing following its hit run at the Playhouse Theatre in London earlier this year. This marks Perry and director Lindsay Posner's MCC debuts.

MCC Theater is one of New York's leading nonprofit Off-Broadway companies, driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Founded in 1986 as a collective of artists leading peer-based classes to support their own development as actors, writers and directors, the tenets of collaboration, education, and community are at the core of MCC Theater's programming. One of the only theaters in the country led continuously by its founders, Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, and William Cantler, MCC fulfills its mission through the production of world, American, and New York premiere plays and musicals that challenge artists and audiences to confront contemporary personal and social issues, and robust playwright development and education initiatives that foster the next generation of theater artists and students.

Plays and musicals developed by the company have gone on to stagings around the globe. Notable productions over the course of the company's 30-year history include Robert Askins' Hand to God, nominated for five Tony Awards and transferred to London's West End; Sharr White's The Other Place, starring Laurie Metcalf; The Submission by Jeff Talbot, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays; Bryony Lavery'sFrozen, a 2004 Tony nominee for Best play and winner for Brian F. O'Byrne's performance; Wit by Margaret Edson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999; the classic cult musical Carrie, which has gone on to international productions since the Theater's extensive redevelopment work and staging in 2012, the first in more than two decades; and eight plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig; Reasons to Be Pretty, a 2009 Tony nominee for Best Play; and Reasons to Be Happy. Blake West joined the company in 2006 as Executive Director. MCC will open its first permanent home in 2018 in Manhattan's Clinton neighborhood, unifying the company's activities under one roof for the first time and expanding its producing, artist development, and education programming. The Theater is currently in the midst of a $35 million campaign to support its expansion and growing artistic operations, with more than $29 million raised to-date.