COST OF LIVING Begins Performances Tonight at MTC's Stage I

Manhattan Theatre Club's New York premiere of Cost of Living, the new play by Martyna Majok (Ironbound, Mouse in a Jar), directed by Jo Bonney (Father Comes Home from the Wars; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark), begins performances tonight, Tuesday May 16, at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

The cast of Cost of Living features Jolly Abraham (Coram Boy, "Law & Order: SVU") as "Jess," Gregg Mozgala (Cost of Living at WTF, "Enter the Faun") as "John," Katy Sullivan (Cost of Living at WTF, The Long Red Road at the Goodman Theatre, "My Name Is Earl") as "Ani," and Victor Williams (Luck of the Irish at LCT3, "The Affair," "The King of Queens") as "Eddie."

Opening night for the limited engagement is Wednesday, June 7.

Directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney, this achingly human and surprisingly funny play from exciting new voice Martyna Majok is about the forces that bring people together, the realities of facing the world with physical disabilities and how deeply we all need each other. Truck driver Eddie is struggling to rebuild a relationship with his estranged wife Ani and Jess is trying to navigate the day-to-day with John, her new boss in a job that she desperately needs. People are hard.

Cost of Living is presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Mandy Greenfield Artistic Director, where it played its World Premiere last summer on the Nikos Stage.

The creative team for Cost of Living features Wilson Chin (scenic design), Jessica Pabst (costume design), Jeff Croiter (lighting design), Robert Kaplowitz (original music and sound design), and Thomas Schall (movement consultant).

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry 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 20 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 include August Wilson's Jitney; Heisenberg by Simon Stephens; The Father by Florian Zeller with translation by Christopher Hampton; Fool For Love by Sam Shepard; Airline Highway by Lisa D'Amour; Casa Valentina by Harvey Fierstein; Outside Mullingar and Doubt by John PatRick Stanley; The Commons of Pensacola by Amanda Peet; Murder Ballad by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash; Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney; The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg; Wit by Margaret Edson; Venus in Fur by David Ives; Good People and Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire; The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez; Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies; Ruined by Lynn Nottage; Proof by David Auburn; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch; Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally; The Piano Lesson by August Wilson; Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley; and Ain't Misbehavin', the Fats Waller musical. For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

TICKETING INFORMATION

Tickets for Cost of Living are available by calling CityTix at 212-581-1212, online by visiting www.nycitycenter.org, or by visiting the New York City Center box office (131 West 55th Street).

For more information on subscribing to MTC's 2016-2017 season, call the Clubline at (212) 399-3050.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

· TUESDAY, MAY 16 - SUNDAY, MAY 21: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinee on Sunday at 2PM. There are only seven performances this week.

· TUESDAY, MAY 23 - SUNDAY, MAY 28: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2PM.

· TUESDAY, MAY 30 - SUNDAY, JUNE 4: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM.

· TUESDAY, JUNE 6 - SUNDAY, JUNE 11 (WEEK OF OPENING): Tuesday and Sunday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. The curtain time for the Wednesday, June 7 opening night performance is at 7PM. There are only seven performances on sale to the public this week.

· TUESDAY, JUNE 13 - SUNDAY, JUNE 18: Tuesday at 7PM; Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM.

· TUESDAY, JUNE 20 - SUNDAY, JULY 2: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM.

· MONDAY, JULY 3 - SUNDAY, JULY 9: Monday and Wednesday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. There is no show on Tuesday, July 4.

· TUESDAY, JULY 11 - SUNDAY, JULY 16: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7PM; Thursday through Saturday at 8PM; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM.

BIOGRAPHIES

Martyna Majok (Playwright) was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women's Project Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Round House Theatre, Satori Group, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Awards include the inaugural Women's Invitational Prize at Ashland New Play Festival, The Kennedy Center's Jean Kennedy Smith Award, Marin Theatre's David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop's 2050 Fellowship, Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project Prize, National New Play Network's Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and The Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Marin Theatre Company, "The New Yorker" website, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre. Publications by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, TCG, and Smith & Kraus. Residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, Marble House Project, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Martyna is currently part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School. She has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale. Alumna of EST's Youngblood. Member of Women's Project Lab, The Dramatist Guild, and New York Theatre Workshop's Usual Suspects. Martyna was the 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence.
?She was the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.

Jo Bonney (Director). Premieres of plays by: Alan Ball, Eric Bogosian, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Danny Hoch, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Darci Picoult, Will Power, David Rabe, Jose Rivera, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, Universes, Naomi Wallace, Michael Weller. Productions of plays by: Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Fuller, Lisa Loomer, Dan O'Brien, John Osborne, Carey Perloff, John Pollono, Lanford Wilson. Bonney has directed productions at: PS 122; The Public Theater; NYTW; Second Stage; Goodman Theatre; La Jolla Playhouse; MCC; Geffen Playhouse; Williamstown Theater Festival; McCarter Theater; Playwrights Horizons; Arena Stage; CTG; Signature; Long Wharf; The New Group; CSC; Humana Festival; Almeida, London; Edinburgh Festival; The Market Theatre, Johannesburg; The Baxter, Cape Town, South Africa; Cine 13, Paris.

Recipient of 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction, Lucille Lortel Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Best Revival. Drama Desk nomination for Direction of Vera Stark. Lilly Award. Editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG).

Jolly Abraham (Jess). Broadway: Coram Boy and Bombay Dreams. Off-Broadway: The Winter's Tale; Hamlet; No Exit; The Bald Soprano (favorites at The Pearl Theatre); Massacre, a new play by Jose Rivera (Rattlestick); Twelfth Night (Sonnet Rep); McReele (Roundabout). Regional: Kate Hamill's Sense and Sensibility (Guthrie); Swimmers, a new play by Rachel Bonds (Marin Theatre Company); The Wolfe Twins, a new play by Rachel Bonds (The Studio Theatre in DC); Scorched (Wilma Theater, Barrymore Nomination for Best Supporting Actress); Loves Labour's Lost ( Co-pro The Shakespeare Theatre DC and Royal Shakespeare Company); and Pentecost (Old Globe), O'Neill Conference and Chautauqua. Numerous Lincoln Center Directors Labs. TV: recurring "Law and Order SVU," "Wallflowers" (webseries), "Untitled Onion News" (Amazon Pilot), "Unforgettable," "Smash," "Lights Out," "Gossip Girl," "Sex and the City," "Ed," "Law and Order: CI," "Bedford Diaries," "White Collar," "Smash," and "Nurse Jackie." Film: A Walk Among the Tombstones with Liam Neeson, The Adderall Diaries, Stay, Loving Leah, and After You Left. Jolly is a resident actor with The Pearl

Theatre Company off-Broadway and has a BFA from The North Carolina School of the Arts.

Gregg Mozgala (John). Off Broadway: Teenage Dick (Public Theater), Downsizing Camus (Brooklyn Academy Of Music), Romeo & Juliet, Merchant Of Venice (Theatre Breaking Through Barriers). Regional: Cost of Living (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Medium (Spoleto Festival USA); Diagnosis Of A Faun, GameLegs (Kennedy Center). Television: "Enter The Faun." Film: Rise Up, Unicornland. BFA, Boston University.

Katy Sullivan (Ani) is an award nominated actress, producer, writer, athlete and bilateral above knee amputee. She received a BFA in acting from Webster University's Conservatory in St. Louis. As an actress, she has performed all over the US, including in The Long Red Road at the Goodman Theatre directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and more recently in FINISH LINE: A Documentary Play about the 2013 Boston Marathon at the Shubert Theatre. Sullivan was recently nominated for a Berkshire Theatre Award and selected as Critic's Choice Best Female Performance (2016) for the role of Ani in Cost of Living, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She has appeared in numerous television shows and films including the award winning documentary, Walk On. Katy has been seen on NBC's "My Name Is Earl," ABC's "Last Man Standing" with Tim Allen, FX's comedy "Legit" and CBS' hit "NCIS: New Orleans," to name a few. She co-created SulliFlinn Productions with fellow Webster Graduate, Becca Flinn. They produce online comedy content, short films and are developing a sitcom, LEGS, based on their life experiences. They were 2015 Fellows at the Producer's Guild of America in their Power of Diversity program. Katy is also a four time US Champion in the 100m. She was among the first bilateral above the knee amputees to compete in the Paralympics in ambulatory track when she ran in the London 2012 Paralympic Games, setting a new American record of 17.33s and finishing 6th in the World. She added 'Sports Analyst' to her list of accomplishments recently when she covered the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games for NBC/Universal. Katy stays busy in Los Angeles with stand up and a full motivational speaking calendar.

Victor Williams (Eddie) has most recently appeared on stage in Luck of the Irish at LCT3, Hapgood at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, A Small Fire at Playwrights Horizons and Tough Titty at the Paradise Factory Theater. He can be seen in "The Affair" on Showtime, "Sneaky Pete" on Amazon and has just completed production on "Land of Steady Habits" starring Edie Falco and Ben Mendelsohn. Mr. Williams is most known for his nine seasons of work on the television series, "The King of Queens."