MCC Theater Announces Creative Team For World Premiere of Douglas Lyons' TABLE 17

MCC Theater (Bernie Telsey and Will Cantler, Co-Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) has announced the creative team for the World Premiere of Table 17 by Douglas Lyons (Chicken & Biscuits) and directed by Zhailon Levingston (Cats: The Jellicle Ball).

Table 17 will begin previews on Wednesday, August 14 with an opening night set for Friday September 6 and a limited run through Sunday September 15, 2024 at MCC Theater's Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater (511 W 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019). Priority access tickets to Table 17 for patrons begins today at noon ET. Priority access for subscribers is available now. General on sale will begin on July 12 at noon. Tickets will start at $39 and more information can be found at mcctheater.org/2024-2025/table-17.

Table 17 will feature scenic design by two-time Emmy Award winner Jason Sherwood (Caroline, or Change), costume design by Devario D. Simmons (MCC's Bees & Honey), lighting design by four-time Tony Award nominee Ben Stanton (The Notebook), sound design by Christopher Darbassie (The Apiary), wig design by Tony Award winner Nikiya Mathis (MCC's Nollywood Dreams), and makeup by Earon Nealey (Fat Ham). Andrew Diaz (Illinoise) is the Props Supervisor, Tre Matthews (The Return of Young Boy) is the Composer, and Ann James (Pass Over) is the Intimacy Coordinator. shiku thuo will be the Production Stage Manager.

The previously announced cast of Table 17 includes Biko Eisen-Martin (MCC's soft), Michael Rishawn (Ain't No Mo'), and Tony Award winner Kara Young (MCC's All the Natalie Portmans, Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, Clyde's, The Cost of Living).

If your ex wanted to meet up again, would you? Previously engaged, Jada and Dallas reunite for dinner to hash out the good, the bad, and the ugly from their romantic past. Despite the intrusion of sassy waiters, complicated memories, and their best efforts to keep things casual, the estranged couple find themselves cornered by the truth.  From the author and director of Chicken & Biscuits (Douglas Lyons & Zhailon Levingston), this world premiere play is a hilarious and sweet open letter to love found, lost, and possibly reignited.   

Table 17 is presented in association with Jeffrey Richards & Mark Cortale.  

Table 17 was commissioned in 2022 by New Works Provincetown. 

The performance schedule for Table 17 is as follows:

For performances August 14-31: Mondays-Thursdays at 7pm; Fridays at 4pm & 8pm; Saturday August 17 at 8pm; Saturday August 24 at 4:30pm & 8:30pm; Saturday August 31 at 3pm & 7pm. There will be no 4pm performance on Friday August 16.

For performances September 3-15: Tuesday-Thursdays at 7pm; Fridays at 8; Saturdays at 4:30pm & 8:30pm; Sundays at 3pm. There will be additional performances on Thursday September 5 at 3pm and Sunday September 15 at 7pm. The Tuesday September 10 performance will be at 8pm.

MCC will also offer a talkback with Douglas Lyons and Zhailon Levingston following the performance on Monday August 19 and a talkback with the cast following the Tuesday August 27 performance. An open caption performance will be held on Wednesday September 11. Patron Nights will be held on Tuesday August 20 and Tuesday September 10.

In October 2024, MCC will present the World Premiere of Shit. Meet. Fan. written and directed by Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Robert O'Hara (MCC's BLKS, Slave Play, Bootycandy), and based on the Italian film Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese – the most remade film in cinema history. In Spring 2025, MCC will present the 25th anniversary of Miscast, as well as the annual MCC Youth Company Productions, Uncensored and Freshplay Festival. MCC will also present an additional production in Spring 2025.

ABOUT MCC Theater

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 by Bob LuPone (1946-2022) and Bernie Telsey, and later joined by co-Artistic Director Will Cantler, as a collective of artists leading peer-based classes to support their own development as actors, writers and directors, MCC fulfills its mission of 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.

MCC Theater's celebrated productions include The Lonely Few with music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and a book by Rachel Bonds; The Connector with a book by Jonathan Marc Sherman, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, and conceived and directed by Daisy Prince; Gavin Creel's Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, Hansol Jung's Obie and Lortel Award winning Wolf Play; Guadalís Del Carmen's HOLA winning Bees & Honey; Kate Nash's Only Gold with a book by Andy Blankenbuehler and Ted Malawer; Donja R. Love's soft; Ross Golan's The Wrong Man; Aziza Barnes' BLKS; Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play; Penelope Skinner's The Village Bike; Robert Askins' Hand to God (Broadway transfer; five 2015 Tony Award nominations including Best Play); John Pollono's Small Engine Repair; Paul Downs Colaizzo's Really Really; Sharr White's The Other Place (Broadway transfer); Jeff Talbott's The Submission (Laurents/Hatcher Award); Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty (Broadway transfer, three 2009 Tony Award nominations, including Best Play), Some Girl(s), Fat Pig, The Mercy Seat, and All The Ways To Say I Love You; Michael Weller's Fifty Words; Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride; Bryony Lavery's Frozen (Broadway transfer; four 2004 Tony Award nominations including Best Play, Tony Award for Best Featured Actor); Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone; Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living (2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Margaret Edson's Wit (1999 Pulitzer Prize); and musicals including Alice by Heart, Ride the Cyclone, Carrie, and Coraline.  Many plays developed and produced by MCC have gone on to productions throughout the country and around the world. 

Over the years MCC has worked with thousands of students through the innovative MCC Youth Company, school partnerships, and student matinee programs.

Executive Director Blake West joined the company in 2006. MCC opened the doors to its new home in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, on January 9, 2019, unifying the company's activities under one roof for the first time and expanding its producing, artist development, and education programming. MCC founding Co-Artistic Director Bob LuPone sadly passed away on August 27, 2022. MCC continues to honor his fierce need for engagement with the art, the artists, and the audience and remember the profound impact he had on everyone who entered its spaces.

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