MCC Theater's 2014-15 Season to Feature World Premieres by Neil LaBute and Robert Askins, NYC Premieres & More

MCC THEATER has announced its four-show 2014-15 Main Stage Season, which runs Fall 2014 through Summer 2015. All productions will be staged at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street). This announcement comes on the heels of one of MCC's most acclaimed seasons yet, which began in Fall 2013 with the New York premiere of John Pollono's Small Engine Repair and continued with the Off-Broadway premiere of Robert Askins' Hand to God. The final production of MCC's 2013-14 Season, Penelope Skinner's The Village Bike starring Greta Gerwig and directed by Sam Gold, has its North American debut beginning May 22, 2014. For more information on MCC Theater, please visit www.mcctheater.org.

The MCC Theater 2014-15 Main Stage Season includes:

Sept 3 - Oct 12 / World Premiere
THE MONEY SHOT
by Neil LaBute
directed by Terry Kinney

Karen and Steve are glamorous movie stars with one thing in common: desperation. It's been years since either one's had a hit, but the latest movie by a hot shot European director could change that. The night before filming a big scene (that seems destined to assure them a spot back on the pop culture radar), Karen, her partner Bev, Steve, and his aspiring actress wife Missy meet in order to make an important decision: how far will they let themselves go to keep from slipping further down the Hollywood food chain?

The Money Shot reunites MCC Theater's Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute with director Terry Kinney (Reasons to Be Pretty) for a hilarious and insightful comedy about ambition, art, status and sex in an era - and an industry - where very little is sacred and almost nothing is taboo.

Oct 29 - Dec 7 / New York Premiere
PUNK ROCK
by Simon Stephens
directed by Trip Cullman

In a private school outside of Manchester, England a group of highly-articulate seventeen year-olds flirt and posture their way through the day while preparing for their A-Level mock exams. With hormones raging and minimal adult supervision, nothing can mask the underlying tension that becomes increasingly pronounced as the clock ticks towards the ultimate dismissal.

Inspired by playwright Simon Stephens' (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Harper Regan) own experiences as a teacher, Punk Rock is an unnerving chronicle of contemporary adolescence at the breaking point.

Feb 4 - Mar 15 / New York Premiere
THE NETHER
by Jennifer Haley
directed by Anne Kaufman

There is a new immersive realm for the senses online, a virtual playground where those who plug in are coaxed into acting out their darkest fantasies - with no consequences in the "real" world. Or so it seems...until a young female detective begins an investigation to determine if there is a point at which thought or intention may actually constitute a crime within -- and outside of -- this new frontier.

Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Jennifer Haley's The Nether is a haunting thriller that will make you question when the fantastic becomes too real.

Apr 29 - June 7 / World Premiere
PERMISSION
by Robert Askins

Eric and Cyndy are looking for some direction. They've decided to follow the lead of their friends Zach and Shelley and make Christian Domestic Discipline the foundation of their marriage. But restructuring their lives and their union according to role play and a new moral code upends everything they knew - and took for granted - about one another, their friends, and more importantly, who really holds the paddle!

Robert Askins returns to MCC Theater following the critically-acclaimed Hand to God with this new comedy about our all-too-human impulse to make order out of the chaos of modern relationships.

Photo by Walter McBride