MTC Announces 3 2011-12 World Premieres Including David Hyde Pierce, Zoe Kazan and David Auburn

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) announced three productions for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2011-2012 theatrical season.

At MTC's Broadway theatre, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street), MTC will produce the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Auburn's THE COLUMNIST.

Off-Broadway at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street), led by Artistic Producer Mandy Greenfield, the company will produce: WE LIVE HERE, a world premiere play by Zoe Kazan and CLOSE UP SPACE, a world premiere play by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Leigh Silverman, featuring Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce.

All three productions are world premiere plays from some of the country's most exciting voices.

Meadow and Greenfield are finalizing plans for three more MTC productions for the 2011-2012 season (two additional productions at the Friedman and one additional production on Stage I) and will announce those plays in the coming weeks.

MTC'S Samuel J. Friedman THEATRE
The Columnist

World Premiere Play by David Auburn

Previews begin: Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Opening Night: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Columnists are kings in midcentury America and Joseph Alsop wears the crown. Joe is beloved, feared and courted in equal measure by the Washington political world at whose center he sits. But as the ‘60s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change, the intense political drama Joe is embroiled in becomes deeply personal as well.

David Auburn, whose Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Proof dazzled audiences and critics alike, returns to MTC with this fascinating new work.

MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
We Live Here
World Premiere Play by Zoe Kazan

Previews begin: Thursday, September 22, 2011
Opening Night: Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Allie Bateman's wedding is Sunday. When Dinah, her precocious younger sister, returns to their parents' home for the festivities, she brings more than anyone expected: a new boyfriend, whose hidden history resurrects passions and painful memories for the whole family. Over one emotionally charged weekend, The Batemans must acknowledge and accept loss to gain hope for regeneration Zoe Kazan, one of New York's most acclaimed young actors, returns to MTC for her New York playwriting debut with this world-premiere, MTC-commissioned play-an incisive and beautifully rendered portrait of a contemporary family coming together through grief and celebration.

WE LIVE HERE was commissioned through the Bank of America New American Play Program

MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
Close Up Space

World Premiere Play by Molly Smith METZLER

Directed by Leigh Silverman
Featuring David Hyde Pierce

Previews begin: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Opening Night: Monday, December 19, 2011

Tony Award and four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce brings his signature wit back to the MTC stage as Paul Barrow, an obsessive book editor on a major deadline. With an assistant who's been camping in the office, a famous author threatening to bail on him and an intern who is no help at all, Paul's just about had it! But when his fiery daughter shows up and lambasts him in Russian, Paul faces a glaring personal error that can't be corrected with red ink. Leigh Silverman (Well, In the Wake, From Up Here) returns to MTC to direct this funny and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate... in any language.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past three decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 17 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; The American Plan; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.'

For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.