Rachel Chavkin to Direct MTC's World Premiere of CONTINUITY

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812).

The production will play MTC's The Studio at Stage II - The Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series, with previews beginning Tuesday, May 7, 2019 prior to a Tuesday, May 21, 2019 opening.

A sheet of ice sits in the desert of New Mexico. A mad eco-terrorist plants a bomb in order to save humankind. A beleaguered film crew tries to get in one last shot before losing the light. Continuity is a sly, biting comedy in six takes where storytelling and science collide with both hilarious and devastating consequences. The play asks, "How do we keep going when hope can seem as fictional as a Hollywood ending?" "How do we tell the stories that could shape our future?" and, perhaps most importantly, "What's for lunch?"

This world premiere is by Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds), and helmed by the Tony-nominated director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812).

Continuity's cast and creative team will be announced at a later date. Single tickets will go on sale in 2019.

Continuity was commissioned by MTC with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of the MTC/Sloan Initiative.

In addition, MTC is pleased to announce 21 recent recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions. The commissioned writers are Jaclyn Backhaus (Men on Boats), Clare Barron (Dance Nation), Nina Braddock (Wishbone), Sarah Burgess (Dry Powder), Christopher Chen (Caught), E V Crowe (Hero), Jessica Dickey (Row After Row), Stella Feehily (O Go My Man), Dipika Guha (Yoga Play), Alan Harris (How My Light Is Spent), Jiréh Breon Holder (Too Heavy for Your Pocket), Philip Howze (Frontières Sans Frontières), Ethan Lipton (The Outer Space), Martyna Majok (Cost of Living), Caroline V. McGraw (Ultimate Beauty Bible), Jiehae Park (peerless), Max Posner (The Treasurer), Jen Silverman (Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties), Al Smith (Harrogate), Celine Song (Endlings), and Andrew Thompson (In Event of Moone Disaster).

Since 2001, MTC has awarded a total of 77 commissions through the Sloan Foundation Program.

"We are thrilled to be producing the uproarious and heartbreaking MTC/Sloan commissioned play Continuity and lining up an extraordinary slate of newly commissioned writers. We are very grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their support over the last 17 years in creating an invaluable opportunity for playwrights to bring vital topics to thrilling theatrical life," said Elizabeth Rothman, Director of Play Development.

"We're delighted to join with our wonderful partners at MTC in producing Bess Wohl's Sloan-commissioned Continuity, an original and entertaining play about a serious scientific subject that sparkles with wit, irony and humanity," said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Sloan Foundation. "We are equally proud of these 21 new commissioned plays by some of the most imaginative playwrights in the world who continue to show us how science and technology make for great theater because they help us to understand and reinvent our world, and increasingly, ourselves."

MTC first collaborated with the Sloan Foundation in 2000 on the production of David Auburn's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof. MTC's partnership with the Sloan Foundation has expanded to include multiple annual commissions for emerging, mid-level, and established writers as well as a production grant to stage Sloan-related works. In addition to Proof, Sloan supported MTC's production of Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy in 2003 as well as the recent productions of Sloan commissioned writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz'sadaptation of An Enemy of the People, Sharr White's The Other Place, Nell Benjamin's The Explorers Club, and Nick Payne's Constellations and Incognito.

Since partnering with the Sloan Foundation, MTC has commissioned the following writers: Jeff Augustin, Courtney Baron & Juliana Nash, Stephen Belber, Nell Benjamin, Glen Berger, Steven Cosson, Lisa D'Amour, April De Angelis, Charles Evered, Halley Feiffer & Joshua Schmidt, Madeleine George, Melissa James Gibson, Daniel Goldfarb, Rinne Groff, Tom Holloway, Sam Hunter, Ron Hutchinson, Nathan Jackson, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Nick Jones, Lucy Kirkwood, Bryony Lavery, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Kenneth Lin, Craig Lucas, Michael Mitnick, Peter Morris, Hannah Moscovitch, Itamar Moses, Rona Munro, Brett Neveu, Nick Payne, Greg Pierce, Hannie Rayson, Melissa Ross, Heidi Schreck, Mark Schultz, Eric Simonson, Dava Sobel, Simon Stephens,Shelagh Stephenson, Sarah Treem, Catherine Trieschmann, John Walch, Anne Washburn, Jason Wells, Michael West, Beau Willimon, Bess Wohl, Alexandra Wood, and Anna Ziegler.

The Studio at Stage II has been partially underwritten with a major grant from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

As previously announced, MTC's 2018-2019 season will also include the American premiere of The Nap, written by Olivier Award nominee Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors; Harvest) and directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan (Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes; Rabbit Hole; Proof); the Broadway premiere of Choir Boy, by Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight, The Brother/Sister Plays) and directed by Drama Desk Award nominee Trip Cullman (Significant Other, Lobby Hero); and the world premiere of India Pale Ale, the new play by Jaclyn Backhaus (Men on Boats, People Doing Math Live!) and directed by Lortel Award nominee Will Davis (Men on Boats, Charm) at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I.

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 23 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 Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes; 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 Shanley; The Commons of Pensacola by Amanda Peet; Murder Ballad by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash; 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

Joining MTC's season of plays is easy! Just visit manhattantheatreclub.com/join, or call the MTC Clubline at 212-399-3050. MTC Subscribers can now add Continuity, together with the first Stage II show (to be announced), to their packages. Single tickets will go on sale at $35 in 2019.

To sign up for MTC's "30 Under 30" program, offering $30 tickets for theatregoers age 30 and under, visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com/30under30/.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos