Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater has announced the lineup of playwrights and new works that will make up its 2017 PlayLabs reading series. This year’s featured playwrights will be 2017-2018 Tow Playwright-in-Residence Jocelyn Bioh, whose play School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play will debut at MCC November 2; MCC alum Amanda Peet; Charise Castro Smith; and MCC Youth Company alum Lily Houghton.
Read: YOUR GUIDE TO THE FALL 2017 OFF-BROADWAY SEASON
Readings will take place at the Lucille Lortel Theatre between September 11 and October 16, with casting to be announced at a later date. All readings are at 7 PM and tickets are priced at $15.
See below for the complete lineup, as billed by MCC:
Our Very Own Carlin McCullough
By Amanda Peet
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, September 11
Carlin McCullough is a tennis prodigy with the chance for greatness, but the adults in her life can’t agree on what it takes to succeed in the intense world of competitive tennis. While her long-time coach and troubled mother grapple with their own pasts and failed ambitions, a dramatic encounter forces Carlin to come to terms with her past and face her future head on.
El Huracàn
By Charise Castro Smith
Directed by TBD, September 25
Hurricane Andrew is quickly approaching Miami, and three generations of women prepare for the storm while the matriarch Valeria battles her quickly advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Held captive to her debilitating condition, Valeria’s memories and inner world are revealed in a journey both tragic and dreamlike. Thirty years later, the family is again threatened by rising waters and an impending disaster as they face each other in the wake of an unforgivable mistake. With allusions to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, El Huracàn is a magical exploration of one family’s multi-generational battle with acceptance and forgiveness.
Happiness And Joe
By Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Saheem Ali, October 2 at 7pm
Happiness and Joe are madly in love and their wedding is the most anticipated event in the (fictional) African country of Upendo. But the rising tensions in the country are becoming harder to ignore and they find themselves, unwittingly, in the center of it.
Dear
By Lily Houghton
Directed by Jenna Worsham, October 16 at 7pm
April has disappeared from her college campus, and her three friends convene in their dorm’s shared bathroom to trade theories about her whereabouts and attacks against each other. When April’s paper on female serial killers begins to bare striking similarities to their behavior, the students are forced to face their own secrets and rage. Dear explores the violence against and among young women today.
“Like our entire 2017-18 season, these four writers and their plays speak to the complexities of our shared human experience with an urgency that is electric and provocative,” commented Co-Artistic Director William Cantler, speaking on behalf of the company’s artistic leadership, in a press statement. “It’s thrilling for audiences to come to PlayLabs to engage with new works at this stage in the developmental process and to take advantage of the chance to dive into conversations with actors, directors and writers after the performance.”
For tickets and more information on the PlayLabs series visit MCCTheater.org.
Flip through photos of the cast of Charm, Philip Dawkins’ play about trans icon Miss Gloria Allen, kicking off MCC’s 2017–18 season August 31.
