Ayad Akhtar, Young Jean Lee & More Set for Lincoln Center Theater’s 2013-2014 LCT3 Season

Fresh off his Pulitzer Prize win for this season’s LCT3 drama Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar will return to the Claire Tow Theatre in 2014 with the New York premiere of The Who and the What. Also on the schedule for LCT3’s 2013-2014 season are world premieres from playwrights JC Lee and Rude Mechs, and the return engagement of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die.

The season kicks off August 5 with the return engagement of We’re Gonna Die, the Obie-winning mortality musical written and performed by Young Jean Lee. Directed by Paul Lazar and choreographed by Faye Driscoll, the show runs at the Claire Tow through August 17.

Next up JC Lee makes his professional playwriting debut with Luce, running October 5 through November 17. When a teacher makes a damaging discovery about Luce, an all-star high school student, Luce’s parents are forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted years ago from a war-torn African country. Directed by May Adrales, the drama officially opens October 21.

Part Pygmalion, part Busby Berkley, part self-help lexicon, Rude Mechs’ Stop Hitting Yourself borrows from the plots of 1930s musicals to dig deep into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor steely individualism without disavowing the virtue of charity—all the while tap-dancing around a queso fountain. A LCT3 commission, this world premiere runs January 13 through February 23, with opening night set for January 27.

Akhtar’s The Who and the What closes out the season May 31 through July 13. The show focuses on Zarina, an outspoken and brilliant writer, who clashes with her traditional father and sister over her book about women and Islam, a work that threatens to tear her family apart for good. Directed by Disgraced’s Kimberly Senior, the play opens June 16 after a world premiere engagement at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2014.

Casting for all three productions will be announced at a later date. LCT3 is Lincoln Center Theater’s programming initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists and developing new audiences.