Will Cantler Promoted to Artistic Director of MCC Theater

Off-Broadway company MCC Theater has announced that associate artistic director Will Cantler has been promoted to artistic director. He will assume the role alongside continuing artistic directors and co-founders Robert LuPone and Bernard Telsey.

“Over two decades as MCC Theater's associate artistic director, Will has become a formidable voice in both our artistic programming and our education and outreach efforts,” LuPone and Telsey said in a statement. “We've come to rely on his astute literary sense as he has helped us drive the development and production of MCC’s key works. He's been an invaluable partner who has helped shape our mission, our choice of plays, our artist compliment and, with his managerial skills, it became apparent that he was no longer acting as our Associate, but rather as our partner. We welcome Will as a much valued and important artistic director of MCC.”

Cantler’s association with MCC began in 1986, when he produced a small one-act festival. Since then, he has directed projects such as Nicholas Kazan’s Just Horrible, starring Bridget Fonda with the company, and read the first manuscripts of challenging new plays like Wit, Frozen, Grace and The Grey Zone that he then shepherded through production. He is also an award-winning casting director and partner with Bernard Telsey in Telsey+Company Casting, and has cast over 300 plays on Broadway, in New York and around the country.

MCC is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season, which kicks with a production of Sharr White’s The Other Place, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Laurie Metcalf. The play will begin performances on March 10 at off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre.