Manhattan Theatre Club Announces New York Premieres by Donald Margulies & Eleanor Burgess

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the final two entries in the company's 2018-2019 season: Eleanor Burgess' The Niceties and Pulitzer winner Donald Margulies' Long Lost—both New York premieres.

The Niceties is set at an elite East Coast university, where an ambitious young black student and her esteemed white professor meet to discuss a paper that the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. Very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they’re in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen—and facing stunning implications that can’t be undone. Kimberly Senior (Disgraced) will direct the new play set to begin previews at City Center's Studio at Stage II on October 12, 2018 with an opening scheduled for October 25, 2018.

Long Lost centers on the troubled Billy, who appears out of the blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office; Billy soon tries to reinsert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan (The Little Foxes) directs the new work slated to play off-Broadway's New York City Center—Stage I beginning on May 14, 2019 with an official opening scheduled for June 4, 2019.

Eleanor Burgess is currently a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a part of The Civilians' R&D Group and a member of Page 73’s writers group, Interstate 73. She has been the recipient of a Huntington Playwriting Fellowship, the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award and an EST/Sloan commission.

Donald Margulies won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends and was a finalist twice before for Sight Unseen and Collected Stories. His many other plays include The Country House, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Brooklyn Boy, the Tony-nominated Time Stands Still and the Obie-winning The Model Apartment.

Casting and additional creative team for The Niceties and Long Lost will be announced at a later date.