ALANA RAQUEL BOWERS (Meek) is an actor, dancer, and producer originally from Baltimore, MD and so delighted to make her MCC debut with this special show! Broadway: CHICKEN AND BISCUITS (Circle in the Square Theater). Off-Broadway: COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE (Clubbed Thumb and Page 73), THE MISER (Moliere in the Park) BERNARDA’S DAUGHTERS (The New Group and NBT at the Signature Theater), WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN (The Movement Theatre Company at A.R.T./New York Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, the Public Theater, and BAM) Regional: THE COMEUPPANCE (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Wilma Theater). Off-Off Broadway: SCRAPS (the Flea Theater). Film: “There She Goes” (Hallmark Channel), “FANTASY LIFE” (SXSW 2025 Pick), TV: “BEST MEDICINE” (FOX), “DR. DEATH” (Peacock), “FBI: MOST WANTED” (CBS). Producer credits: THE BLACK WOLFE TONE (Irish Repertory Theatre, Fishamble), “TRANSATLANTIC COMMISSION PROJECT” with Irish Repertory Theater and the Apollo, and Anansi Creative Studio’s “STORYTELLER SPOTLIGHT SERIES”. She is an NYU Tisch Drama alum. “For Nylah, and all the little ten year old Black girls changing the world everywhere.”

WILL COBBS (Smooch): Broadway: Tina Satter’s IS THIS A ROOM. Off-Broadway: SIX CHARACTERS (LCT3). Regional includes Walter Lee in RAISIN IN THE SUN (Arena Theater), Sly in DETROIT ’67 (McCarter) and Lyons in FENCES (The Resident Ensemble Players at University of Delaware). TV includes Skinny John on “FOR LIFE” (ABC); “PRODIGAL SON” (Fox); “THE GOOD WIFE,” “MADAM SECRETARY” (CBS); “DEADBEAT” (Hulu); “THE NIGHT OF” (HBO); and “THE UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT” (Netflix). Teaches acting and movement classes at Pace University, Brooklyn College and Yale’s Summer Session.

LAYAN ELWAZANI (Understudy/Choir) is making her MCC Debut. Broadway and National Tour: THE BAND’S VISIT. Off-Broadway: THE ANTIQUITIES (Playwrights Horizons.) Select Regional: NOURA (Guthrie Theater), WE LIVE IN CAIRO (American Repertory Theater), THE ANTIQUITIES (Goodman Theater.) Layan is a writer and solo artist. She is a two-time Brown Arts Institute artist grant recipient for her solo show TEN DAYS AGO: a semi-autobiographical, fully-neurodivergent realization of her Palestinian legacy in modern-day America. On TV, you can catch her on THE CODE (CBS) and a new series streaming on Hulu sometime soon. Most notably, she has an MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity, where she was in the first production of COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE. www.LayanElwazani.com

CRYSTAL FINN (Virgie) is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb where she has developed and performed in dozens of plays including many iterations of Will Arbery’s “PLANO” and most recently “DEEP BLUE SOUND” by Abe Koogler. She made her Broadway debut in “BIRTHDAY CANDLES” by Noah Haidle, for which she won a Theatre World Award. Other New York Theater includes world premiere plays at Playwrights Horizons, MTC, Roundabout, The Public, PlayCo, Women’s Project, 59E59, and many others. Film/TV: BABES, KINDA PREGNANT, SIXTEEN WORDS OR LESS, “THE TICK.”

ANDY LUCIEN (Clay): TV: “THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL” (Amazon Prime), “THE BLACKLIST” (NBC), Marvel’s “DAREDEVIL” (Netflix), “ELEMENTARY” (CBS), “MADAM SECRETARY” (CBS) Film: FORGET ME NOT, PRETTY DOESN’T HURT, SEVEN LOVERS, VOX LUX THEATRE. Off-Broadway: Clubbed Thumb/Page 73 production of COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE, Signature Theater, MTC, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theater, Rattlestick. Regional: Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Studio Theater.

GRACE MCLEAN (Choir) (she/her) is a performer, writer, and composer. In addition to performing on Broadway (SUFFS; BAD CINDERELLA; NATASHA, PIERRE….), Off-Broadway and Regionally (MCC, LCT3, The Public, Vineyard, La MaMa, BAM, Weston Playhouse, ART, WTF), and on TV (Showtime’s THE FIRST LADY, HBOMax’s THE OTHER TWO), she also writes and composes for theater (PENELOPE; LUNAR ECLIPSE; THE APIARY; IN THE GREEN, Richard Rodgers, Lortel Awards) and film (MARINA, Gotham Award; CAPTURE; OUR MINE, Best Score Brooklyn Film Festival, Black Bear Award for Best Score Athens International Film Festival). She toured Pakistan and Russia as an artistic ambassador with the US State Department and released her first full length album MY LOVELY ENEMY May 2024 with Rolling Stone calling her “avant-garde” tracks “brilliant.” Lincoln Center Writer-in-residence, Vivace Award, Larson Grant, Broadway Women’s Fund’s Woman to Watch, Civilians R&D Group, MacDowell Fellow, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist.

LIZAN MITCHELL (Puddin): Broadway: OHIO STATE MURDERS, ELECTRA, HAVING OUR SAY, SO LONG ON LONELY STREET. Off-Broadway: COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE, THE REFUGE PLAYS, THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL, SHADOWLAND, ON SUGARLAND, CULLUD WATTAH, PASSAGE, BROWNSVILLE SONG, TROJAN WOMEN, and AIN’T SUPPOSED TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH. Regional: OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS, SKELETON CREW, RAISIN IN THE SUN, RICHARD III, THE TEMPEST, and GEM OF THE OCEAN. Film/TV: “DYING FOR SEX,” “DETROIT,” THE UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT,” “THE GOOD WIFE,” “THE PREACHER’S WIFE,” “THE WIRE,” “HUMAN STAIN,” and LAW & ORDER.

SUZZY ROCHE (Choir) is a singer/songwriter/performer/author and founding member of the singing group The Roches. She has recorded over eighteen albums, written music for TV and Film and Theater and has toured extensively for forty years across the U.S. and Europe. Suzzy has been associate member of the experimental theater troupe The Wooster Group for over twenty years. An author of two novels: THE TOWN CRZY and WAYWARD SAINTS, and a children’s book: WANT TO BE IN A BAND? Suzzy also has created three recordings with her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche, and they perform together as a duo. She is delighted to be a part of the cast of COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE.

NINA ROSS (Choir) (they/them):  Thrilled to be a part of this incredible play! Broadway: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE HARD PROBLEM, THE ICEMAN COMETH. Select Off Broadway: SHHH (Atlantic Theater), WINTER’S TALE (Public Theater). TV: “BAD MONKEY,” (Apple TV), RED OAKS (Prime Video). Training: Juilliard.

KNUD ADAMS (director) is an Obie-winning director of artful new plays, based in New York City. He was recently Tony nominated for the acclaimed Broadway debut of Sanaz Toossi’s ENGLISH, which Variety hailed as “one of the best plays of the decade.” He is the only director to have premiered consecutive Pulitzer Prize winners: ENGLISH and Eboni Booth’s PRIMARY TRUST. Additional world premieres include: THE AVES, THE BOOK OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS, I’M REVOLTING, BODIES THEY RITUAL, THE HEADLANDS, PARIS, TIN CAST SHOES, THE WORKSHOP, ASSHOLE, and TOM & ELIZA. Knud’s productions have been celebrated on “Best of the Year” lists by The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post.

MCC Theater is one of New York’s leading nonprofit Off-Broadway companies, driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Founded in 1986 by Bob LuPone (1946-2022) and Bernie Telsey, and later joined by co-Artistic Director Will Cantler, as a collective of artists leading peer-based classes to support their own development as actors, writers and directors, MCC fulfills its mission through the production of world, American, and New York premiere plays and musicals that challenge artists and audiences to confront contemporary personal and social issues, and robust playwright development and education initiatives that foster the next generation of theater artists and students.

MCC Theater’s celebrated productions include Emmanuelle Mattana’s US Premiere of Trophy Boys, Robert O’Hara’s Shit. Meet. Fan., Douglas Lyons’ Table 17, Rachel Bonds and Zoe Sarnak’s musical The Lonely Few, Jason Robert Brown, Daisy Prince, and Jonathan Marc Sherman’s world premiere musical The Connector, Gavin Creel’s Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (Five Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play); Guadalís Del Carmen’s Bees & Honey (Three HOLA awards including Outstanding Play and Outstanding Production); John J. Caswell, Jr.’s Wet Brain, Kate Nash’s Only Gold with a book by Andy Blankenbuehler and Ted Malawer; Donja R. Love’s soft; Ross Golan’s The Wrong Man; Aziza Barnes’ BLKS; Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play; Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike; Robert Askins’ Hand to God (Broadway transfer; five 2015 Tony Award® nominations including Best Play); John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair; Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Really Really; Sharr White’s The Other Place (Broadway transfer); Jeff Talbott’s The Submission (Laurents/Hatcher Award); Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty (Broadway transfer, three 2009 Tony Award® nominations, including Best Play), Some Girl(s), Fat Pig, The Mercy Seat, and All The Ways To Say I Love You; Michael Weller’s Fifty Words; Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride; Bryony Lavery’s Frozen (Broadway transfer; four 2004 Tony Award® nominations including Best Play, Tony Award® for Best Featured Actor); Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone; Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living (2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Margaret Edson’s Wit (1999 Pulitzer Prize); and musicals including Alice by Heart, Ride the Cyclone, Carrie, and Coraline.  Many plays developed and produced by MCC have gone on to productions throughout the country and around the world.

Over the years MCC has worked with thousands of students through the innovative MCC Youth Company, school partnerships, and student matinee programs.

Executive Director Blake West joined the company in 2006. MCC opened the doors to its new home in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, on January 9, 2019, unifying the company’s activities under one roof for the first time and expanding its producing, artist development, and education programming. MCC founding Co-Artistic Director Bob LuPone sadly passed away on August 27, 2022. MCC continues to honor his fierce need for engagement with the art, the artists, and the audience and remember the profound impact he had on everyone who entered its spaces.

Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange and provocative new plays by living American writers. Clubbed Thumb is a groundbreaker, with a precise curatorial vision and a remarkable track record for launching artists’ careers; and an incubator, nurturing plays, collaborations, and above all artists, through thoughtfully deployed resources, opportunities, mentorship and hospitality. Since its founding in 1996, Clubbed Thumb has produced over 100 new plays, and has commissioned and/or developed hundreds more.

COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE originally premiered as part of Clubbed Thumb’s 2025 Summerworks festival of new plays, as a co-production with Page 73. Highlights from the previous 28 festivals include the professional debuts of Will Arbery, Clare Barron, Jaclyn Backhaus, Rinne Groff and Susan Soon He Stanton; NYC premieres of Gina Gionfriddo, Jordan Harrison, Lisa D’Amour, and Sarah Ruhl; and premieres by Anne Washburn, Jenny Schwartz, Ethan Lipton, Sheila Callaghan, Tanya Saracho, Abe Koogler, Liza Birkenmeier and Mara Nelson-Greenberg. Many of these artists continue to make Clubbed Thumb an artistic home.

Clubbed Thumb has been awarded multiple Obies and other awards, including a 2019 Tony Award nomination for Heidi Schreck’s WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME – the most produced play in the ‘23/24 and ‘24/25 seasons according to American Theatre Magazine – which premiered in Summerworks. Clubbed Thumb has two published anthologies of plays: FUNNY. STRANGE, PROVOCATIVE (2007, Playscripts) and UNUSUAL STORIES, UNUSUALLY TOLD (2021, Methuen Drama / Bloomsbury).

Since its founding in 1997, Page 73 has unwaveringly focused on launching the careers of playwrights and expanding the theatrical canon. The organization produces and develops work by writers who have not yet had an Off-Broadway premiere. In addition to production, Page 73 offers writers career guidance, financial assistance, and development opportunities through programs including the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, the Writers Group, workshops, and retreats and residencies. In 2020, the organization was honored with an Obie Award “for providing extraordinary support for early career playwrights.”

Page 73 has become renowned for showcasing writers with a distinct approach to theatricality and language. The organization developed and, with Playwrights Horizons, produced the world premiere of Michael R. Jackson’s A STRANGE LOOP, which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama before transferring to Broadway in 2022, where it won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Among Page 73’s many other celebrated world and New York premieres are Zora Howard’s STEW, which was named a Finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Mia Chung’s CATCH AS CATCH CAN, Leah Nanako Winkler’s KENTUCKY, Max Posner’s JUDY, Clare Barron’s YOU GOT OLDER, George Brant’s GROUNDED, John J. Caswell, Jr.’s MAN CAVE, and Susan Soon He Stanton’s TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY. The organization also produced the New York City debuts of Samuel D. Hunter, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Heidi Schreck, and Dan LeFranc. Close to two-thirds of the over 160 playwrights supported by Page 73 have subsequently received New York or regional theater productions, and the number grows each season.