MCC Theater is committed to excellence in playwriting, and the Literary Program fuels the theater program by finding emerging playwrights and new plays that address the challenges and possibilities of our time. The Literary Department consists of a full-time Literary Manager Stephen Willems who guides season planning and leads the dramaturgical shaping of our Mainstage and developing plays; a full-time Literary Associate, Jaime Green, who supports the Literary Manager in his dramaturgical and season-planning responsibilities and initiates developmental processes with the Playwrights’ Coalition and other writers; the Playwrights’ Coalition Coordinator; a Lead Reader, and a coterie of interns from playwriting and dramaturgy programs throughout the city.

Over the years MCC has produced plays which are now seen throughout the world including Beirut (Alan Bowne), Nixon's Nixon (Russell Lees), OBIE winning The Grey Zone (Tim Blake Nelson), Pulitzer Prize winning Wit (Margaret Edson), Trudy Blue (Marsha Norman), Pulitzer Prize finalist The Glory of Living (Rebecca Gilman), The Mercy Seat (Neil LaBute), Tony Award® winning Frozen (Bryony Lavery), London's Soho Theatre's hit Colder Than Here (Laura Wade), Drama Desk winning The Distance From Here (Neil LaBute), The Wooden Breeks (Glen Berger) and In A Dark Dark House (Neil LaBute). This year, our eclectic programming includes Spain by Jim Knable, Grace by Mick Gordon & AC Grayling and reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute.

The Literary Department reads more than 1,000 scripts that are sent to MCC Theater each year (see submission policy). To find new plays and playwrights the Literary Manager the Assistant Literary Manager develop reciprocal relationships with theaters and developmental organizations across the country, in London and around the world. Approximately 40 plays a year are presented to the Artistic Directors in the form of Discovery Readings -- all to find the three challenging, provocative plays that will become next year's Mainstage season.

MCC Theater produces a number of 29-hour Studio Series Rehearsed Readings each year in which plays are refined by actors and directors, re-writes are made, and the play is read for an invited audience. Playwright Anto Howard's play Scattergood was presented in a Discovery Reading in 1999, went into Studio Series in July 2000, and through a subsequent process of revision and consultation with directors and the Literary Manager, was presented as part of the 2002-2003 Mainstage Season. Marsha Norman's Trudy Blue and Ed Napier's The English Teachers were also developed in this manner. It is the responsibility of the Literary Department both to guide the revision process and to ensure that suggested rewrites always serve the artistic intention of the playwright and stay congruent with the ideal play the playwright wants to write. Currently, several new plays are in the midst of this developmental process.

Space for readings and development workshops generously provided by Baruch Performing Arts Center.