Arthur Kopit's Y2K, which had its world premiere in February 1999 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, KY., is one of four plays announced in the eight-show mix of the Manhattan Theatre Club's 1999-2000 season.
Y2K, the 75-minute thriller by the author of Nine, Wings and Indians, concerns a couple terrorized by a computer hacker. It was one of the better-received entries in the annual Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville in February and March 1999. Bob Balaban will direct the MTC staging.
Also on MTC's slate are:
* The American premiere of Shelagh Stephenson's London hit, An Experiment With an Air Pump, described as a "witty social satire" and a "romantic tragedy" about two families and the collision of science and morality over centuries. Stephenson's The Memory of Water was staged at MTC earlier this season. Douglas Hughes will direct.
* The world premiere of Fuddy Meers, by David Lindsay-Abaire, which had a reading in spring 1998 at MTC's "Writers in Performance/Discovering the Next Generation" series. The comedy traces one woman's attempts to regain her memory while surrounded by and "alarmingly bizarre" cast of friends and family. David Petrarca will direct. * Proof, by American writer David Auburn, about a mysterious young woman who faces the death of a genius father, an unexpected suitor and a mysterious mathematical proof. No director has been announced. His play, Skyscraper, ran at the Greenwich House theatre in fall 1997.
Four more productions will be announced. Previously announced as "under consideration" is the world premiere of Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, about a wealthy Upper West Sider and a distracted husband, a cranky old mother and the arrival of a familiar face. Busch is the popular drag performer and playwright whose work includes Psycho Beach Party, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and The Green Heart.
MTC is also considering Manhattan Music 99, celebrating the diversity of Manhattan in an evening of one composer's work or a revue by composer Stephen Weiner and lyricist Glenn Slater.
New to the subscription options in 1999-2000 are a student series and a "Carnegie Bar and Books Sunday Nightcap Series," which offers post-show discussions on selected Sunday evenings at the eatery next door to MTC's digs at City Center on 55th Street.
For information, call (212) 399-3030.
-- By Kenneth Jones
