Rehearsals for MTC's world premiere of the new play by John Patrick Shanley begin Oct. 7. Performances begin Nov. 3 at MTC's Stage I at City Center. Opening is Nov. 23.

Doug Hughes directs a company that includes Tony Award winners Cherry Jones (The Heiress) and Brían F. O'Byrne (Frozen), plus Heather Goldenhersh (Psych).

"In the 1960s, at a Catholic school in the Bronx, a nun grows suspicious when a priest begins taking too much interest in the life of a young male student," according to MTC notes. "Is she being overly protective...or not protective enough?"

Jones (Broadway's The Heiress and Imaginary Friends) plays Sr. Aloysius, "a formidable nun" who was married before she joined her order. She runs a Catholic junior high school in the Bronx in 1964.

Goldenhersh (Off-Broadway's Psych at Playwrights Horizons and Last Dance at MTC) plays a younger nun and Lenox plays the mother of a boy who is getting special attention from a priest. The fortysomething Sr. Aloysius has a sense of humor and irony "even though she may not always show it." She "strongly believes her methods and views are correct and vigorously imposes them, though not necessarily without shades of doubt." according to an earlier casting notice.

Shanley's plays include Italian American Reconciliation, Where's My Money?, Cellini, Four Dogs and a Bone, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (getting a revival Off-Broadway this season) and Beggars in the House of Plenty. He is also known for his screenplay to "Moonstruck," which is being developed for a musical.

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