Kristen Bush (Taking Care of Baby, The City of Conversation) is set to lead the cast of Dan Cody’s Yacht, a new play by Anthony Giardina (The City of Conversation) receiving its world premiere from Manhattan Theatre Club. Tony Award winner Doug Hughes will direct, with previews set to begin Off-Broadway May 15.

Bush will play a single schoolteacher living in a small Boston suburb who receives a financial proposal that could change her daughter’s life. The play, loosely inspired by a passage from The Great Gatsby, examines the cost of educational opportunity in America today.

Rounding out the cast are Meredith Forlenza (1984, The Winslow Boy), Laura Kai Chen (Her, Days of Our Lives), Rick Holmes (Junk, Peter and the Starcatcher), Roxanna Hope Radja (Ruins of Civilization at MTC, Torch Song), John Kroft (Dracula), Jordan Lage (Race, Speed-the-Plow), and Casey Whyland (Billy Elliot the Musical).

Dan Cody’s Yacht will play at MTC at New York City Center – Stage I, where it will officially open June 6.

The creative team will also include John Lee Beatty (scenic design), Catherine Zuber (costume design), Jen Schriever (lighting design), Fitz Patton(original music and sound design), and Ben Furey (dialect coach).

Giardina's other plays include Living at Home, Scenes from La Vie de Boheme, An American Tragedy, and The Child, among others.