Philadelphia Premiere

What happens when your satire is taken seriously? This smart, new comedy follows the story of a liberal author whose satiric novel about America’s decaying morality is published as a work of non-fiction. He is immediately embraced by the country’s far right and finds himself at the center of a national media frenzy. Winner of nine national playwriting awards and festivals!

World Premiere

A day like any other at a diner in 1970…A gifted African American boy is made indelibly aware of his color by an ambitious young reporter. 29 years later, old tensions resurface and new flames ignite when they meet for a second interview. From the author of BEAST ON THE MOON comes this subtle yet powerful play about coming to terms with one’s identity, and the the burden of responsibility that role models bear.

World Premiere

Thousand of vagrant men are disappearing from the streets of London, and suspicion  falls on a trio of modern day witches. A deliciously perverse British mystery with a pinch of science fiction, and a dash of drawing-room comedy, DRINK ME offers up some surprising solutions to the world’s overpopulation problem. An audience favorite in the 1999 Showcase of New Plays! Karen Krastel, Rebecca Hatcher Lisak, Mary McCool, Tim ,oyer, Catharine K. Slusar and Maureen Torsney-Weir.

Featuring monologues by B.J. Burton, Mark Cofta, Jon Dorf, Elizabeth Emmons, David Federman, Eli Finkelman & Michael Hollinger

Directed by Deborah Block, Joe Canuso, Mark Cofta, Serena Halley, Adrienne Lamb, Seth Rozin & Maureen Torsney-Weir 

World Premiere

Nearly 70 writers from the Philadelphia area submitted for consideration for this evening of monologues about the new millennium. The 14 monologues performed demonstrate the variety and depth of writing in our region. But more than that, they make a good evening of theatre. Moving, funny, insightful, poetic, troubling and inspiring, these monologues represent a  diverse array of new voices and new ideas. They also suggest there is a vein of riches in our region.

Philadelphia Premiere

From the creator of M*A*S*H and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum comes this clever satire of Senate hearings, complete with pompously posturing politicians, protesting lawyers, squirming Secret Service agents, and sensationalizing reporters. The circus-like proceedings, will be played by a combination of Philadelphia’s funniest actors and a handful of hilarious puppets. Designed and directed by three-time Barrymore Award-winner and Guggenheim Fellow Robert Smythe.

World Premiere

A successful African American editor tracks down the author of a bestselling autobiography and is startled and enraged when she discovers the author’s true identity. Following tremendous critical acclaim of Black Russian and 6221, Gibbons offers his most dynamic and provocative play yet!

Philadelphia Premiere

It is the beginning of the 21st century. The new German chancellor invites six million Jews from around the world to make Germany their home as a gesture of reconciliation. What follows is a fast-paced, futuristic docudrama in which three actors play over eighty roles, and Horovitz takes every point of view. A provocative vaudeville by one of America’s most celebrated writers.

Albee’s most inventive play centers around Nancy and Charlie, a comfortable middle-aged couple pondering their future on a lazy afternoon at a secluded New England beach. When confronted by a pair of sea creatures who have evolves out of the ocean, Nancy and Charlie are drawn into a hilarious and life-altering exploration of their deepest fears and prejudices. An intelligent, witty, deeply human look at the unstoppable momentum of evolution and the ways we insulate ourselves from others who are “different.”

Philadelphia Premiere

A provocative play about the banality of evil from one of America’s most daring playwrights. Lemon is an impressionable young girl who grows up enamored with the radical ideas and hedonistic lifestyle of her dynamic childhood inspiration “Aunt” Dan. As we watch Lemon absorb Aunt Dan’s insidious logic, we see her slowly come to internalize the most dangerous thoughts. Through savage humor and brilliantly twisted thinking, Wallace Shawn takes us on a fascinating and disquieting journey into the core of human nature.

World Premiere

Under Yelena, a beautiful and moving drama by award-winning playwright Buffy Sedlachek, follows two Soviet scientists who risk their lives to discover the truth about Chernobyl. Amid the rubble of failed technology and a country in political chaos, these two heroic individuals develop a unique friendship and embrace their shared heritage.

Cast

Tim Moyer

Lisbeth Bartlett

Production Team

Andrei Efremoff, Scenery

Peter Jakubowski, Lighting

Larisa Ratnikoff, Costumes

Ron Schindlinger, Sound

Pat Sabato, Stage Manager

The remarkable story of a father and son, each seeking a new life in a land of opportunity. Black Russian is one of the first American plays to explore the fall of communism. It takes us on a dramatic journey through 20th Century history through a time when such cultural luminaries as Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes became enchanted with the communist vision of the future. Black Russian is a tale of two extraordinary individuals–fascinating history, full of humor and humanity.

Marisol by Jose Rivera, directed by Seth Rozin

U.S. Premiere

Cast

Benjamin Lloyd

Doug Wing/Tim Moyer

Benjamin White

Hazel Bowers

John Barrett

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery & Lighting

Maxine Hartswick, Costumes

William Whelan, Stage Manager

Philadelphia Premiere

A futuristic fantasy about a young woman’s search for love and salvation. Marisol Perez is propelled through an absurd nightmare in the streets of New York. As gods and angels wage an apocalyptic battle in the sky, Marisol encounters other innocent, lost souls who have been corrupted by a crumbling world and who cling to their tiny fragments of humanity. Marisol is a frighteningly funny vision of the end of the present age and the beginning of a new order.

Philadelphia Premiere

A compassionate comedy about friendship and fear in the age of AIDS.

Cast

Frank X (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actor)

David Warner

Production Team

Gianne Connard, Scenery

Peter Whinnery, Lighting

Kevin Ross, Costumes

Darla Max, Fight Choreography

Alison Cote, Stage Manager

World Premiere

The compelling story of Ana and Ricardo Castillo, an upper-class Central American couple who risk their lives when they enlist in their country’s revolution. Their cousin Jorge is the chief of police. Their young friend Carlos is a leader in the rebel camp. Upon the arrival of two American intruders – a “witness” defending human rights and a representative of the CIA – conflicts intensify. Will Ana and Ricardo’s fight for justice add them to the list of the disappeared? Ideals, family ties, and politics are intertwined in this absorbing drama of commitment and responsibility.

Philadelphia Premiere

Meet Vincent Chang, successful veteran of Hollywood B-movies, and Bradley Yamashita, an aggressive and naive young actor. Together they discuss, debate, and dream about life in “the business” – professional successes, personal failures, artistic compromises, and constant struggles to overcome old stereotypes and prejudices. Yankiee Dawg You Die is a humorous and poignant commentary on the Asian-American experience by one of this country’s best young playwrights.

Philadelphia Premiere

A starling portrait of the Reverend Jim Jones as he exhorts hundreds of down-and-out followers to commit mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. Witness the fascinating and disturbing journey of the People’s Temple in which 913 people, mostly African-American, allow a single individual to lead them to the jungles of South America to commit the most horrible act of faith imaginable. WHITE NIGHT explores one man’s demonic obsession with power as he preys upon America’s needy and unwanted, shocking the entire world.

Philadelphia Premiere

Imagine a sleazy bar overlooking the crater of an active volcano in Hawaii. This is the exotic and surreal battleground for The White Death in which a curious clash of cultures takes place between a Filipino immigrant bartender, a native Hawaiian prostitute, a Mainland American tourist, an undercover evangelist and a Japanese mafioso. The White Death is a fascinating black comedy about the collision of myths and struggle for identity on a tropical island where nature always gets the last laugh.

Cast

John Barrett

Frank X

Brian Anthony Wilson

Tyna Tyler

Hugh Choi

Jack Dougherty

Production Team

Hiroshi Iwasaki, Scenery

Peter Whinnery, Lighting

June Fortunato, Costumes

Aaron Lewis Levinson

Aurenna Komisar, Stage Manager

World Premiere

The dramatic portrait of Mildred Gillars, an American woman who follows her heart and loses her soul broadcasting Nazi propaganda during World War II. Based on a true story, Axis Sally explores the complex character of a “traitor,” who discovers that her identity as an American is intertwined with her own capacity for self-deception. Gibbons’s dynamic new play explores the issue of complicit and the conflict between personal desire and public responsibility, asking the question, “What does it mean to be an American?”

Cast

Lilian Rozin

Robert O’Neill

John Barrett

James Schlatter

Margot Trieger

Sheila Murphy

Daniel Smith

David Warner

Joseph Pokorny

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery & Lighting

Jym Paris, Costumes

Arnold Goldman, Sound

Adrienne Neye, Stage Manager

World Premiere

A dynamic, three-act docudrama about the MOVE tragedy of 1985. Based on transcripts from public hearings, police reports, newspaper articles and personal interviews from many of the living participants, 6221 explored the MOVE organization’s volatile and prophetic conflict with West Philadelphia neighbors and City government that culminated in Philadelphia’s most infamous tragedy.

Cast

Vincent Yates

Frank X

Amani Kuwasha Gethers

Mets Suber

Bruce Robinson

Shelita Birchett

Yvette Ganier

Cathy Simpson

Lilian Rozin

Brad Thoennes

Tom McCarthy

Russ Widdall

Neill Hartley

Jeff Morrison

Anthon Parson

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery & Lighting

Chryss Hionis, Costumes

Scott Roberts, Sound

Marguerite Price, Stage Manager

Morocco 
by Alan Havis
directed by Seth Rozin

Philadelphia Premiere

The noirish tale of an American Jewish architect who tangles with a Moroccan colonel over the jailing of the architect’s half-Arab wife for a questionable charge of prostitution.

Cast

Stephen Hatzai

Bruce Robinson

Lilian Rozin

Ruth wells Fischer

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery & Lighting

Eilieen McEntee, Costumes

David Borden & Jim Harp, Original Music

Sheila Berman, Stage Manager

The Bacchae of Euripedes
by Wole Soyinka
directed by Seth Rozin

American Premiere

An African-inspired adaptation of the Greek classic, THE BACCHAE, pitting the delirious masses against an authoritarian government.

Cast

Bruce Robinson

Frank X

Eric Parham

John Wellmann

Neill Hartley

Robert Anu Hubbard

Colin Campbell

Christopher Roberts

Ruth Blake

Tammarah Carper

Susan Nicodemus

Lisa Silberman

Faith Barlow

George Spencer

Melvin Williams

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery & Lighting

Chryss Hionis, Costumes

Darko Tresnjak, Choreography

David Borden & Jim Harp, Original Music

Sara Rutstein, Stage Manager

Statues 
by Michael Hollinger
directed by Seth Rozin

World Premiere

Commissioned by CosaCosa Art-at-Large, this play was devised to be performed at statues around Philadelphia, drawing local communities into a conversation about what matters most to them.

Cast

Jeff Morrison

Stephen Hatzai

Shelita Birchett

Lilian Rozin

Frank X

Bruce Robinson

Pretending to America
by Thomas Gibbons
directed by Seth Rozin

World Premiere

A political refugee and torture victim from an African country seeks asylum in the U.S. but in order to summon the courage to attend his hearing, he must face the moment in his torture when his will to resist was broken.

Cast

Frank X

Evelyn McGee

Bruce Robinson

Eric Parham

Production Team

Peter Whinney, Scenery

Rebeca Frederick, Lighting

Chryss Hionis, Costumes

Sheila Berman, Stage Manager

A Photograph
by Ntozake Shange
directed by Seth Rozin

Philadelphia Premiere

A young black man tries to make it as a professional photographer and is surrounded by caricatures of black people gone wrong.

Cast

Eric Parham

Joan Huckstep

Cathy Simpson

Shelita Birchett

Frank X

Production Team

Peter Whinney, Scenery

Rebeca Frederick, Lighting

Chrys Hionis, Costumes

Sheila Berman, Stage Manager

Joan Huckstep, Choreography

Mud
by Maria Irene Fornes
directed by Seth Rozin

Philadelphia Premiere

A bleak study of ignorance and rural poverty, as one young woman and two men try to live together in a cramped shack with no possibility of intellectual, personal or financial advancement.

Cast

Bruce Robinson

Lilian Rozin

Stephen Hatzai

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery

Terry Franceschi, Lighting

Maxine Hartwick, Costumes

David Borden, Original Music

Erica Schwartz-Hall, Stage Manager

Coyote Ugly
by Lynn Siefert
directed by David Bussak

Philadelphia Premiere

A dark and absurd comedy about the prodigal son who brings his wholesome fiancé back home to meet his deeply incestuous family.

Cast

Christopher Campbell

Evelyn McGee

Clista Townsend

Brian Joyce

Lilian Rozin

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery

Terry Franceschi, Lighting

Maxine Hartwick, Costumes

Erica Schwartz-Hall, Stage Manager

The Elephant Man
by Bernard Pomerance
directed by Brad Rosenstein

The story of Dr. Frederick Treves who seeks to treat and understand his most extraordinary patient, John Merrick, a former circus freak who suffers from a rare skin and bone disease that makes him horribly deformed.

Cast

Stephen Hatzai

Christopher Stewart

Clista Towne

Lilian Rozin

Evelyn McGee

Brian Joyce

Bruce Robinson

Christopher Campbell

Production Team

Peter Whinnery, Scenery

Terry Franceschi, Lighting

Maxine Hartwick, Costumes

Erica Schwartz-Hall, Stage Manager

A middle-aged, empty-nester contemplates the purpose of the rest of their life on a quiet New England beach, when they are confronted by a couple of sea lizards who have just emerged out of the ocean. An intelligent, witty, deeply human look at the unstoppable momentum of evolution, and the ways we distance ourselves from others who are “different”.

Cast

Frank Wood

Grace Gonglewski

Bruce Robinson

Lilian Rozin

Production Team

Terry Franceschi, Scenery & Lighting

Tzufen Liao, Costumes

Erica Schwarts-Hall, Stage Manager

Bob Stephenson, Technical Director