2011/2012 Season
“PTC has emerged as one of the nation’s top producers of contemporary American drama!” - Philadelphia Weekly
philadelphia theatre company
Anna Deavere Smith in Let Me Down Easy (PTC 2011)
The cast from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (PTC 2010)
John Preston and Jordan Lage in Race (PTC 2010)
Dear Friends of philadelphia theatre company,
Fiercely funny! Heather Alicia Simms, Oberon K.A. Adjepong, Chandra Thomas, and Keona Welch in Ruined (PTC 2011)
– The New York Times
Passionate and political
– KYW Radio
Complex Drama
– Philadelphia Inquirer
Amazingly, 2011/12 represents our fifth season in our home, the beautiful Suzanne Roberts Theatre! The experience of walking into our lush and enveloping auditorium, however, remains as fresh and inviting as the extraordinary new plays and musicals on its stage.
In March, we are proud to be producing The Outgoing Tide, the newest play by one of Philadelphia’s most respected writers, Bruce Graham. Arguably Graham’s finest work to date, Tide shows us a family grappling with a most extraordinary life-altering decision.
Spend a season with PTC and you will enjoy an invigorating new perspective on how we live today. You will be exposed to diverse viewpoints, and compelling themes to stimulate your intellect and tap into your deepest emotional reserves. A PTC production does more than entertain; it also fosters an ongoing exchange of ideas. Each production represents an opportunity to meet our playwrights and share your thinking with the visiting experts who comprise our panels and other PEP events.
We are thrilled to close our season with the Philadelphia premiere of Neil LaBute’s funny and gripping battle of the sexes, reasons to be pretty. This is the third play in the much praised and always controversial LaBute trilogy about our nation’s obsession with beauty.
Our season opener, Red, by John Logan, the 2010 winner of a Tony Award for Best Play, provides you with rare insight into artist Mark Rothko’s complex process and raw vulnerability. The Scottsboro Boys represents the riskiest and most ambitious musical we have undertaken to date! With direction and choreography by the supremely gifted Susan Stroman and score by the legendary Kander and Ebb, Scottsboro is pure power and pure PTC!
PTC has also been honored by a grant from the Knight Foundation in support of our annual festival of new works PTC@PLAY, piloted last season. Playwrights in residence, staged readings, and a flurry of talk-backs and social events – PTC@PLAY will be a super-energized collision of artist, audience and creativity.
Please join us! Sara Garonzik Producing Artistic Director
215.985.0420 | PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org
“Intense and exciting... Impossible not to feel thrilled! – The New York Times
October 14 – November 6
Winner – 2010 Tony Award for best play! Master abstract expressionist Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art; a series of murals for New York’s famed Four Seasons Restaurant. In the two fascinating years that follow, Rothko works feverishly with his young assistant in his studio on the Bowery.
by John Logan directed by Anders Cato
Raw and provocative, Red is a searing portrait of an artist’s ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work of art.
Best enjoyed by patrons 15+
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“A MASTERWORK! A TRIUMPH! FOUR STARS!” – New York Post
January 20 – February 19
12 TONY AWARD NOMINATIONS! From the legendary songwriting team of Kander and Ebb
music & lyrics by John Kander & Fred Ebb book by David Thompson
(Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman), The Scottsboro Boys is a stirring musical that explores the infamous 1930’s ‘Scottsboro Case’ in which a group of African-American men are falsely accused of a terrible crime, ultimately provoking a national outrage that sparked the American Civil Rights movement. Scottsboro Boys is the definition of inspired American musical theater with a gorgeous and melodic score.
Best enjoyed by patrons 13+
215.985.0420 | PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org
“Skillful, punchy - it careens expertly between painful and laugh-out-loud funny.”
the
OUTGOING TIDE by Bruce Graham directed by James J. Christy
– Chicago Sun Times
March 23 – April 15
A NEW PLAY FROM PHILADELPHIA’S MOST ACCLAIMED PLAYWRIGHT! In a summer cottage on the Chesapeake Bay, Gunner has hatched an unorthodox plan to secure his family’s future but meets resistance from his wife and grown son, who have plans of their own. As winter approaches, the three must quickly find some common ground and come to an understanding before the tide goes out. The Outgoing Tide hums with dark humor and profound emotion.
Best enjoyed by patrons 16+
215.985.0420 | PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org
“A JUICY LITTLE HIT!” – The Washington Post
MAY 25 - June 17
Multiple Tony and Drama Desk Award Nominee! A hopelessly romantic drama about the hopelessness of romance, reasons to be pretty is the final installment (following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig) in Neil LaBute’s critically
reasons to be
pretty by Neil LaBute
acclaimed trilogy focusing on America’s modern day obsession with physical appearance. When a cruel off-hand remark disrupts the lives of two young couples, they confront a sea of self-deceit, treachery and their own willingness to change. reasons to be pretty has all the razor-sharp wit and insight we expect from LaBute, but with an extraordinary new twist – hope!
Best enjoyed by patrons 17+
215.985.0420 | PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org
Put a little PEP in your PTC experience! Our FREE Patron Engagement Programming gives the audience a chance to see behind-the-scenes of each
BOOK CLUB
production as well as discuss the ideas and issues
Immediately prior to the performance, our pre-show
raised by each show.
Book Club features snacks and a discussion of a book with a theme similar to the production. In 2010, the Book
February 27 - March 11
MEET-THE-ARTISTS (MTA) Thanks to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its
Our post-show MTA events allow the audience to learn
Knight Arts Challenge, and energized by the success of last year’s pilot season,
about the creation of each production and ask the cast
PTC@PLAY will highlight two weeks of events featuring staged readings of new
questions. MTA guests have included actress Kathleen
plays and musicals by award-winning playwrights as well as provocative panel discussions. Over the past decade, in addition to readings and workshops, PTC has provided commissions to such stellar artists and playwrights as Bill Irwin, Gina Gionfriddo, Bruce Norris and Stephen Belber as well as residencies to writers
SPECIAL TOPICS
Joe Calarco.
Throughout the year we will schedule discussions and
Red 10/20, 10/25, 11/3 | Boys 1/26, 1/31, 2/2 | Tide 3/29,
special speakers that pertain to the production and the
AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS IN CONTEXT (APIC)
Kristen Greenidge and Theresa Rebeck. Philadelphia Theatre Company kicks-off PTC@PLAY this season during the closing weekend of The Outgoing Tide, a new play by noted Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham. PTC@PLAY will also include the creation of a groundbreaking new mentorship program and a newly created playwriting prize named in honor of Terrence McNally.
ideas and issues that the production raises.
Our post-show APIC events allow the audience to learn
BACKSTAGE TOUR
about the creation of each production and its place in
Join PTC’s Technical Director and Literary Manager for
the context of the playwright’s work and the American
a post-matinee backstage tour of the set. Learn how
theater. Our APICs feature special guests including
the set was conceived and built, and how the crew
the playwright. Last season’s special guests included
runs the show!
composer Adam Guettel, director Walter Dallas, author
Red 10/29 | Boys 2/11 | Tide 4/1 | Pretty 6/10
Lou Dubose and playwright Terrence McNally.
Stay tuned for more details and we’ll see you in February! *Subscribers enjoy priority seating
Red 10/20 | Boys 1/26 | Tide 3/29 | Pretty 5/31
Red 10/29 | Boys 2/4 | Tide 4/11 | Pretty 6/6
staged five readings and panel discussions including works by Jeffrey Hatcher,
Bill Irwin and “friends” from The Happiness Lecture (PTC 2008)
Michael Smith.
Turner, actor/playwright Lorenzo Pisoni, and director
4/3, 4/12 | Pretty 5/31, 6/5, 6/14
such as Charles Oyamo Gordon and Tom Donaghy. This past season, PTC@PLAY
Club also received a visit from Molly Ivins’ biographer W.
Playwright Lynn Nottage responds to audience questions at an APIC event for Ruined (PTC 2011)
Dates to be announced soon.
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Day
Time
Orchestra
Mezzanine
Series
Day
Time
Orchestra
Mezzanine
$154
$142
PA
Fri
8pm
$154
$142
2D
Tues
6:30
$164
$152
1G
Fri
8pm
$188
$176
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3D
Tues
6:30
$164
$152
2G
Fri
8pm
$188
$176
3G
Fri
8pm
$188
$176
$260
$228
Flex Passes to use any way you choose!
2M
Wed
1pm
$164
$152
PB
Sat
8pm
$202
$190
2E
Wed
7pm
$164
$152
1H
Sat
2pm
$188
$176
Senior Rate
IN PERSON: The Box Office is located at our Suzanne Roberts Theatre on the corner of Broad and Lombard Streets in Center City Philadelphia.
1pm
$164
$152
1J
Sat
8pm
$212
$200
$206
$396
3E
Wed
7pm
$164
$152
2H
Sat
2pm
$188
$176
Name
$196
$356
2J
Sat
8pm
$212
$200
Address
$66
$126
(with valid i.d.)
8pm
$188
$176
3H
Sat
2pm
$188
$176
2F
Thurs
8pm
$188
$176
3J
Sat
8pm
$212
$200
3F
Thurs
8pm
$188
$176
8 passes $
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3pm
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parties of eight or more! Call Carol Flannery
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Sara Garonzik Producing Artistic Director
Philadelphia, PA 19102 Theatre: Broad & Lombard Streets
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phone: 215.985.0420 PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org
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Special Thanks to the Following: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community and Economic Development