Category: Uncategorized

The dramaturgy listserv is available for any local playwright looking to pair up with a dramaturg to discuss and develop their work. Playwrights are responsible for contacting individual dramaturgs and rates are set based on the needs of the project.

If you would like to be added to the list serv, please send your areas of interest, contact information and a short bio to Lena Barnard at lbarnard@playsandplayers.org

Nell Bang-Jensen
nellbangjensen@gmail.com
Areas of Interest: new play development, devised work, classics, gender, literary adaptation, non-traditional, ensemble-driven theater Bio:

Nell Bang-Jensen is the Associate Literary Manager and Resident Dramaturg for the Philadelphia Dramatists Center.  She is interested in everything from classical scripts to original work, and especially how the devising process aids the development of both. Nell is a recent graduate of Swarthmore College with a degree in English Literature and Theater. Her senior thesis, Representing Shakespeare’s Women: Feminist Potential on Contemporary Stages was received with high honors and was based on a series of interviews she did with Philadelphia actors and directors about performing gender onstage. Nell was named a 2011-2012 recipient of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a grant given to 40  U.S. college graduates for independent research and focused travel around the world. As a dramaturg and performer Nell has worked with Applied Mechanics, InterAct Theatre Company, Telephone Bronco Theater Company, and has trained in physical theater with faculty at the Pig Iron School and Ida Bagus Oka in Ubud, Bali. Nell has also taught creative movement, collaborative creation, and acting for The Flynn Theater, The Creative Living Room, and Hedgerow Theatre.

Race Brown
racebrown@gmail.com Areas of Interest: new works, non-traditional, mature, women playwrights and playwrights of color. Bio:

Race Brown is a Philadelphia born Actress and Playwright. Race started acting at the age of 15 with Philadelphia Youth Theater. At age 16 Race started writing plays and discovered another passion. Race self-produced her first full length play the comedy “Another Bank Robbery” in 2009 at the The Delaware Opera Company. Her short play “One Night Stand” was featured in Directing Actors and Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s One Act Play Competition Off-Broadway. Race’s most recent work in progress the play SCYTHE was selected to be in the Thespis Theatre Festival August 2012. In 2011 Race developed Theater Of the RAW for new works that are unconventional, unpolished and edgy.

Bill D’Agostino
williamdag@gmail.com Areas of Interest: New Plays, Comedy, Theatre for Young Audiences and Shakespeare Bio:

Bill D’Agostino received his MA in theatre from Villanova University and his BA in theatre arts from Brown University. As a dramaturg and assistant director, Bill’s credits include TIME STANDS STILL, THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, SYLVIA, THE PRIDE OF PARNELL STREET, THE TEMPEST (Act II Playhouse); DON’T TALK TO THE ACTORS, BIG BOYS, ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Montgomery Theater); RAISING JO (PlayPenn); and MEDEA (Villanova Theatre). Bill’s original play for kids, FAIRY TALE HIGH SCHOOL, won Montgomery Theater’s first adaptation contest and premiered on MT’s Project Stage. Bill is the Communications and Education Director for Act II Playhouse. Since 2010, he has served on the Literary Committee for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights. Bill is a proud member of the the Dramatists Guild, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Philadelphia Dramatists Center, and Theatre for Young Audiences USA.

Arlene DeLeon
lenesweetpea@yahoo.com Areas of Interest: new work development, comedy, musicals and historical plays. Bio: Arlene DeLeon received her M.A. in Humanities (Theatre Arts concentration) in 2005 at Arcadia University. While pursuing her graduate studies, she spent a semester in London, England where she interned with Apples & Snakes, a poetry performance group. It was while at Arcadia that Arlene decided to pursue dramaturgy.

She has dramaturged for Theatre Horizon’s productions of Once on This Island, Holiday Show at the Swing Club, Working and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). She has also created study guides for Tri-County Performing Arts Center. Aside from dramaturgy, Arlene directed two short plays (Everything You Want and Bake-off) for Manor Junior College’s 2006 Theatre Guild Showcase. Current works-in-progress include Like Ink & Paper (about the life of May Ziadeh), and Fred Waring’s Christmas Shindig. Arlene is currently on the Board of Directors for White Pines Productions. She hopes to collaborate with fellow theatre artists on new work development.

Anne Hamilton
hamiltonlit@hotmail.com Areas of Interest: Stage Plays, Screenplays, Musicals, TV Scripts, Production Dramaturgy, Workshops, Historical and Literary Research, Program Notes, Career Development Coaching, Production Histories, Master Classes in Playwrighting and Collaboration. Bio:

Anne Hamilton is the Founder of Hamilton Dramaturgy, an international consultancy based in New York City’s professional scene, and located in Bucks County, PA. She has twenty years of experience across the country and internationally. The majority of her clients are located in N.Y. and L.A. Her clients have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Tony ® Award, and a Royal Court International Residency. In 2009, STAGE DIRECTIONS magazine named her a “trailblazer” in American dramaturgy.

Mark Knight
mark@markbknight.com Areas of Interest: 20th century history; classics; collaboration; comedy; contemporary and experimental works; depiction of unions and union organization onstage; devised work; ensemble-driven theater; experimental plays; gender; historical and literary research; historical plays; interdisciplinary process; law; literary adaptation; new media; new plays; new work development; non-traditional; non-traditional protagonists; politics; production histories; program notes; screenplays; shakespeare; site specific plays; social justice; stage plays; theatre for young audiences; tv scripts; varied narrative structures; women’s issues; workshops. Bio: MARK KNIGHT has appeared in hundreds of plays, both classics & new writing. In 1976 he received his Diploma of Dramatic Art from the Arts’ Educational School’s inaugural classical theatre program at the historic Golden Lane Theatre in London’s Barbican district.

Mark toured the UK & Europe performing and presenting plays and appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival many times. He worked extensively on radio and is a playwright, producer and director. From 1983 to 1996 he was resident Actor/Teacher/Manager at Shakespeare’s Globe Education Department where he lectured and gave hundreds of workshops.

Mark now lives in Philadelphia, PA and is very active on the fringe and in theatre development programs in various theatres in Philadelphia including: the Brick Playhouse, The Shubin Theater, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Secret Room Theater, the Philadelphia Dramatist Center, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, the Philadelphia Theatre Workshop & the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective (PAC). He is Director of Philadelphia’s annual Shubin Theatre April Fest and co-founder of The MacKnight Foundation. and the Overknight Theatre program.

Samantha Lazar
sclazar@gmail.com Bio/Areas of Interest:

Samantha Lazar is a freelance dramaturg, writer, and designer based in Philadelphia. She is currently an MFA student in the department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the Yale School of Drama, and holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania with additional concentrations in theatre, fine arts, and classics. Regionally, she has worked with organizations including Montgomery Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Renegade Classic Theatre, and Philadelphia Dramatists Center. She has reviewed performances in the Philadelphia area for Uwishunu.com and BreakMyRoutine.com, and has a special interest in environmental, experimental, cross-disciplinary, and devised works. She is in Philadelphia May through August.

Kate McGrath
kmcgrath06@hotmail.com Areas of Interest: new play development, experimental plays, social justice, feminism and women’s issues, education Bio: Kate McGrath is an award-winning playwright and a very active dramaturg working in the Philadelphia area. Her plays have been performed nationally and internationally. Numerous production venues: Perihelion Theatre Company (NC), MIT Theatre Dept., Lovecreek Festival–NYC, Women’s Place Theatre at St. Joseph’s University, Walking Fish Theatre’s Fresh Fish 2.0, The Ritz Theatre, Brick Playhouse, Philly Primary Stages, and the Women in Theatre Festival at the Painted Bride. Kate worked for two seasons as a Dramaturg for Philadelphia Theatre Workshop, two seasons as Dramaturg with InterAct Theatre’s Young Voices, and served as resident dramaturg for Women’s Ensemble for several years (touring educational plays and the devised play BLOOD, MILK AND FIRE.) She has served for 20 years as a teaching artist with Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and twice received their Adele Magner Memorial Award Kate was a founding member of New Plays Rising in NC, and of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center, producing one of their first conferences at the Annenberg Center, with Theresa Rebeck as keynote speaker. Kate was a Samuel Fels fellow at the Wilma Theatre, producing their Cocteau and Brecht Symposia. She has served as script reader for American Rep Theatre, The Wilma, and founded Theatre Under the Stars, a new play development company. She is a member of LMDA.

Her plays have been published by TheaterWords.com and YouthPlays.com. Kate received her Bachelors Degree from UNC at Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Scholar, studied at the National Theatre Institute, and received her Masters in Theatre from Villanova.

Joan Saltzman
joansaltzman@earthlink.net Areas of interest: 20th century history, politics and law Bio:

I am a veteran researcher, and new to dramaturgy. I earned my Master’s Degree in English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, and have been studying theater, including theater history and acting, at Temple University for the last two years. I have been a lawyer for over thirty years, and have practiced as both a civil and a criminal litigator. I am a quick study, an excellent researcher, and can summarize my research clearly and succinctly. I enjoy the collaborative process and feel confident that I can aid playwrights on new plays and research the background for most plays. I am an obvious choice for any play that deals with any aspect of the law. Most recently I was the dramaturg for the Mauckingbird Theatre Company’s production of The Temperamentals, the Jon Marans’ play that explored the dilemmas and triumphs of the Communist founders of the first gay rights organization in the United States in the 1950’s.

Michael Schwartz
mike.schwartz@mindspring.com Areas of Interest: new play development, early 20th century American drama, musicals, and the depiction of unions and union organization onstage. Bio:

Michael Schwartz currently teaches theatre history at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (and will be teaching dramaturgy there next spring). Mike has worked as a dramaturg for the Montgomery Theater productions of Jacob and Jack, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Half and Half, and The Great American Trailer Park Musical, for IUP productions of Three Sisters, Chess, and The Gentleman Dancing Master, and for the Neumann University production of Six Characters in Search of an Author. Mike’s book, Broadway and Corporate Capitalism, was published by Palgrave Macmillan and was nominated for the Bernard Hewitt Award in 2010. His stage adaptation of Horatio Alger’s Shifting for Himself was part of the Metropolitan Playhouse’s Literature Alive Festival in NYC in January 2012, and his plays have been read and staged in Pittsburgh, NYC, and the Philly area. Mike has also taken an active role in new play development at national theatre conferences, both as a performer (at ATHE) and as a dramaturg (at MATC).

Daniella Vinitski, PhD
Daniella.Vinitski@colorado.edu
Areas of Interest:  new play development; classical, contemporary and experimental works; dance/physical theatre and new media; feminist and post-colonial perspective; interdisciplinary 

process and collaboration Bio:

Daniella is a  dramaturg, playwright, performer and director with extensive professional and collegiate experience.  She holds a PhD in theatre from the University of Colorado, a Masters from Villanova where she was honored as Acting Scholar, a BFA with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theatre Wing, and is conservatory trained in Shakespeare in performance through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.  Over the past 15 years, Daniella has worked and taught in the Boulder, Philadelphia, New York, and Caribbean  theatre communities, and has been recognized through recognition and awards such as the Boulder County Arts Alliance Emerging Scholars Award and the University of Colorado Graduate School Beverly Sears dissertation grant.  As a playwright, her work has been nationally produced and workshopped through venues such as the American Theatre Wing recognized company, FUSION Theatre (“The Seven”), the Independent Actors Theatre (featured playwright), and the Mid-America Theatre Conference.  Daniella is a frequent collaborator with the dance community and most recently functioned as dramaturg and assistant director for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.  For archival photos and further links, please feel free to visit her website at http://daniellavinitski.com.

Mona Washington
monasax2@gmail.com
Areas of Interest: non-traditional protagonists, and varied narrative structures, including site specific plays. Bio:

Mona Washington is a graduate of Georgetown University ́s School of Foreign Service and Harvard Law School. Her plays have been performed and read in New York, Philadelphia, Rome, and Paris. She’s been awarded fellowships at The Dora Maar House (Provence, France), The Ucross Foundation, and The Jack Kerouac House, amongst others. She currently blogs micro-plays and short plays for the HuffingtonPost.

A Plays & Players Community Celebration!

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Listen to our interview about the Honey Bee Cabaret with Phillip Silverstone of “Time Out with Phillip Silverstone” on TuneIn radio. now WORLDWIDE!

About The Honey Bee Cabaret

A yearly celebration of art, theater and life, in memory of local actress Melissa Lynch, the Honey Bee Cabaret is a wine and cheese reception, silent auction and performance featuring P&P regulars doing the highlights of Plays & Players seasons from the past 100 years and the future.

Joining us in our third floor studio from 7pm to 9pm will be Andre Brown, Corinna Burns, Andrew Carroll, Heather Cole, Katie Croyle, Peter Danzig, Charlie DelMarcelle, Eric Scotolati, Isa St. Clair, Tanya O’Neill, Steve Wright and special guest stars John Clancy (co-founder of the New York International Fringe Festival) and Nancy Walsh, performing songs, monologues and scenes from Season One to One Hundred and Three as we celebrate our history, the end of our season and a sneak peek at next year! Proceeds in part benefit the Melissa Lynch Foundation, named after a brilliant Philadelphia actress, who support Philadelphia actors through generous donations to local theater companies. 7pm-9pm, tickets only $25!

From the very early years of Plays & Players, see Maurice Baring’s comedic look at Shakespeare’s process in The Rehearsal.  From there we look at hysterical moments from Tonight at 8:30, Noel Coward’s set of song and dance one-acts originally written as a vehicle for himself and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence.  Complimenting that is a scene from Kaufman and Hart’s Pulitzer-prize winning farce You Can’t Take It With You.  On a darker note, we have a scene from Tennessee Williams’ The Sweet Bird of Youth, a twisted look at our obsession with power and the fragility of youth.  Rounding out the evening are musical numbers from Camelot and The Fantasticks, a reunion of the cast of William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead, an encore performance from Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and scenes from the upcoming production of Homebody/My Name is Rachel Corrie. As always, the evening will end with a performance in honor of Melissa Lynch.

More of an after-party person? For only $10, join us at Quig’s Pub at 9pm following the show for a one-of-a-kind Quig’s Staff Talent Show, hosted and starring the talented actors who work the Plays & Players’ Membership Club: Keith Conallen, Colleen Corcoran, Rob Cutler, Jamison Foreman, Dan Higbee, Will Harrell, and Lizzie Spellman, along with some special guest star appearances! Tips benefit the Melissa Lynch Foundation and a raffle towards a Plays & Players Membership and Quig’s Pub Bar Tab benefits Plays & Players.

Want something more for a little something more? How about an all access pass for $60! Come to the Honey Bee Cabaret and After Party, and join us earlier in the day for a behind-the-scenes historical tour of Plays & Players from 3:30pm-4:45pm by Operations Manager, Andrew Beal and Managing Director, Rachel Dukeman, and appetizers and merriment hosted by Plays & Players members and Philadelphia theater patrons, Eileen O’Brien and Sam Hopkins in their lovely 17th street home from 5pm-6:30pm.

Proceeds will benefit in part the implementation of a new yearly award, sponsored by the Melissa Lynch Foundation, to an emerging female theater artist whose talent and passion for their work is a benefit to the Philadelphia stage. Additionally, Plays & Players EAR (Emerging Artists in Residence) program, which has nurtured the artistic and personal growth of local actors including Andrew Carroll, Jenna Horton, and Sarah Schol in recent years, will be co-sponsored by the foundation and benefit from the event for a second year. Don’t miss this opportunity to support a theater and a foundation who support actors in their professional journeys!

Can’t come but want to support us anyway?… DONATE NOW!

Why We Honor Melissa Lynch

“Melissa Lynch wasn’t here long–she died in a car accident on December 30 [2010] at the age of 27–but no one would ever call her a visitor to this life. She grabbed it, embraced it, and, on occasion, frog-marched it where she wanted it to go.

A prolific actress—she appeared in more than 17 productions in Philadelphia—the Mayfair native was poised on the brink of her best year ever. She was engaged to be married on June 18 to William Seiler, a man, friends say, ‘she adored.’ She had roles in four major plays, including one in which she was to play 8 different characters. Directors had started calling her. Even when she played smaller parts, reviewers couldn’t help taking note of her performances. In fact, said a college friend, Rebecca Godlove, ‘she could have a nonspeaking role in a play and still get noticed. In college, she played a mute child in a play and got rave reviews.’

Critics called her ‘dazzling,’ ‘sparkling’ and ‘luminous,’ descriptions echoed by those who knew her, a powerful reminder of why actors have come to be called ‘stars.’ But a reminder, too, that there are those among us who harbor an unquenchable inner light.”

-Denise Foley, IrishPhiladelphia.com

To read more about Melissa Lynch’s career and the tragedy that ignited this event, here are some great articles:

Quoted above: http://irishphiladelphia.com/2011/01/you-could-almost-feel-the-sparks-crackling-in-the-air-around-her/

Others:

http://articles.philly.com/2011-01-01/news/26356731_1_chekhov-brother-and-sister-philadelphia-theater-scene (on Melissa’s death)

http://irishphiladelphia.com/bedbound (review of Inis Nua Theatre Company performance)

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/stage/Uncle-Vanya.html#ixzz1sLqPL58Z (review of Lantern Theater Company performance)

From Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks comes a remarkable story of an African-American man who looks just like Abraham Lincoln and can be shot by would-be John Wilkes Booths for a small fee. When he disappears into the Great Hole of History, his wife and son go to find him. Questions of race, family, legacy, and the act of theater itself play out in a surprising and emotionally stunning journey. As a prologue to The America Play, world premiere short plays, Other American Cousins (named for the play President Lincoln was watching when he was shot) will examine Americans’ place in today’s world.  This surrealist depiction of American history lands in our Third Floor Skinner Studio as our season’s final production!

Ticketing Information

• Purchase Tickets Here! or call 800-595-4849
• $20 advance, $25 at the door
• $15 for students and $15 per ticket for groups of ten or more
• Third Floor Skinner Studio

Performance Dates & Times

April 4 at 7pm* – KW April 5 at 8pm* – QE & KW April 6 at 8pm** – QE & KW

April 7 at 3pm – QE; Post-show conversation with cast and special guests Sharon Brubaker and Dr. Vincent Williams from the Drexel University English Department.

April 10 at 10:30am*** – QE April 10 at 7pm – QE

April 11 at 7pm – KW; Post-show conversation with Other American Cousins playwright Kimmika L. H. Williams-Witherspoon

April 12 at 8pm – QE; Pre-show conversation at 6:30pm with Professor Herman Beavers of the University of Pennsylvania – “Satirizing the Sacred: Suzan-Lori Parks Does Lincoln” April 13 at 2pm – KW April 13 at 8pm – QE

April 14 at 3pm – KW; Post-show conversation with cast and special guest, Reverend A. Carl Prince of the Zion Baptist Church of Philadelphia.

April 17 at 7pm – QE; Post-show conversation with Other American Cousins playwright Quinn D. Eli
April 19 at 8pm – KW; Pre-show conversation at 6:30pm with Reverend Lillian Smith of Tindley Temple United Methodist Church – “The Purpose and Power of Negro Spirituals”. April 20 at 2pm – QE April 20 at 8pm – KW

April 21 at 3pm – QE; Post-show conversation with cast and special guest, Dr. Judith Giesberg, Associate Professor of History at Villanova University

April 25 at 8pm****EXTENDED PERFORMANCE

April 26 at 8pm****EXTENDED PERFORMANCE

April 27 at 8pm****EXTENDED PERFORMANCE

April 28 at 3pm****EXTENDED PERFORMANCE

*Tickets to April 4 & 5 previews of The America Play are $5 off all price points. **Opening Night. Reception to follow.

***Student matinee. Interested school groups call 215-735-0630 for more information.

****Extended Performance.

Cast and Creative Team

THE AMERICA PLAY

Directed by Suzana Berger

Starring Lindsay J. Daniels, Langston Darby, Tanya O’Neill, Kirschen Wolford and Steven Wright

OTHER AMERICAN COUSINS

Written by Quinn D. Eli and Kimmika L. H. Williams-Witherspoon and Directed by Malika Oyetimein

Starring Lindsay J. Daniels and Langston Darby

Set Design by Colin McIlvaine, Light Design by Andrew Cowles, Costume Design by Erica Hoelscher, Sound Design by Toby Pettit, Prop Design by Alyssa Velazquez, Dialect Coaching by Melanie Julien, Assistant Direction by Jeffrey Hyman, and Dramaturgy by Lena Barnard.

More About The Performance

Suzan-Lori Parks is a renowned African American playwright, winner of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 2001 and Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. She was also recognized by the OBIE Awards with an award for playwriting and nominated for a Tony Award (Best Play) in 2002. The America Play is an early example of Parks’ tremendous talent, displaying humor and thought provoking imagery in order to examine the missing side of American history and the intricacies of race, family and theater. The final production of our season will be directed by Suzana Berger, a highly trained director who has created works across the nation, including Philly Fringe and the Epic Theatre Ensemble in NYC.

Prepare to see the show with a Plays & Players STUDY GUIDE!

Plays & Players, a Philadelphia institution for over 100 years, offers you theater that reflects our city. This season, we take a look at what a single voice can… and can’t… do. Those who speak up, those who speak out, and those who remain silent. Five one person shows. A chorus of voices. Join us in these amazing stories told with passion, humor, and uniquely personal aplomb.

The Disappearing Quarterback
September 20-27, 2014

Written and Performed by Mike Boryla
Directed by Daniel Student

“[A] highly enjoyable, attention-commanding world premiere at Plays and Players… a compelling, deeply human story that blends a dash of Spalding Gray, the existential quest of Beckett’s hobos, and the beauty of a tightly thrown spiral.”

-Jim Rutter, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mike Boryla was the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1974-1976. He had everything he wanted. But he didn’t want what he had. Two years later, he quit professional football and… disappeared. In a World Premiere encore performance of his hit one-man show that debuted in January at Plays & Players, he returns to Philadelphia for the first time in over 35 years to tell the story of walking away from the sport and the teammates, he loved. With the average life expectancy of a professional football player reported at 55, the effects of concussions becoming ever more clear, and even our president speaking out against its future, should “America’s Game”… disappear? A play for football fanatics and amateurs alike, The Disappearing Quarterback puts you inside the helmet of a unique athlete, a self-described “long-haired hippie,” with a passionate purpose and a story to share as he comes home to the city that made him famous.

Photo credit: Trevor Reynolds

Click the above to read the full Philadelphia Inquirer review!

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P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth)
November 6-23, 2014

A world premiere commission written by Jeremy Gable
Performed by Jennifer MacMillan

A “one person show to be named later” is the second installment of a new yearly series, P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth), that entertains and inspires theater goers of all ages!  Written by a local playwright with a focus on original and local stories, this imaginative new program offers a theatrically immersive, interactive experience for young audiences, engaging their creativity to help build and spark each performance, sharing living stories that capture the magic all around us.

Click the above to learn more about Jennifer MacMillan!

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Voices of a People’s History of the United States
January 29-31, 2015

Based on the book edited by Howard Zinn
Directed by John Doyle
Performed by Bob Weick as Howard Zinn and a cast of other Philadelphia favorites

Voices brings to life speeches, letters, poems, and songs from the extraordinary history of ordinary people who built the movements that made the United States what it is today: ending slavery and Jim Crow, protesting war and genocide, advancing gay and women’s rights, and struggling to right wrongs of the day.

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Hold These Truths
February 12-March 1, 2015

Directed by Daniel Student
Written by Jeanne Sakata
Performed by Makoto Hirano

“The powerful and moving story of one man, who, in his own words, ‘could not give up on the Constitution.’” – StageScene LA

Hold These Truths tells a story, buried by history, of one American’s attempt to reconcile his love for a country that labeled him a second class citizen. Gordon Hirabayashi’s real life 50-year journey brings us the astonishing facts of Japanese Internment, the US government’s orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast, through the eyes of a Quaker college student who was simply looking for love and the American Dream. When confronted with the ultimate challenge to his freedom, Gordon embarks on a truly profound and brave defense of our constitution, taking him on a wild adventure of discovering his Quaker faith, hitchhiking to prison, and ultimately, challenging the law in the highest court in the land… twice.  Join Philadelphia actor Makoto Hirano as he gives voice to over thirty characters in this one-man tour-de-force regional premiere, and celebrate the triumph of the power one person has to change a nation.

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Homebody/My Name is Rachel Corrie
May 21-June 7, 2015

Homebody – Written by Tony Kushner
Performed by Corinna Burns
My Name is Rachel Corrie – taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner
Performed by Isa St. Clair

“[My Name is Rachel Corrie’s] inevitable sentimental power is in its presentation of a blazing young life that you realize is on the verge of being snuffed out.”

-Ben Brantley, New York Times

“Our minds rush to keep up with the Homebody, and our hearts race with more emotions than we can sort through, as she alternately reads from the book and tells her own story.”

-Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker

Plays & Players pairs two contemporary one-woman shows about the complex relationship between the Middle East and the Western world. Homebody, straight from the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, hilariously tackles the topic through the eyes of a British housewife sitting in her kitchen, contemplating the Western interpretation of Kabul, Afghanistan, her dysfunctional family and hats. In a world of global isolation, she struggles with questions that thousands of years of civilization have failed to answer. My Name is Rachel Corrie is based on the diaries and emails of the titular American college student who met her death on the Gaza Strip in 2003, revealing the voice of a joyful and brilliant woman who celebrated life to its fullest and was lost to the world too soon. Corrie’s journey from the whimsical poetry of childhood to the essays of idealistic youth inspires us to see the best in others while giving us an unflinching look at the bleak socio-political situation that is Israel. Together, these beautifully contrasting and complementary shows take us past the images we see on television, straight into the hearts of our so-called “enemies,” and show us both the limits and vastness of our ability to understand each other.

Click the above photos to learn more about Isa St. Clair and Corinna Burns

Buy tickets for My Name is Rachel Corrie!

Buy tickets for Homebody!

Michael Friedman wrote the music and lyrics to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which recently played at The Public Theater and on Broadway (Outer Critics Circle Award, Lortel Award.) As an Associate Artist with the acclaimed theater company The Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for Canard Canard Goose, Gone Missing, Nobody’s Lunch, This Beautiful City, In the Footprint, and The Great Immensity, and co-created the groups 2012 TED Talk. Other works include Saved and The Brand New Kid. With Steve Cosson, he is the co-author of Paris Commune (BAM Next Wave Festival 2012). Upcoming projects include an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude with Itamar Moses, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost with Alex Timbers, and Pretty Filthy, a musical about the adult film industry with Bess Wohl and the Civilians. He was the dramaturg for the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, and has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a Meet The Composer Fellow, a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute, and an artist-in-residence at Spring Workshop Hong Kong. His recent Tedx talk, “The Song Makes a Space,” is available on YouTube. An evening of his songs was featured in Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, and he received an OBIE Award for sustained achievement.

Quinn D. Eli grew up in the Bronx and lives now in Philadelphia. His short plays have appeared in Best American Ten-Minute Plays and been produced throughout the country. Longer works include the award-winning My Name is Bess, produced by Trustus Theatre; Hazardous, produced locally at Society Hill Playhouse; and Hot Black/Asian Action, a satire about sexual and racial stereotypes that premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. The two-time recipient of Fellowships in Literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Eli has served as a Playwright-in-Residence at Plays & Players Theatre.

Jennifer MacMillan is a professional actor, director, and theater educator. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of the Arts where she is also a Lecturer. Jennifer is the Artistic Director of Bright Invention, the resident ensemble at White Pines Productions, as well as the Director of Education Programming at The White Pines Place. A founding member of the Slightly Awkward Peep Show Storytelling Collective, Jennifer’s storytelling work, twice produced by Quince Productions, received a four star review at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her first play, co-authored with noted Philadelphia playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger, Enter Bogart…, won the 2014 National Inaugural “Are Women Funny?” new play competition sponsored by Playscripts and the International Center for Women Playwrights. Jennifer’s acting credits include commercials, independent films, and theatre; recent favorite acting credits include Trish Tinkler Gets Saved (Theater Exile), The Exit Interview (InterAct), the world premiere of Raw Stitch (Philadelphia Fringe Festival), House of Blue Leaves (Isis Productions), and How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Luna). Favorite directorial credits include Superheroes who Are Super (Save the Day Productions), The Melting of Kim Banks (Parallax), Ballad Boys (Aspire Arts), and The Importance of Being Earnest and Naked Will (PGLTF). Jenn lives in South Philadelphia with her cats Wobbles and Quinny, and her dog Peanut. 

Vanessa Iyua is a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy and Practice and received her Master in Social Work in 2011. While at Penn as a graduate student, she was the graduate co-chair of Natives at Penn and worked towards furthering the visibility of Native people on Penn Campus. Today Vanessa is the Associate Director at the Greenfield Intercultural Center on Penn campus. The Greenfield Intercultural center is Penn’s resource for enhancing student’s intercultural knowledge, competency and leadership through programs, advising and advocacy. She works closely with the following student groups: United Minorities Council, Race Dialogue Project and Natives at Penn.

Joseph Aguilar is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His primary research focuses on the archaeology of the Southwest U.S., with a specific interest in the European contact period among the historic‐era Indian Pueblos of New Mexico. He is particularly interested in the responses to colonialism by Pueblo Peoples during the 17th century following the arrival of Europeans into the Northern Rio Grande region. His general research interests include indigenous archaeologies; landscape archaeologies; postcolonial theory; museum studies; and historic preservation. He has conducted extensive archaeological field work for Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Cultural Resource Team; for the University of New Mexico’s Chaco Stratigraphy Project at the Chaco Culture National Historic Park; for Dinetahdoo CRM and Educational Services in the U.S. Four Corners Region; and for Fouilles Préhistoriques, in Le Bourg, Carsac‐Aillac, France.

Isa St. Clair is delighted  to be joining Plays & Players for the first time with My Name is Rachel Corrie. She has previously worked with Applied Mechanics, Azuka Theatre, Commonwealth Classic Theatre, Curio Theatre Company, Delaware Shakespeare Festival, Dragon’s Eye Theatre, Ego Po, Flashpoint Theatre Company, Iron Age Theatre, and Shakespeare in Clark Park, among others. She is a founding member of Murmuration Theater and a company member at Curio and Dragon’s Eye. Isa graduated with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College and has sought additional training with Perseverance Theater (Juneau, AK), Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), and the British American Drama Academy (London, UK). She is proud to work with area youth as a teaching artist with Curio, Iron Age, and Delaware Theatre Company.

January 17-February 10

Andrew Jackson was a rock and roll GOD. He rode his outsider bad-boy image and his populist movement into office with promises to reform and representing the “other” America. What happened next was broken promises and a Trail of Tears. The multiple Tony nominee and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle winning high-octane rock musical will explode on Plays & Players’ mainstage in a Philadelphia premiere production!

Performance includes adult language, stylized violence for comedic effect, and sexuality. Is is not recommended for children under 13.

Ticketing Information

• Purchase Tickets Here! or call 800-595-4849
• $25 advance, $30 at the door
• $20 for students and $15 per ticket for groups of ten or more
• Mainstage

Performance Dates & Times

February 9 at 8pm (extended performance!)

February 10 at 3pm (extended performance!)

*Tickets to January 17 & 18 previews of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson are $5 off all price points.

**Opening Night. Reception to follow.

Cast and Creative Team

Directed by Daniel Student

Starring Joe Sabatino as Andrew Jackson. Also featuring Allison Caw, Max Cove, Jamison Foreman, Billy Kametz, Sam Nagel, Kristen Norine, Brendan Norton, Corey Regensburg, Shannon Remley,  Tim Rinehart, Meggie Siegrist, and Josh Totora.

Music Direction by Jamison Foreman, Choreography by Heather Cole, Fight Choreography by Terri McIntyre, Dramaturgy by Nelson Barre and Lena Barnard, Assistant Direction by Laurel Hostek, Set Design by Lance Kniskern, Light Design by Andrew Cowles, Costume Design by Jill Keys, Sound Design by Kyle Yackoski, and Props by Ben Storey.

More About The Performance

Featuring songs such as “Populism, Yea, Yea!,” “I’m So That Guy” and “Rock Star,” Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson compares Andrew Jackson’s frontier and manifest destiny fueled rise to power as the seventh president of the United States, and the first not born in Virginia or Massachusetts, to contemporary rock and roll American patriotic excess. A laugh-out-loud “South Park” style social critique mixes with a Brechtian self-awareness resulting in brazen satire that leaves no current political movement, from George W. Bush to the Tea Party to Obama’s “Yes We Can,” unscathed. In fact, the New York Times raved of the original production, “There is no show in town that more astutely reflects the state of this nation than Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.”

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson features music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman and a book by Alex Timbers. It was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, and won the 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Off-Broadway Musical and the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. The Philadelphia premiere will be directed by Plays & Players’ Producing Artistic Director Daniel Student, whose critically acclaimed productions in recent seasons include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, A New Brain, and Take Me Out.