Events for Oct 2020

From Paige Price, Producing Artistic Director

Hi everyone,

It’s the beginning of the theatre season!  Normally, we would be inside, welcoming you to the Suzanne Roberts Theatre as we celebrate our first Opening Night of the season.

Of course, that isn’t possible right now, but we are choosing to embrace this new normal. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to greet you tonight in ANY way. Not only are we still here for you, we’re going to bring the entire 20-21 season TO you – and find creative ways to connect you with the artists that are so crucial to bringing us joy and solace.

So, on behalf of the staff and Board of PTC, we invite you to Turn On, Tune In and join us for a full slate of digital and virtual experiences.

After tonight’s play, we return on October 13th with Sinclair Lewis’s satire It Can’t Happen Here, as a radio play starring David Strathairn.  We join over 75 theatres nationwide in offering this timely version of Lewis’s 1935 novel that follows the rise of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness.

In November, we’re excited to bring you our virtual production of the Pulitzer finalist The Wolves.  The team was set to start rehearsal on March 16th of last year, and so will finally gather to bring this story to you later this fall!

Once we’re into 2021, we’re leaping into lots of other projects and we’ll also keep you posted about the return of See & Be Scene, Play Brawl and other new programming.

Next I am so excited for you to get to know Jeffrey Page, who recently joined PTC as our new Resident Artist. Jeffrey is a director and choreographer with an eclectic and impressive background, so I’ll just give you the key words: UArts, Broadway, Beyoncé, Mariah, So You Think You Can Dance, Juilliard, Columbia and Broadway (again).  We can brag on his accomplishments all day, but I can’t wait for you to meet him, because he’s really special.

Jeffrey and I had a conversation about the first project he’s undertaking – the re-imagination of the Terrence McNally New Play Award.

When it was first created, the Award recognized new plays that celebrated themes central to McNally’s work; social justice, queer rights, and the transformative power of art. McNally was a provocateur, and his work was sly and subversive. In 2021, the McNally Award promises to push the conversation forward in a way that follows McNally’s artistic mission and will be awarded to a Philadelphia playwright.

A word from Emily Zeck, Managing Director

2020 is teaching us to be way more flexible than we even thought possible, and along with programming we’re applying the spirit of flexibility to pricing. We’re excited to announce that every ticket and every subscription across the 2020-21 season is Pay What You Can. You name the price. We’ll count on you to support the art that adds value to your life while making sure it can be available to everyone regardless of means.

If you’re an ongoing subscriber – first, we miss you – you’ve been automatically renewed for this season without any financial obligation, and you’ll get all of the details in the mail soon.  To everyone else, we’ll soon have a PWYC FAQ page on our website that will tell you how all of this is going to work –  watch for an announcement. And of course we’re always happy to answer questions directly.

Thank you for letting us be part of your lives this year, and we all can’t wait to welcome you again into our second home – the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.

###

We’d like to thank Comcast NBCUniversal for their continued support this season. Also shouting out to PNC Arts Alive, Wyncote and William Penn Foundations, and directly supporting The Wolves, we thank Davis Polk & Wardwell, PECO, CHG Charitable Trust and the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.