New Irwin Work to be Developed by Philadelphia Theatre Co.

By: Jul. 28, 2006
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Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin's new work The Happiness Lecture will be developed by the Philadelphia Theatre Company, which has been awarded a $160,000 grant that will go towards honing the piece.

The grant was extended to the company by Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage.  A theatre piece blending movement, music and projections, The Happiness Lecture will be presented during the Pennsylvania company's 2007-2008 season after developmental workshops during the 2006-2007 season.

"We are grateful to the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative for enabling us to continue our relationship with Bill Irwin whose appearance in our production of Trumbo won him a 2005 Barrymore Award.  As a company dedicated to producing and developing new work by contemporary American playwrights, we are thrilled that Bill's newest piece will be a centerpiece in the first season of our new theatre space," stated producing artistic director Sara Garonzik.  The company will move into the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, located on the Avenue of the Arts, in fall of 2007.  Shows are currently performed at the Plays & Players Theatre.

An actor, physical comedian, writer and director, Irwin won a Tony Award for his performance as George in the recent revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  He received three Tony nominations--as actor, choreographer and director--for his Largely New York, and has also appeared on Broadway in Fool Moon (which he created with David Shiner), The Regard of Flight and Accidental Death of an Anarchist.  Film credits include Lady in the Water, The Manchurian Candidate, Igby Goes Down, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Illuminata and My Blue Heaven.

"Philadelphia Theatre Company is dedicated to presenting Philadelphia and world premieres of major works by contemporary American playwrights," according to notes on the theatre's website.  Among recent premieres were Terrence McNally's Some Men and Christopher Durang's Adrift in Macao.

Visit www.phillytheatreco.org for more information.


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