Theatre Exile Announces ANY GIVEN MONDAY, Runs 2/4-28

Theatre Exile is proud to announce the world premiere of Any Given Monday by Bruce Graham, the "dean of Philadelphia dramatists" (Philadelphia Inquirer). A world premiere co-production with Act II Playhouse and directed by Harriet Power, Any Given Monday runs February 4th through February 28th at the Plays and Players Theatre and opens February 10th. Any Given Monday is recommended for mature audiences.

Lenny is not having a good Monday. His two least favorite football teams are playing on TV, his college-aged daughter is having a crisis of faith and his wife left him for a jerk who builds Wal-Marts. But when his best friend Mickey has the perfect solution to fix his marital problems, Lenny has to decide what he is willing to stand up for and whom he is willing to stand up to. In a world where political correctness, religious faith, class discrimination and social injustices just don't add up anymore, how can we personally define right and wrong?

Harriet Power directs an all-star cast of Barrymore favorites in Theatre Exile's world premiere co-production with Act II Playhouse. Playwright Bruce Graham is also a Barrymore regular, most recently winning the 2009 award for Outstanding New Play (Something Intangible). Bruce's third world premiere with Theatre Exile promises to deliver the sort of sharp-tongued, scathing comedy that made the Philly Fan such an Exile favorite. Bruce Graham is "considered to be this town's people-pleasing David Mamet, builder of stories that suck you in and make you want to stay" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Cast

Two time Barrymore Award winner Pete Pryor, previously seen in Exile's American Buffalo, returns to Exile as crass Mick. Pryor is co-founder of 1812 Productions and Artist-in-Residence at the Pathway School, as well as a frequent performer and director throughout the Philadelphia region. Exile's producing artistic director Joe Canuso, also in American Buffalo and director of last season's Blackbird,teams up again with Pryor as sensitive Lenny. 2001 F. Otto Haas Award recipient Catharine Slusar joins Exile for the first time as Lenny's sophisticated if not chilly wife, Risa. Slusar is a veteran actor who has performed across the country and is well known to Philadelphia audiences through her work at the Arden Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre, The Lantern, Bristol Riverside, People's Light and Theater Company, and Act II Playhouse. Exile is also pleased to welcome Genevieve Perrier, winner of the 2008 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress (Skylight, Lantern Theatre Company), as Sarah, Lenny's scholarly daughter. Perrier's recent credits also include The Lonesome West at Lantern, and Go, Dog, Go! at the Arden Theatre Company.
Designers

Set designer for Any Given Monday is Dirk Durossette, who has been teaching and designing extensively in the Philadelphia area for the last ten years for Temple, University of the Arts, Villanova University, Drexel University, West Chester University, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Theatre Horizon, Gas and Electric Arts, Amaryllis, Lantern, InterAct, and others. This season's costume designer Alison Roberts is in her tenth year with the Arden Theatre Company and has designed for 1812 Productions, Rowan University, and Jeanne Ruddy Dance. She previously designed costumes for Exile's Bug, Dark Play, and Hunter Gatherers. Lighting designer James Leitner, past Exile designer for Glengarry GLen Ross, has worked professionally in Philadelphia since 1974, with such organizations as La Salle Music Theater, Pennsylvania Opera Theatre, Wilma Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet, Curtis Opera, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Act II Playhouse, People's Light & Theatre, Bristol Riverside, Villanova University and The Arden Theatre. Mark Valenzuela joins Exile as sound designer; design credits in the area include 11th Hour Theatre Company, 1812 Productions, Lantern Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre Studio 3, Villanova University, and Arcadia University. He was a part of 11th Hour's Barrymore Award winning ensemble in The Bomb-itty of Errors, and was nominated for Outstanding Sound Design for their production of tick, tick...BOOM! Properties designer Amanda Hatch of Avista Custom Theatrical Supplies returns to Exile after providing props for last season's American Buffalo as well as for Bug and Roosters; Avista's work has also been seen in Kid Simple (Azuka), The War Party (InterAct), Jump/Cut (Flashpoint) and Honk! (Theatre Horizon).
Director

Harriet Power is Associate Artistic Director of Act II Playhouse and a Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, where she teaches directing and acting. She has devoted much of her professional directing and dramaturgy career to play development, working with new plays and playwrights at New Dramatists (New York), Philadelphia's PlayPenn, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, West Coast Playwrights, Iowa Playwrights Festival, and the International Women Playwrights Festival. She recently directed Feydeau's Le Dindon (Barrymore nominations, Outstanding Set and Costumes Design) and Kushner's adaptation of Corneille's The Illusion at Villanova, where she recently directed Shakespeare's As You Like It in November 2009.
Playwright

Bruce Graham is the author of many plays including four previous Exile productions: his much-lauded The Philly Fan (premiere), Burkie, Belmont Avenue Social Club, and Full Figured, Loves to Dance (premiere, as part of the 2007 Hearts & Soles). Graham's other works include Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille, Moon Over The Brewery, Champagne Charlie Stakes, Minor Demons, Desperate Affection, According to Goldman, Dex and Julie Sittin' in a Tree, and last season's Barrymore-winning Something Intangible. His Coyote on a Fence won the 1998 Rosenthal Prize, was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, and ran on London's West End starring Ben Cross. He has received awards from the Pew Foundation, the Theater Association of Pennsylvania and the Rockefeller Foundation, and was the 1992 Princess Grace Foundation Statuette recipient. Graham currently teaches film and theater courses at Drexel University. He lives in South Philadelphia with his wife Stephanie and their daughter Kendall.