Azuka Theatre Announces 2011-2012 Season; Debuts in New Space

Azuka Theatre's 12th Season is shaping up to be one of their most ambitious seasons to date. The company is moving into a new performance and office space, presenting its 10th World Premiere, and beginning a New Professionals Series. After scoring a hit with JorDan Harrison's Kid Simple in 2008, the company will kick the season off with the Philadelphia Premiere of Harrison's Humana Festival hit, Act A Lady. Their second show of the season will be the World Premiere of local playwright and Philadelphia Young Playwrights staffer Genne Murphy's Hope Street and Other Lonely Places. Azuka will close its season with their New Professionals production, one which features design and performances by recent college graduates. The theater company will also continue to host its series of Azuka Lounges and Spotlight Series: New Play Readings throughout the season.

The company will be moving into the First Baptist Church at 17th and Sansom Streets this season along with other members of the Off-Broad Street theater consortium. Philadelphia's newest performance space will include administrative offices and rehearsal space alongside the performance space. Azuka is excited about the prospect of working in the new space.

"The 2011­-2012 season will be a real watershed for Azuka Theatre," said Azuka Theatre Artistic Director Kevin Glaccum. "Inaugurating a new theater space, producing our first three show season, and hiring our first General Manager -- all signs point to this being a great year!" ­­

Tickets this season cost $27 for Friday, Saturday, and Opening Night performances. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday performances cost $22 and previews cost $18. Three-show subscriptions costs $40-$60. Tickets and subscriptions are available online at www.azukatheatre.org or by calling (215) 733-0255. Tickets and subscriptions go on sale September 1.

About the 2011-2012 Season
Philadelphia Premiere
Act A Lady
By JorDan Harrison
Directed by Kevin Glaccum
November 3 - 20, 2011
Opening Night, Wednesday November 9
Performances @ First Baptist Church, 17th & Sansom Streets
Azuka Theatre kicks off its season with JorDan Harrison's, hilarious comedy Act A Lady. From the author of the Azuka hit Kid Simple, the men of a small Prohibition-era town decide to stage a play dressed in "fancy-type, women-type clothes." When this production begins to take shape, gender lines blur, eyebrows raise, identities explode, and life and art are forever entangled. Act A Lady is a thoughtful and exuberant Midwestern fable about the woman in every man, the man in every woman and the power of theater to uncover both. Azuka favorites Amanda Schoonover and Mike Dees are already cast in this production.

World Premiere
Hope Street and Other Lonely Places
By Genne Murphy
Directed by Kevin Glaccum
March 15 - April 1, 2012
Opening Night, Wednesday March 21
Performances @ First Baptist Church, 17th & Sansom Streets
Hope Street and Other Lonely Places explores the stories of five Philadelphians bound together by loss and love, while searching for answers in the city which breathes and dreams and lives around them. At the center of this story are two women who were friends as teenagers and now find themselves looking for and finding hope under very bleak circumstances. Written by Philadelphia native and Philadelphia Young Playwrights employee and alumnus Genne Murphy, this premiere has been workshopped through Azuka's Spotlight Series. It will feature Kim Fairbanks and Mary Lee Bednarek.

New Professionals Production
Directed by Allison Heishman
May 31 - June 17, 2012
Performances @ First Baptist Church, 17th & Sansom Streets
Azuka Theatre is opening doors to recent graduates this year. The theatre is kicking off a new professional's production this season which will be performed and designed by recent college graduates giving them a professional credit and a chance to be seen by the greater community. Azuka is pleased to continue its long tradition of launching new theatrical careers with this program exclusively dedicated to that purpose.

Azuka Lounge: A Happy Hour Event

Several times a season, Azuka Lounge is presented as a social fundraiser to help support future Azuka productions and events. This season's line-up will include Azuka's annual Holiday Bash, and the wildly popular I Love You, I Hate You. Each Azuka Lounge is held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Quigs Pub, Plays & Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Street, and the cover is only $10.

Spotlight Series: New Play Readings

Every season, Azuka is pleased to introduce the Spotlight Series, a presentation of scripts being considered for future development and production with the theatre. The 2011-2012 readings will be held at the First Baptist Church at 17th & Sansom. The dates are: October 17, 2011, January 23, 2012, and April 16, 2012. All readings are free and will begin at 7 p.m.

Company History
Azuka Theatre was founded in 1999 by group of artists participating in the Arden Theatre Company's nationally recognized Professional Apprentice Program. Azuka Theatre quickly built a reputation for accessible, thought-provoking and socially minded theatre. Over the past eleven seasons, Azuka Theatre has produced twenty-three plays, including nine world premiers, received a Lambda Award from The Philadelphia Gay News and been nominated for multiple Barrymore Awards, winning for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical: Kim Carson in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Outstanding Sound Design: Christopher Colucci for The Long Christmas Ride Home. Azuka Theatre has been hailed as "a company to watch" and a "major player on the Philadelphia alterNative Theatre scene," by the Philadelphia Weekly.