PTC@Play Expands Into Annual Festival

Philadelphia Theatre Company will expand its PTC@Play project into an annual Festival beginning next spring thanks to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge, a $9 million initiative supporting innovative projects that inspire and enrich Philadelphia's communities. In October 2010, to kick off its 35th Anniversary Season, PTC piloted its first PTC@PLAY, a month-long event featuring a panel discussion and five staged readings of new plays by award-winning playwrights. Energized by the event's success and with the aid of the Knight Foundation, PTC, as a leading regional theater with a national reputation for new work development, will now host what will become a major new play event for the City of Philadelphia.

"This year, by consolidating our new play readings into a single month with the pilot of PTC@PLAY, we learned that both our audiences and artists responded enthusiastically to this concentrated format by lending a festival buzz-and ultimately doubling attendance. The Knight Foundation's investment in PTC@Play will enable us to dramatically enhance the program-fueling the potential to achieve local and national recognition as it enriches the theater community with groundbreaking new work," said Sara Garonzik, PTC's Producing Artistic Director.

"We are delighted to have been selected as one of the awardees to receive this extremely competitive grant through the Knight Arts Challenge. We are honored that from the 1,700 proposals the Knight Foundation recognizes the value PTC@PLAY brings to the community," said Kathleen Nolan, PTC's Interim Managing Director.

PTC@PLAY will kick-off on February 27-March11, immediately before PTC's production of THE OUTGOING TIDE, a new play by noted Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham in early spring. This juxtaposition will give audiences the opportunity to see preview five new projects in development and then the full production of a new work.

"This festival provides a space for Philadelphia's vibrant theater community to blossom and grow further," said Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation's vice president/arts.

PTC@PLAY's expansion will also include the creation of a new mentorship and commissioning program that, each year, will pair an established playwright with an emerging playwright of similar sensibilities. The commissioned playwrights will be announced during PTC@Play; the following year, their commissioned pieces will be featured alongside other new works during PTC@PLAY.

"The new work created and showcased through PTC@PLAY will give PTC greater theater industry impact and enhance Philadelphia's reputation as a home for new play development," continued Garonzik.

PTC@PLAY is an outgrowth of PTC's STAGES program which, in addition to readings and workshops, provided commissions over the last decade to artists and playwrights such as Bill Irwin, Gina Gionfriddo, Bruce Norris and Stephen Belber as well as residencies to writers such as Charles OyamO Gordon and Tom Donaghy. This past year PTC@PLAY's five public staged readings and panel discussion included works by Jeffrey Hatcher, Kristen Greenidge, Theresa Rebeck and Bill Cain and a collaboration with Leigh Fondakowski and the Tectonic Theater Project.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of communications in the United States where the Knight brothers once owned newspapers. The Knight Foundation invests in ideas and projects that can lead to transformational change.

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theater company whose mission is to produce, develop and present entertaining and imaginative contemporary theater focused on the American experience that both ignites the intellect and touches the soul. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops PTC generates projects that have a national impact and reach broad regional audiences. Under the leadership of Sara Garonzik as PTC's Producing Artistic Director since 1982, PTC supports the work of a growing body of diverse dramatists and takes pride in being a home to scores of nationally recognized artists who have participated in more than 140 world and Philadelphia premieres. PTC has received 45 Barrymore Awards and 147 nominations. In October 2007, PTC moved into a home of its own, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Center City Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, solidifying the Company's status as a major player on the American theater scene. In October 2010, Kathleen Nolan joined PTC as its Interim Managing Director.

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