Penn Shakes. Fest Opens Season With THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD 6/16

The Irish play that led to riots in the streets of Dublin when it debuted 103 years ago and became a comic masterpiece, The Playboy of the Western World, opens the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 19th season. With previews June 16 and 17, the play opens June 18 in the Schubert Theatre and continues through July 3. Ticket prices range from $25 to $50, with discounts available for subscribers, seniors, students, and groups.

"Refreshing and unique, The Playboy of the Western World is an extraordinary synthesis of a wonderfully dark humor and exquisite romantic possibility," says Patrick Mulcahy, producing artistic director.

When a shy country lad stumbles into a remote Irish tavern and reveals his murderous deed, the locals proclaim him a hero - and the girls all gather round. As the townspeople celebrate the celebrity of the stranger among them, the tavern keeper's feisty daughter plots to claim him for her own, fantasizing a life of love, free from hardship and tedium.

William Butler Yeats, a friend of the playwright's, described Playboy as "noble art, so full of passion and heroic beauty," and "created from the delight of expression... happiness and health of mind."

James J. Christy, a Barrymore Award winner who directed PSF's Twelfth Night in 2008, returns to the director's chair. "The play presents the harshness of [the characters'] lives, while still capturing the exhilaration of living," he says.

The design includes sets by Bob Phillips, six-time Emmy Award winner and frequent PSF artist; costumes by Amy Best, resident PSF designer and DeSales University costume designer for the past ten years; lighting by Thom Weaver, whose credits include last season's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and sound by Matthew Given, PSF's resident sound designer for the past six seasons who also serves as the company's full-time production manager. Hannah Woodward is production stage manager.

Hazel Bowers is serving as dialect coach, Rick Sordelet as Fight Director, Erin Hurley as Choreographer, and Victoria M. Fragnito as assistant to the director.

The title role of Christy Mahon is played by Shawn Fagan. Fagan made his debut at PSF last season in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), and has performed at many Shakespeare festivals and theatres around the country. The dauntless tavern-keeper's daughter, Pegeen Mike, is portrayed by PSF newcomer Ellen Adair.

John Ahlin, a PSF veteran who will also play Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor later in the season, will play Old Mahon, the father of the titular playboy. Dave Scheffler plays Michael James Flaherty, father to Pegeen.

The Widow Quin, who also has designs on the stranger, will be performed by Kim Ders, last seen at PSF in Private Lives (2004). David A. Smith and Jacob R. Dresch will portray Philly Cullen and Shawn Keogh, respectively. PSF acting interns Daniel Bound-Black, Chelsea Anne Carle, Melissa Egan, Henry Gibson, Emiley Kiser, and Chris Stevens complete the cast.

Production Sponsors are Dr. & Mrs. Frank J. Szarko; Co-Sponsors are Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy Nolan, and Wills Hall Oblate Community.
The Season Sponsor is Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. The Associate Season Sponsors for the 2010 season are the Harry C. Trexler Trust, The Morning Call, and Service Electric Cable TV & Communications. Director Sponsors are Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth.

The season also features: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Main Stage June 23 - July 11), The Merry Wives of Windsor (July 14 - August 8 in the Schubert), and Romeo and Juliet (on the Main Stage July 21 - August 8). Family programming includes Robin Hood (June 4 - August 7) and Shakespeare for Kids (July 28 - August 7). The free outdoor Green Show is performed one hour prior to each evening performance, June 16 - August 7.

To order tickets: 610.282.WILL [9455] or www.pashakespeare.org.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University is the Official Shakespeare Festival of The Commonwealth and a professional, not-for-profit, theatre company. An independent 501 c 3 organization, PSF receives support from DeSales University and relies on contributions from individuals, government agencies, corporations and foundations. PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America.

Press representatives:
Please contact Lisa Higgins to schedule interviews and reviews: 610.282.WILL, ext. 4
[note: extension is not for publication], or Lisa.Higgins@desales.edu

Artists' Biographies

Patrick Mulcahy (Producing Artistic Director) Since assuming leadership in 2003, Mr. Mulcahy has had the pleasure of stewarding PSF's return to excellence and financial stability, the rebuilding of the professional company of artists, and achieving increasing national recognition for the Festival. Further accomplishments include PSF's first-ever award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and attracting a company of artists including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, and Barrymore awards to the Festival, growth in all income area, and 50% increase in annual attendance, and the expansion of the number of Actors' Equity contracts per season. As a professional director, actor and fight director, credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, television, and radio. Mr. Mulcahy directed Vera Farmiga in The Real Thing, and has acted with Angela Basset, Peter MacNicol, HAl Holbrook Joan Cusack, Don Cheadle, Anne Meara, Milo O'Shea, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shaloub, Bradley Whitford, and others at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, The Roundabout Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, and the Walnut Street Theatre. He served as fight director for Tom Hulse and Timothy Busfield in A Few Good Men on Broadway and for Off-Broadway productions starring John Savage, John Mahoney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Patrick Dempsey. For PSF, he directed Antony and Cleopatra (2009), The Winter's Tale (2007), Henry IV, Part I (2005), The Tempest (1999), and acted in and served as fight director for The Taming of the Shrew (1998) and Julius Caesar (1997). As Head of Acting at DeSales, Patrick directing ten productions for Act 1, including I Hate Hamlet, The Grapes of Wrath, The Foreigner, and The Diary of Anne Frank. He was also the founding director of The Summer Theatre Institute at DeSales University. He holds an M.F.A. from Syracuse University.

James J. Christy (Director, The Playboy of the Western World) previously directed Twelfth Night at PSF in 2008 and the 1996 production of Othello. In 2006, he was honored with the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance's Lifetime Achievement Award, a highlight of his longtime career as a director and educator in Philadelphia. His productions have won numerous Barrymore awards, including two for best directing. He is a Professor Emeritus at Villanova University where he retired after 39 years of teaching theatre.

Ellen Adair (Pegeen Mike) makes her PSF debut with this role. Recent credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Baltimore Center Stage), The Yellow Leaf (Pioneer Theatre Company), Henry IV, Part 1(Folger Shakespeare Theatre)
American Shakespeare Center's Piercing Eloquence Tour, Arms and the Man (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), and All's Well That Ends Well (Actors' Shakespeare Project). Other productions include More Than What, By the Bog of Cats, The Beard of Avon, A Doll's House, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet.

John Ahlin (Old Mahon) Acting credits on Broadway include: Waiting for Godot (with Bill Irwin, Nathan Lane, John Goodman, and John Glover), Journey's End (2007 Tony Award Best Revival), The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Voices in the Dark, One Mo' Time, Whoopee!, and Macbeth. Off-Broadway, he portrayed Orson Welles in Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow, and has appeared as Falstaff six times, including in PSF's Henry IV, Part 1 in 2005. In 2008, he played Sir Toby Belch in PSF's Twelfth Night. Other regional theater work includes American Buffalo and The Seafarer at TheaterWorks in Hartford, The Drawer Boy at Studio Arena in Buffalo, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing at Pittsburgh Public Theater and Floyd Collins at The Actors Theatre of Louisville, Old Globe Theatre, and Goodman Theatre. Other regional theaters include: Repertory of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse, Prince Music Theatre, Syracuse Stage, George Street Playhouse, and the Goodspeed Opera House. TV credits include: Law and Order: SVU (multiple episodes), Third Watch, As the World Turns, The Education of Max Bickford, and many commercials and voiceovers.

Kim Ders (Widow Quin) a veteran of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival where she received her M.F.A., Kim's credits there include: Maudy, Beulah and Geneva in Fair and Tender Ladies, Nancy in Oliver!, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Bessie Legros in Sheppy, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, BeLinda Blair in Noises Off, Mrs. Candor in School for Scandal, Renee in Dark Rapture and the Queen in Cymbeline. Kim has also been seen as Olivia in Twelfth Night at the Clarence Brown Theater, and BeLinda Blair in Noises Off at the Portland Stage Company. In New York, she has worked with Emerging artists and The New Ensemble. Kim was also seen as the crime fighting biker babe, Wanda, in the 2005 NYC Fringe Festival production of Go-Go Kitty, GO! and was touted as "hilarious" by the New York Times. Her TV credits include, As the World Turns and Law & Order. She last performed at PSF as Amanda in Private Lives (2004).

Shawn Fagan (Christy Mahon) made his PSF debut in last season's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). He recently played Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he also premièred Wittenberg. His credits include: Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre Of New Jersey, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at the American Players Theatre (where he also played Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World), and Edgar in King Lear at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Other credits include Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, and Delaware Theatre Company.