Philadelphia Theatre Company to Present OUTSIDE MULLINGAR, 11/28-12/28

Philadelphia Theatre Company's continues its 40th Anniversary season with the Tony Award-nominated play Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley November 28-December 28. Directed by Mary B. Robinson, the cast features Beth Dixon, David Howey, Anthony Lawton, and Kathleen McNenny.

Previews begin Friday, November 28 with Opening Night on Wednesday, December 3. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays until December 28. Tickets starting at $25 are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

Set in rural Ireland, Anthony and Rosemary are two introverted misfits straddling 40 and dealing with a land feud, their cantankerous parents, and their romantic feelings in this charming, funny, and ultimately moving journey.

Outside Mullingar premiered last season on Broadway in a Manhattan Theatre Club production and received an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. In addition to its Tony Award nomination, Outside Mullingar was nominated for two 2014 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play and for two Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play.

John Patrick Shanley (Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, an Oscar winning screenwriter, and a theatre and film director. The author of more than 23 plays, his play Doubt: A Parable won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as four 2005 Tony Awards (including Best Play) and the Drama Desk Award (including Outstanding Play). The screenplay, which Shanley also directed, was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Shanley won an Oscar for his screenplay of Moonstruck with Nicholas Cage and Cher. He also wrote the screenplay for Joe Versus the Volcano, which he directed, and for Congo, based on the Michael Crichton book.

Mary B. Robinson (Director) returns to PTC where she has directed 4,000 Miles, At Home at the Zoo, Third, Dinner with Friends, This is Our Youth, Molly Sweeney, and Three Viewings. Her work is also known to Philadelphia audiences from her five years as Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Drama Guild, where she directed A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello (with Kathleen McNenny), A Moon for the Misbegotten, A Normal Life, Dancing at Lughnasa (with Beth Dixon), and Of Mice and Men (Barrymore Award), among others. In New York, she directed Women on Fire at the Cherry Lane, with Judith Ivey, and String Fever at Ensemble Studio Theatre, with Cynthia Nixon. She was nominated for the Drama Desk Award in 1986 for her production of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky at Westport Country Playhouse, Second Stage, and she was the first recipient of the Alan Schneider Award in 1987. She worked most recently at Westport Country Playhouse, Arena Stage in Washington DC, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. She teaches at NYU and Brooklyn College, and her book Directing Plays, Directing People: A Collaborative Art was recently published by Smith and Kraus.

Beth Dixon (Oeife) returns to PTC where she lasted appeared in 4,000 Miles and was nominated for a Barrymore Award for Best Actress in a Play. She recently appeared at Lincoln Center in City of Conversation and has also appeared on Broadway in Major Barbara, Wrong Mountain, and The Royal Family, and Off-Broadway in Rapture, Blister, Burn, Wings, The Show Off; and The Bee Keeper's Daughter. Her regional theatre credits include productions at Long Wharf Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, and Dallas Theatre Centre.

David Howey (Tony) is Head of the Acting Program at the Brind School of Theatre at the University of the Arts. He was an actor in England for 30 years working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre Company, in London's West End and in innumerable TV series and films. He has appeared on Broadway twice and performed Shakespeare across the USA, including Macbeth at the Annenberg Center, Prospero at Arcadia University and Shylock, Malvolio and Leontes for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. He has performed with the Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, People's Light & Theatre Company, Wilma Theater, and Lantern Theatre Company, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for whom he narrated the Cocteau/Stravinsky "Oedipus" at Carnegie Hall.

Anthony Lawton (Anthony) last appeared at PTC in Bruce Graham's The Outgoing Tide. He has appeared locally in Of Mice & Men and Cyrano de Bergerac at Walnut Street Theatre, Playland and Threepenny Opera at The Wilma Theater, The Lonesome West and Othello at Lantern Theatre, and Sweeney Todd, Loot, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and James Joyce's The Dead, all at Arden Theatre Company. He has been a frequent guest at Pennsylvania Shakespeare, starring in The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest. Off- Broadway he has appeared at Pearl Theatre Company in Othello and The Good Natur'd Man.

Kathleen McNenny (Rosemary) appeared on Broadway in Coram Boy, The Constant Wife, After the Fall, and A Few Good Men. Off-Broadway she has performed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Pearl Theater, and New York Shakespeare Theater. Her regional credits include productions at George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Westport Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and Huntington Theatre. She has been featured on film in Lover Boy, School of Rock, and It Could Happen To You.

Outside Mullingar brings together the creative team of set designer Jason Simms (PTC's 4,000 Miles and Venus in Fur and is the recipient of 2012 USITT Rising Star Award, sponsored by Live Design); lighting Designer Dennis Parichy (PTC's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and recipient of an Obie Award, three Tony nominations, a Drama Desk Award, and three L.A. DramaLogue awards); costume designer Janus Stefanowicz (28 productions with PTC including a Barrymore Award for Intimate Apparel) and sound designer Christopher M. Colucci (nominated for 15 Barrymore Awards, winning five times and an F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist nomination).

PTC's 40th Anniversary season continues with Tony Award-nominated Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally (February 6-March 8); brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Kimber Lee (May 1-May 31), co-produced with the Long Wharf Theatre; and the Off-Broadway hit musical comedy Murder for Two with book and music by Joe Kinosian and book and lyrics by Kellen Blair (June 6-June 28).

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company that produces, develops and presents entertaining and imaginative contemporary theatre focused on the American experience. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops, PTC generates a national impact and reaches broad regional audiences. Under the guidance of PTC's Executive Producing Director, Sara Garonzik, since 1982 and PTC President Priscilla M. Luce, who joined the leadership team in early April of 2013, PTC supports the work of a growing body of diverse dramatists and takes pride in being a home to many nationally recognized artists who have participated in more than 140 world and Philadelphia premieres. PTC has received 53 Barrymore Awards and 169 nominations.