Sarah Sanford News

Theatre Exile is pleased to announce its 13th season: a year of provocative playwrights partnered with Philadelphia's most exciting performers.

The Theatre Alliance announced the finalists for the prestigious F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist at a press conference today at The University of the Arts' new Ellen and Ronald Caplan Center for the Performing Arts.

The Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre are the Greater Philadelphia region's only comprehensive theatre awards program, recognizing artists for excellence and innovation while serving to increase awareness of the richness of the local theatre community.

Home of the Prune Festival and the famous bee-beard contest, Yuba City is an invisible gem tucked away in the desert. If you stare long enough it might vanish like a mirage. Rest here on your travels along that long unswerving snake we call the interstate, park your rig, unfold your legs, drain the main vein, and try our world-famous jackalope stew.

Pig Iron Theatre Company Member Sarah Sanford makes her local directorial debut with the Philadelphia premiere of her co-creation Appetite. This dance-theatre feast she concocted with Toronto-based The Exchange Rate Collective is presented by Volcano USA and will run April 30-May 3 at The Wolf Building, 340 North 12th St. Tickets cost $20 and are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57553 or 1-800-838-3006.

Pig Iron Theatre Company Member Sarah Sanford makes her local directorial debut with the Philadelphia premiere of her co-creation Appetite. This dance-theatre feast she concocted with Toronto-based The Exchange Rate Collective is presented by Volcano USA and will run April 30-May 3 at The Wolf Building, 340 North 12th St. Tickets cost $20 and are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57553 or 1-800-838-3006.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 2008-09 Season with Hell Meets Henry Halfway, conceived and created by the Pig Iron Theatre Company, with text by Adriano Shaplin, after Possessed by Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz. The Pig Iron production, directed by Dan Rothenberg, performs February 2 to March 1, 2009, beginning with two Pay-What-You-Can performances on February 2 and 3 at 8pm. Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 2008-09 Season with Hell Meets Henry Halfway, conceived and created by the Pig Iron Theatre Company, with text by Adriano Shaplin, after Possessed by Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz. The Pig Iron production, directed by Dan Rothenberg, performs February 2 to March 1, 2009, beginning with two Pay-What-You-Can performances on February 2 and 3 at 8pm. Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

Mauckingbird Theatre Company will present Hedda Gabler as a compelling lesbian drama with the professional premiere of playwright Caroline Kava's explosive new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic. After the success of their critically acclaimed and sold-out inaugural season with all-male versions of The Misanthrope and Shakespeare's R & J, Mauckingbird's Hedda Gabler, explores lesbian relationships and the search for personal and sexual identity while exposing class divides, sexism, and the influence of money and status in aristocratic and bourgeois worlds.

The Wilma Theater's free reading series, Season Teasers, returns with its first four readings of the New Year in January 2009. The series offers audiences an exclusive opportunity to hear plays - chosen from the best writing from the U.S. and abroad - which are under consideration for future Wilma seasons. Plays are read by some of Philadelphia's finest actors and cast members from the Wilma's upcoming production of Scorched, alongside special guests including Academy Award? winning actor F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Scarface), who will be featured in the January 12 reading of Vaclav Havel's Leaving. Each reading is followed by a lively discussion with dramaturg, Walter Bilderback.

Mauckingbird Theatre Company will present Hedda Gabler as a compelling lesbian drama with the professional premiere of playwright Caroline Kava's explosive new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic. After the success of their critically acclaimed and sold-out inaugural season with all-male versions of The Misanthrope and Shakespeare's R & J, Mauckingbird's Hedda Gabler, explores lesbian relationships and the search for personal and sexual identity while exposing class divides, sexism, and the influence of money and status in aristocratic and bourgeois worlds.

This year's Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, running from August 29 through September 13, introduces the new Festival Bar, a stylized urban beer garden - designed and created specifically for the Festival - that will play host to thousands of festival-goers, artists and performers who will gather nightly for an after-hours chance to meet and mingle. Festival Bar visitors will be able to grab a beer or cocktail served up by Philly's favorite barman Fergus Carey, purchase food including Turkish dishes from Konak Restaurant and Bar, enjoy visual media installations designed and programmed by artist Lars Jan, dance to a line-up of some of the city's best DJs and even play arcade games like pinball and Wii Boxing.

This year's Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, running from August 29 through September 13, introduces the new Festival Bar, a stylized urban beer garden - designed and created specifically for the Festival - that will play host to thousands of festival-goers, artists and performers who will gather nightly for an after-hours chance to meet and mingle. Festival Bar visitors will be able to grab a beer or cocktail served up by Philly's favorite barman Fergus Carey, purchase food including Turkish dishes from Konak Restaurant and Bar, enjoy visual media installations designed and programmed by artist Lars Jan, dance to a line-up of some of the city's best DJs and even play arcade games like pinball and Wii Boxing.

The following nominees were announced at the Annual Barrymore Awards Press Conference on August 6. Award recipients will be announced at the 2008 Barrymore Awards Ceremony on Monday, October 6.