LIBERATION to Make Philadelphia Premiere at Philadelphia Theatre Company
Taibi Magar directs the phone-free staging, which follows a daughter piecing together her late mother's past.
Philadelphia Theatre Company will open its 52nd season with the Philadelphia premiere of Liberation by Bess Wohl, winner of the 2026 Tony Award for Best Play and 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Directed by PTC Co-Artistic Director and Obie Award-winning director Taibi Magar and produced in association with Baltimore Center Stage, PTC's production is the first in the country following the play's acclaimed Broadway run at Roundabout Theatre Company. The limited 18-performance engagement runs October 9 – October 25, with Opening Night on October 14, at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (480 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146).
Moving between the early 1970s and the present day, Liberation follows the main character, Lizzie, as she tries to reconstruct a chapter of her late mother's life as a member of a consciousness-raising group in small-town Ohio. As the women gather to speak candidly about work, marriage, motherhood, race, desire, ambition, and freedom, their conversations reveal unexpected friendship and solidarity, as well as the contradictions of a movement still taking shape. At once a portrait of the women's liberation movement and an intergenerational story about mothers and daughters, Liberation explores what one generation changed, what it left unfinished, and what the next inherited.
'Liberation is about women gathering together and telling the truth about their lives, and there is something incredibly powerful about watching that happen in a theater full of people who have also chosen to gather together,' said Magar. 'What I love about the play is that these women are asking questions about work, motherhood, relationships, identity, and freedom that we are still asking today. And underneath all of that is this beautiful question of how well we really know our mothers as women, and what we inherit from the generations that came before us.'
That sense of gathering will extend to the audience experience. PTC will present every performance of Liberation phone-free, inviting audiences to spend the evening fully present with the play and one another. Upon arrival, phones will be secured in Yondr pouches that remain with audience members throughout the performance and are unlocked at its conclusion. The experience connects directly to a play centered on what can happen when women sit together, listen, and speak openly—a dynamic Liberation acknowledges from its opening moments.
The primarily Philadelphia-based cast includes Julianna Zinkel as Lizzie, Susan Rome as Margie, Anna Faye Lieberman as Susan, Ciera Gardner as Celeste, Lee Minora as Isidora, Campbell O'Hare as Dora, Noelle Diane Johnson as Joanne, and Brett Mack as Bill.
The creative team includes Sasha Jin Schwartz (Scenic Designer), LeVonne Lindsay (Costume Designer), Krista Smith (Lighting Designer), Daniela Hart and Noel Nichols (Co-Sound Designers), Larry Peterson (Hair/Wig Designer), Sierra Young (Intimacy Coordinator), Rose Palmieri (Assistant Director), Leslie Ann Boyden (Stage Manager), and Cat Brennan (Assistant Stage Manager).
On Saturday, October 17, PTC will host Leaders Who Lunch, a special brunch and panel featuring award-winning directors Sara Garonzik, PTC Executive Producing Director Emeritus, who led the organization from 1982 to 2017, Magar, and Amina Robinson, Theatre Horizon's next Artistic Director and Director of PTC's Purpose in February 2027. Representing multiple generations of women shaping PTC and Philadelphia's theater community, the panel will explore leadership, theater, and sustaining meaningful connections with Philadelphia audiences. The event takes place from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Village of Industry & Art, followed by a 2 p.m. matinee of Liberation at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.
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