Philadelphia Theatre Company to Present VENUS IN FUR in 2013

Philadelphia Theatre Company announces Venus in Fur by David Ives will concludes its 2012-2013 season May 24-June 23, 2013.  Nominated this season for a Tony Award for Best Play, Venus in Fur follows Vanda, an unusually talented young actress determined to land the lead in Thomas’ new play based on the classic erotic novel, Venus in Fur.  Vanda’s emotionally charged audition for the demanding playwright/director becomes an electrifying game of cat and mouse that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex.

Venus in Fur premiered Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in 2010 and moved to Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel Friedman Theatre on Broadway.  It transferred again to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway in February and has been nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Play.

PTC has a long relationship with David Ives which began with a production of All in the Timing (PTC 1994), nominated for three Barrymore Awards, and continued with the world premiere of Lives of the Saints directed by John Rando (PTC 1999), nominated for a Best New Play Barrymore Award.  His new translation of Georges Feydeau’s classic farce A Flea in Her Ear, won Chicago’s Jefferson Award and his play New Jerusalem about the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, won a Hull-Warriner Award.  Ives is a regular adapter at New York’s celebrated Encores! series of classic American musicals in concert, having worked on two or three productions each season for the last fifteen years.  His Encores! adaptation of Wonderful Town subsequently moved to Broadway where it garnered five Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Musical.

Venus in Fur completes PTC’s 2012-2013 season which also includes the world premiere of the musical Stars of David,based on the book by Abigail Pogrebin, adapted by Charles Busch, and directed by Gordon Greenberg (October 17-November 11); The Mountaintop by Katori Hall (January 18-February 10); and Seminar by Theresa Rebeck (March 15-April 7).

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company whose mission is to produce, develop and present entertaining and imaginative Contemporary Theatre 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 PTC’s Producing Artistic Director Sara Garonzik since 1982 and Managing Director Shira Beckerman, who joined PTC in August, 2011, 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 46 Barrymore Awards and 155 nominations.  In October 2007, PTC opened the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, their home on Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts, which has helped contribute to the revitalization of Center City Philadelphia’s thriving arts district.

For further information, please call 215-735-7356.