The Philadelphia Artists' Collective Announces 2023/24 Season

The Philadelphia Artists' Collective has announced their 2023/24 season, featuring two highly inventive new productions that celebrate and challenge the expectations of classical theatre. PAC's diverse cohort of theatre artists, who stage rarely produced texts with visceral clarity in intentional spaces, announced the season at their annual launch party in Philadelphia, which was attended by dozens of patrons, neighbors, and friends.

"We believe the classics belong to everyone: they are living, breathing events," noted Damon Bonetti, Co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of PAC. "This upcoming season leans into our commitment to breathing new life into classical stories by inspiring audiences to lean in and engage with our shared human experience."

Titles for the 2023/24 PAC season include:

Citrus Andronicus

A World-Premiere Adaptation by Eli Lynn

Directed by Charlotte Northeast

Featuring Madeleine Garcia, Eli Lynn, and Peter Smith

Honorary Producers: Laura Birchler and Paige Willan

Poth Brewery, 3145 W Jefferson St, Philadelphia

September 7-17, 2023

What happens when you take a play about revenge and pair it with fruit? PAC presents a devised piece inspired by Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Dr. Madeline could not be more excited to be making her speaking debut at the Biennial Conference of the Northeastern Renaissance Society! Unfortunately, her brilliantly insightful lecture tragedy has been relocated from Ballroom D to a loading dock next to the kitchens, where two enthusiastic clowns are busy loading in crates of fresh fruit. Will she be able to squeeze a win out of this jam? Or will the unruly pear of clowns steal the limelight? This fast-paced, off-the-wall, absolutely bananas exploration of the Bard's brutally violent work is like nothing you've ever seen before - we promise. Bring your curiosity, and maybe a poncho. It's Shakespeare. Freshly squeezed.

Children of the Sun

By Maxim Gorky

Artistic Producers: Gayle & David Smith

Associate Producer: Becky Bradbeer

The Bluver Theater at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks St, Philadelphia

May 1-19, 2024

This play, written in 1905 by Maxim Gorky, was originally banned in Gorky's home country of Russia, but was later allowed to premiere to audiences so on edge that the theater had to stop the play due to the mob sound effects used in the third act. Children of the Sun examines the lives of the privileged intelligentsia and of the workers, advocating an alliance between the two. Idealistic scientist Pavel is oblivious to his wife Yelena's discontentment and widow Melania's adoration. His circle of friends are sardonic, lovelorn, self-obsessed, and utterly blind to the impending cholera epidemic. Gorky's darkly comedic and resonant tale follows a family grappling with a tangled present as they dream of an ideal future. Set in 1862, the play creates stark parallels between the past and present.

VENTURE READING SERIES

The Venture Reading Series aims to further explore the canon of little-known classics with FREE staged readings. This season's honorary producers are Pamela & Gresham Riley.

The Dog in the Manger

By Lope De Vega; Translated by David Johnston

Directed by J Hernandez

November 2023

Location TBD

Love, jealousy, intrigue - these are the ingredients of Lope De Vega's Spanish Golden Age masterpiece. Diana, the Countess of Belflor, is beset with aristocratic suitors. However, when she sees her servant, Marcela, and her secretary, Teodoro, in love with each other, she is immediately consumed with jealousy. Diana has no intention of marrying Teodoro, and the class difference makes it impossible even if she wanted to, but her envy and passion drives her to connive to keep the pair apart. Marcela is not so easily eliminated and vows revenge. Will true love win out? Will honor prevail? Still a classic after 400 years, The Dog in the Manger engages and intrigues.

The Lady's Not For Burning

By Christopher Fry

Directed by Jenny Bennett

Monday, April 8, 7 PM

The Bluver Theater at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks St, Philadelphia

Written in 1948, this romantic comedy is set "more or less" in 1400s England. Thomas, a war-weary and cynical soldier, bursts into a cleric's home, announces he has committed murder, and tries to convince the zealous clergyman to hang him. Shortly afterward, a young woman - Jennet - is brought before the Mayor for witchcraft. Thomas tries, in his own way, to prove how absurd it would be to refuse to hang a man who wants to be hanged, only to kill a woman who is both guiltless and doesn't want to die. A play of delightful freshness, splendid poetry, absurd humor, and sheer high spirits.

Details: Tickets for both productions are now on sale at philartistscollective.org. For $50.00, patrons can purchase a PAC Pass which includes reserved seating for all events, savings on tickets, plus invitations to special events.

The Philadelphia Artists' Collective, founded in 2008 by Damon Bonetti and Dan Hodge, is committed to promoting rarely performed classical plays through workshops and readings in the greater Philadelphia area. It is comprised of a group of performance and visual artists seeking to encourage the development of a common vocabulary and to promote arts awareness within the Philadelphia community.

PAC's past workshops and readings have featured some of the region's finest artists, and its full productions (Duchess of Malfi, Changes of Heart, Creditors, Timon of Athens, The Sea Plays, Mary Stuart, The Rape of Lucrece, Blood Wedding, The Fair Maid of the West) have garnered wide audience and critical praise.

Company members include co-founding artistic director Bonetti, artistic associates Cassandra Alexander and Eli Lynn working alongside general manager Megan O'Donnell. PAC prides itself on staging rarely produced classics in unexpected, site-specific locations, such as the Tall Ship Gazela​, The Franklin Inn Club, Powell House, the ​USS Olympia​ and the Woodlands Mansion & Cemetery.

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