The Wilma Theater's Free Reading Series Returns In January

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.

Readings will be held on January 5, 12 and 19 at 7:30 p.m., and January 26 at 8:00 p.m. Season Teasers readings are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Please call the Box Office for reservations at (215) 546-7824, or email tickets@wilmatheater.org. The Wilma Theater is located at 265 South Broad Street in Philadelphia. Visit www.wilmatheater.org for more information.

JANUARY READINGS:

SURPRISE PLAY (tba)
by ?
directed by Blanka Zizka
January 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Due to negotiations with the agent, we can't tell you the title or the playwright of this one, but it's a brand-new work about romance and sexual health in the 19th century by one of our favorite authors (hint: the Wilma has produced 2 of his/her plays in the past 5 seasons). Directed by Blanka Zizka, this reading features Miriam Hyman, Ben Lloyd, Ross Manson, Mary McCool, Sarah Sanford, Luigi Sottile, and Juliana Zinkel.

Leaving
by Vaclav Havel
directed by Jiri Zizka
January 12th at 7:30 p.m.
Vaclav Havel's first play in 20 years is the story of the recently retired Chancellor of a small nation. Shattered bits and pieces from Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare's King Lear invade the Chancellor's consciousness in this wry political tragicomedy that The Sunday Times (London) called "Deeply serious and thrillingly funny." Featuring Academy Award® winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an all-star Philadelphia cast, this reading is directed by Jiri Zizka who previously directed the feature film of Havel's Largo Desolato and the Off-Broadway production of Havel's Temptation starring David Strathairn.

BOOM
by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
directed by Walter Bilderback
January 19th at 7:30 p.m.
The end of the world is near, and a grad student's personal ad lures a randy journalism coed to his subterranean lab. The fate of mankind rests in their ability to procreate in Nachtrieb's slightly warped, yet hopeful comedy described by The Washington Post as a "grandly wacked-out apocalypse fantasy." Readers to be announced.

Language Rooms
by Yussef ElGuindi
directed by Walter Bilderback
January 26th at 8:00 p.m. (please note 8:00 p.m. schedule time)
Language Rooms is a searing comedy that explores The Life of an Arab-American translator in the War on Terror as the compartments into which he's carefully separated his life start to dissolve. The play is an urgent meditation on what this country has become in the past 8 years and features cast members from the Wilma's upcoming production of Scorched. Additional readers to be announced.