Arden Theatre Presents Rachel Bonds' AT THE OLD PLACE, Now thru 7/28

Arden Theatre Company announces the second production for The Writers' Room, an innovative playwright residency program, with At the Old Placeby Rachel Bonds. This new play, written during a four-month residency in Philadelphia receives a developmental production on the Arden's Arcadia Stage from today, July 18-28, 2013. The Writers' Room is made possible by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Independence Foundation through its New Theatre Works Initiative and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The Writers' Room, led by Arden Associate Artistic Director Edward Sobel, is designed to allow the writer to stay in closer contact with her original creative impulse and have a more holistic relationship with the larger institution than most new play development processes currently allow. The culmination of this residency is the developmental production of At the Old Place. In this new work, a literature professor returns to her family home in Richmond, VA following her mother's death, only to find two young people camped out on her lawn. This funny, poetic tale takes us through the thickets of growing up and the search for the roads we didn't take.

Sobel, who directs the production, says "The developmental production is more than a workshop or reading, but not yet a full Arden production. Actors are 'off-book' and there are design elements, but the emphasis is on the actors and the development of the play text. Following last year's success with playwright Wendy MacLeod's Women in Jep, we are excited to explore another new work with a Philadelphia audience."

The cast for the developmental production of At the Old Place features Kathryn Peterson (August: Osage County,) as Angie, the New England professor who has run away to Richmond, Virginia. The cast also includes William Zielinski (The Seafarer; Wineseburg, OH) as Harrison, Angie's lover, and as the two Best Buy employees hanging out on Angie's lawn Aubie Merrylees (Women in Jep, Charlotte's Web) as Will and Kristen Bailey (Arden debut, multiple shows with Applied Mechanics and Bearded Ladies Cabaret) as Jolene. The design team includes set designer Christopher Haig, lighting designer J. Dominic Chacon, costume designer Alison Roberts (August: Osage County), and sound designer Larry D. Fowler.

Rachel Bonds' plays have been developed or produced by New Georges, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Flea, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival, American Theater Company, McCarter Theater, Roundabout Underground, MTC and Two River Theater, among others. She is currently an affiliated artist of New Georges', a member of EST's Youngblood, and a recent winner of the Sam French Short Play Festival. She is an alum of Ars Nova's Play Group and New Georges' The Jam, and was the 2011 Father William Ralston Fellow at the 2011 Sewanee Writers' Conference. Her plays include Michael & Edie, named a NY Times Critic's Pick in 2010, The Noise, Swimmers, and Five Mile Lake. Bonds is a graduate oF Brown University and a resident of Brooklyn, NY.

With The Writers' Room, Arden audiences have had an unusual opportunity to participate in the new play development process. Fifty-five audience members purchased "Inside the Writers' Room" passes in May, entitling them to access throughout the writing, rehearsal, and performance process of At the Old Place. Pass holders engage in conversation around the work, becoming personally invested in the play and creating an artistic experience unlike any other in the Philadelphia region.

Tickets for At the Old Place are available for $15 to the general public, $10 for Arden subscribers, and $5 for students with valid ID by calling 215.922.1122 or visiting www.ardentheatre.org/writersroom.

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