BROWNSVILLE SONG Comes to Philadelphia Theatre Company, Now thru 5/31

Philadelphia Theatre Company continues its 40th Anniversary season with the hit of the Humana Festival brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Kimber Lee tonight, May 1-31. Co-produced with Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT, brownsville song (b-side for Tray) is directed by Eric Ting, and features a cast including Sung Yun Cho, Curtiss Cook, Jr., Catrina Ganey, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, and Kaatje Welsh.

Previews begin Friday, May 1 with Opening Night on Wednesday, May 6. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays until May 31. Tickets starting at $25 are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

brownsville song (b-side for tray) is a beautifully crafted play that tells a moving and universal story of love and redemption. When a fine young man's life is tragically cut short, each member of his family must find a personal path to forgiveness. As his grandmother and sister struggle to deal with this cataclysmic event, the complexity of human emotion and capacity for hope is revealed. Tapping a deep reservoir of feeling, playwright Kimber Lee demands that attention be paid to several lives that suddenly matter more than we could have imagined.

brownsville song (b-side for tray) had its world premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's annual Humana Festival for New American Plays in spring 2014. The play was subsequently produced in fall 2014 at Lincoln Center's LCT3 theatre which also premiered Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles and Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced.

"This is a beautiful play about a vibrant young man whose life is tragically cut short and the repercussions of that terrible act. We hope audiences will be inspired by the power and resilience of the human spirit brought forth by this remarkable play," said PTC's Executive Producing Director Sara Garonzik.

Kimber Lee was inspired to write the play after hearing of the murder of a young boxer from Brownsville named Tray Franklin. "On the deepest level, the play is not political, nor is it about making a political statement ," explained playwright Kimber Lee. "At bottom, I wanted people to feel something that this boy had done. That was the driving concern I had when I was writing this play."

Kimber Lee (Playwright) is the author of fight, tokyo fish story, and brownsville song (b-side for tray. In May 2014, Center Theatre Group presented the world premiere of her play different words for the same thing directed by Neel Keller, and tokyo fish story will premiere at South Coast Rep in March 2015. Her work has also been presented by Lark Play Development Center, Page 73, Hedgebrook, Seven Devils, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), Old Globe, Magic Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Conference. The recipient of the 2014 Ruby Prize, the 2013-2014 PoNY Fellowship, the 2014-2015 Aetna New Voices Fellowship, and the inaugural 2015 PoNY/Bush Theatre Playwright Residency in London, Lee is a Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow (2014-2015), member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and is currently under commission at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3, South Coast Rep, Denver Center Theatre Company, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, and the Bush Theatre (London).

Eric Ting (Director) is in his eleventh season as Associate Artistic Director at Long Wharf Theatre where he has directed the world premieres of January Joiner, Agnes Under the Big Top and The Old Man and the Sea (which he also co-adapted). An Obie Award-winner for We Are Proud to Present a Presentation..., his recent credits include The World of Extreme Happiness at Manhattan Theatre Club and Goodman Theatre, Parable of the Sower at Under the Radar Festival at the Public, A Great Wilderness at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Miriam at BAM Next Wave, Warrior Class at Alliance Theatre and Rising Son Singapore Rep. Ting is the recipient of a TCG New Generations fellowship and a Jerome & Roslyn Milstein Meyer Career Development Prize as well as a 2012 MAP Fund Award for the development of Motherland/Foreign Relations (We All Here Why You Never Call?) by Meiyin Wang.

Sung Yun Cho (Merrell) has appeared on Broadway in Lanford Wilson's Redwood Curtain directed by Marshall Mason, earning an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer on Broadway. Her regional credits include M. Butterfly at Northern Stage, Wit at Theatre Virginia, The Women at Hartford Stage, Junk Bonds at Cleveland Public Theatre, and Redwood Curtain at The Old Globe. On television she has appeared on "The Prosecutors" and "Crossing Jordan".

Curtiss Cook, Jr. (Tray) has appeared at Primary Stages originating the role of David in High School Confidential, and Off-Broadway in Seven Minutes in Heaven. He was the lead in the film Naz & Maalik, a SXSW selection, and in the short Amateur and music video Holy Soul, both vimeo staff picks.

Catrina Ganey (Lena) was the AUDELCO winner in the 20th Anniversary revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. Regionally she has appeared in Cyrano at The Shakespeare Theatre, The Colored Museum at Hartford Stage, and Nunsense and Twelfth Night, both at Colonial Theatre. The recipient of the Irene Ryan Acting Award, she was nominated for Best Actress of the Year by the Connecticut Critic's Choice Award for her work in Miss Evers Boys at Stamford Theatre Works.

Anthony Martinez-Briggs (Jr./Brooklyn College Student) has performed in Philadelphia in Uncle Tom's Cabin at EgoPo Classic Theater and in Sideways Stories from Wayside School at Arden Theatre Company. A recent graduate of University of the Arts, he is a founding member of the band ILL DOOTS, which recently complete their third tour to great success.

Kaatie Welsh (Devine) has appeared at Long Wharf Theatre in Our Town and in The Library Project at A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company. The eleven-year old has been featured in two music videos and modeled for a live runway show for American Doll.

brownsville song (b-side for tray) brings together the creative team of PTC favorites lighting designer Russell H. Champa, costume designer Toni-Leslie James (The Scottsboro Boys, Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Jelly's Last Jam and 2009 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Costume Design), and sound designer Ryan Rumery (Murders, Unusual Acts of Devotion, Grey Gardens, Light in the Piazza, and Barrymore nomination for Golden Age), and introduces set designer Scott Bradley (Tony nomination and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for Seven Guitars).

PTC's 40th Anniversary season closes with the Off-Broadway hit musical comedy Murder for Two with book and music by Joe Kinosian and book and lyrics by Kellen Blair (June 6-June 28). This season, PTC also introduced its Theatre Masters series, a series of intimate, Monday night on-stage interviews with major theatre artists with whom PTC has worked, each sharing their personal journey of creative growth over time and how it has affected both their art and their lives. This season's schedule featured Bill Irwin on February16, Billy Porter on March 23, and will end with Anna Deavere Smith on May 11.

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company that produces, develops and presents entertaining and imaginative contemporary theatre focused on the American experience. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops, PTC generates a national impact and reaches broad regional audiences. Under the guidance of PTC's Executive Producing Director, Sara Garonzik, since 1982 and Executive Managing Director Priscilla M. Luce, who joined the leadership team in early April of 2013, 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 53 Barrymore Awards and 169 nominations. PTC's home on the Avenue of the Arts, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre which opened in October 2007, has helped revitalize of Center City Philadelphia's thriving arts district.

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

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