Beloved Musical OLIVER! Comes To Philadelphia For The Holidays

Quintessence Theatre Group presents Lionel Bart's beloved musical Oliver! Adapted from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, this tale about finding hope and a chosen family in the bleakest of situations will provide an adventurous escape and moving holiday parable for many Philadelphians starting November 14, 2018. OPENING NIGHT is Saturday, November 17 at 7:30pm, and performances run through December 23, 2018.

After a hard day's labor in a parish workhouse for children, a nine-year-old orphan named Oliver asks for a second serving of gruel. The workhouse master, annoyed by Oliver's impertinence, sells him into an apprenticeship with a drunken undertaker and his abusive wife. Fearing for his life, the boy escapes to London, where he falls in with the Artful Dodger and a band of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin. Oliver discovers heroes and villains in all manner of strange places as he learns how to survive and thrive on the streets of the city.

Quintessence will transform the Sedgwick Theater and present an immersive Oliver! while exploring Dickens' classic in a post-Brexit dystopia. Come take your seat in the workhouse, the thieves' kitchen, and the Three Cripples Tavern and join in the fun for a musical theatre adventure you'll never forget.

Helen Hayes Award winning actor and Shakespeare Theatre Company ensemble member Wallace Acton makes his Quintessence debut as Fagin. Quintessence favorites Marcia Saunders, Bradley Mott, and Steven Wright return to take on Dickens' timeless characters. Eleni Delopoulos, Brock Vickers, and Hanna Gaffney all make their Quintessence debuts. The ensemble also includes Kristin Devine, Daniel Miller, Tasha Waters. The role of Oliver will be played by Lyam David-Kilker (Waiting For Godot) and Ben Snyder on alternate performances. The children's ensemble includes: Mia Bompensa, Cole Byrne, Susannah Hughes, Ethan Jih, Blaze Mann, Camiel Warren Taylor, David Tibbs, Cella Reser and Caleb Ward.

Quintessence Artistic Director Alexander Burns directs the company's second musical. Philadelphia actor, designer and stylist extraordinaire Doug Greene (Wild Tales, My Fair Lady) returns to Quintessence to create a post Brexit dystopia. Christina Lorraine Bullard (Love's Labor's Lost, Uncle Vanya, My Fair Lady) creates the costumes for London's denizens and aristocracy. JoJo Glodek (Richard II, As You Like It, Aesop's Fables) returns to create the lights of the workhouses, backstreets and underworld. Kaki Burns (Merchant of Venice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, My Fair Lady) brings her special flavor and flow to the choreography on the streets of London. Tom Fosnocht is the music director.

All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, 19119. To purchase tickets, visit www.QTGrep.org or call 215.987.4450.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION & PARKING: The Sedgwick Theater is readily accessible via SEPTA Regional Rail to either the Allen Lane Station (Chestnut Hill West) or the Sedgwick Station (Chestnut Hill East). The SEPTA 23/45 Bus also services the Sedgwick Theater, connecting South Philadelphia to Chestnut Hill. Free parking is available behind the theatre and in the municipal parking lot across Germantown Avenue.

TICKETS:
Preview tickets are $25.
General Admission tickets are $40-45. Student tickets (21 and under) are $25. Tickets for active military are $25. Seniors receive $5 off the ticket price. Opening night tickets are $60.

GROUP SALES & STUDENT MATINEES: Group rates and special weekday student matinees are available. For information on group sales, please call 215.987.4450, Ext. 1, or email BoxOffice@QTGrep.org.

RUSH TICKETS: $10 rush tickets for industry professionals and students with ID are available at the box office one hour before performances, pending availability.

PAY WHAT YOU CAN: The first preview of Oliver! on November 14 is a Pay What You Can performance (PWYC). In season IX, Quintessence will offer ten PWYC tickets to every performance. Daily PWYC tickets become available at the box office one hour before the performance on a first come first serve basis. There is a limit of one ticket per person.

ABOUT QUINTESSENCE: Founded in 2009, award-winning Quintessence Theatre Group uses the classics to explore the fundamental question of what it is to be human in today's world. Through intimate, visceral, and innovative productions of epic theatre, Quintessence pursues its vision to become the Delaware Valley's center for progressive humanism and an engine for radical empathy through the classics. Quintessence's home is the historic Sedgwick Theater, an Art Deco movie palace designed in 1928 by William Lee and located in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

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