Bob Garfield Takes Center Stage at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Philadelphia Theatre Company kicks off its 2017-18 season with the world premiere of Ruggedly Jewish, a multimedia monologue written and performed by Bob Garfield. The show is presented for three performances only, September 15th (8 pm) and 16th (3pm and 8pm) at the SuzAnne Roberts Theatre before embarking on a nationwide tour through 2018.

In a raw, wistful, hilarious and disturbing encounter session, the inveterate journalist weaves together disparate narrative threads on the subject of identity -- including his own nominal Jewishness -- to explore the exploration of self itself. A crazy-quilt 90-minute multimedia experience, Ruggedly Jewish bounces from harrowing life-and-death moments to oddballs galore.

"We are thrilled to kick off the PTC season with a Philadelphia native; especially with an artist who has embraced storytelling. Launching his national tour here feels like an apt expression of what we hope to do at Philadelphia Theatre Company," said Producing Artistic Director, Paige Price. This is the first season for Price, who is taking an expanded approach to programming.

"This is certainly a spectacle of me trying to make sense of who I am," Garfield says, "but it's really much more concerned with who you are -- who we all are -- as individuals and as a society, especially at this particular political moment."

The Bala Cynwyd native, who has forged a 40-year career in newspapers, magazines, radio and television, co-hosts WNYC's On the Media with Brooke Gladstone. The Peabody-winning weekly hour is a Top 50 podcast and is broadcast by 450 stations nationwide. A longtime resident of Washington, DC, Garfield is the author of five books, a recent visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Future of Advertising Program, SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.

Tickets starting $25 and are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org. Also available are new PTC Gold Memberships at $100 and PTC Silver Memberships at $50. Members receive priority access to every PTC show and event, discounts on Member Tickets, waived ticket fees, extra discounts to non-PTC shows performing at the SuzAnne Roberts Theatre, invitations to Member exclusive theatre events and free gifts.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's season line-up includes Kathleen Turner's cabaret debut Finding My Voice (September 25); Wrestling Jerusalem, written and performed by Aaron Davidman (October 18-November 5); The Mad Ones: An Intimate Evening with Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, a concert version of a Broadway-bound musical from one of theatre's most exciting songwriting teams (October 23); Mike Daisey's This Is Not Normal and The End of Journalism, two provocative new monologues (November 9-11); a sing-along A Dream Is A Wish: Princess Concert (Sunday, December 17), Musical Thrones: A Parody (February 9 - 10) and the Off-Broadway hit play, Small Mouth Sounds (March 13 - April 1).

Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) is a leading regional theater that produces, develops, and presents entertaining and imaginative contemporary theater focused on the American experience. PTC supports the work of a growing body of diverse dramatists who have participated in more than 140 world and Philadelphia premieres, with a dedication to new American plays and musicals. PTC's home on the Avenue of the Arts, the SuzAnne Roberts Theatre which opened in October 2007, has helped revitalize Center City Philadelphia's thriving arts district. PTC is supported by Season Sponsors COMCAST NBCUniversal, Center City Film & Video, Independence Blue Cross and American Airlines, their official airline sponsor. For further information, please call 215-735-7356.

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