GOLDEN AGE Closes at Philadelphia Theatre Company

The passionate world of opera comes to life in Philadelphia Theatre Company's world premiere of Terrence McNally's Golden Age. Final performance is slated for February 14. 

Directed by Austin Pendleton, the production features the ensemble cast of Rebecca Brooksher, Jeffrey Carlson, Roe Hartrampf, Mark Kudisch, Hoon Lee, Christopher Michael McFarland, Dante Mignucci, and Amanda Mason Warren.

Tickets are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org. Philadelphia Theatre Company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre is located at Broad and Lombard Streets.

Following Golden Age's run in Philadelphia, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will present Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera - an event showcasing three of the playwright's works including Master Class, The Lisbon Traviata, and Golden Age concurrently in Kennedy Center theaters from March 12 - April 19, 2010.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's relationship with Terrence McNally extends back more than 20 years, covering not only the world premiere productions of the Tony Award-winning Master Class, Some Men, and Unusual Acts of Devotion, but also the Philadelphia premieres of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

"Terrence's lifelong passion for opera makes Golden Age a particularly exciting project to work on and we are honored that both he and The Kennedy Center entrusted us to help develop this new play," said Sara Garonzik, PTC's Producing Artistic Director. "Fifteen years ago, we were fortunate to work with Robert Whitehead on the development of Master Class. To have Golden Age and Master Class running at The Kennedy Center is an especially proud and meaningful event for Philadelphia Theatre Company, and we have Terrence McNally to thank for the privilege."

Golden Age is set in 1835 Paris. The most glittering audience imaginable has gathered for the world premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's latest opera, I Puritani. On the other side of the curtain are the composer and the four greatest singers in the world, the legendary Puritani Quartet. When the music begins, history will be made.

Terrence McNally (Playwright) has received four Tony Awards®, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He won an Emmy Award for his television film Andre's Mother in 1990. A year later, he returned to writing for the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart. In 1992, Mr. McNally collaborated with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the script for the 1993 Tony Award®-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as on the script for the musical The Rink. Additionally, in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, he wrote the book for the musical Ragtime for which he won the 1998 Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical. His other plays include Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1994, Corpus Christi in 1997, and the play and screen adaptation of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. His most recent play was Unusual Acts of Devotion at Philadelphia Theatre Company and the La Jolla Playhouse.

Austin Pendleton (Director) has directed on Broadway, where three of his productions (The Little Foxes, Spoils of War, and Shelter) have received Tony® nominations, and Off-Broadway where last season alone he directed three productions: Fifty Words, Uncle Vanya and Vieux Carre. He is also an actor and a playwright, and teaches acting at the HB Studio in New York. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and TV shows, as well as extensively in theater.

Rebecca Brooksher (Grisi) has starred Off-Broadway in Dying City at Lincoln Center Theater, winning a Lucille Lortel nomination, and in White People at Atlantic Theater. Regionally, she has appeared in several productions at Berkshire Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, and Chautauqua Festival, and has also performed at The Guthrie Theater and Barrington Stage Company.

Jeffrey Carlson (Bellini) won a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Taboo. He was also seen on Broadway in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?and Tartuffe and Off-Broadway in Antony & Cleopatra at Theater for a New Audience, Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop, Last Easter at Lucille Lortel Theatre, and Thief River at Signature Theatre. Regionally, he has appeared in several Shakespeare productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre in roles including Richard III and Hamlet.

Roe Hartrampf (Florimo) has starred in Much Ado About Nothing, Waiting for Godot, and The Pillowman, all at Stella Adler Studio as well as several productions at ALLIANCE THEATRE and The Westminster School. He is a recent graduate of NYU.

Mark Kudisch (Tamburini) has been seen on Broadway in 9 to 5, receiving a Tony® and Drama Desk nomination; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, garnering Tony® and Outer Critics Circle nominations; Assassins, scoring a Drama Desk nomination; and Thoroughly Modern Millie, earning Tony®, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations. Regionally he has starred in Zorba, which won him the Garland Award and Los Angeles Ovation and Outer Critics nominations, and The Highest Yellow at Signature Theatre, which prompted a Helen Hayes nomination. He has appeared in A Little Night Music at both Los Angeles Opera and New York City Opera and in several Encores! productions.

Hoon Lee (La Blache) has appeared on Broadway in Pacific Overtures, Urinetown, and Flower Drum Song. He has been featured regionally in Yellow Face at both The Public Theatre and Mark Taper Forum and in productions at Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Paper Mill Playhouse, and Delacorte Theatre.

Christopher Michael McFarland (Rubini) has been a frequent guest at Arizona Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Classical Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. While earning his M.F.A. at Yale School of Drama, he was featured in numerous productions there and at the Yale Cabaret.

Dante Mignucci (Page), age 13, lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania and has appeared on stage at The Walnut Street Theatre, The Wilma Theater, and Stage Stormers in Media, P.A.

Amanda Mason Warren (Malibran) has performed in several productions at Stella Adler Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as at New York Stage & Film Festival, The New Dramatist, and Classical Theatre of Harlem. She performed in SophisticatEd Ellington: Celebrating 100 Years of Duke Ellington at Carnegie Hall and is known to television audiences for her role in The Good Wife.

Golden Age features set design by Santo Loquasto (Unusual Acts of Devotion), who most recently did the set design on Broadway for David Mamet's Race and costume design for the hit revival of Ragtime, as well as Tony® and Drama Desk Awards for Café Crown and The Cherry Orchard; costume design by Richard St. Clair (Orson's Shadow and The Laramie Project and two Barrymore Awards); lighting design by Jason Lyons (The Threepenny Opera and Barefoot in the Park on Broadway, and Rock of Ages and Fault Lines Off-Broadway); and sound design by Ryan Rumery (Murderers, Unusual Acts of Devotion, Grey Gardens, and most recently The Light in the Piazza).

Golden Age has been produced with the assistance of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Golden Age has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. Golden Age is a recipient of an "Edgerton Foundation New American Plays" award. Blank Rome is the Production Sponsor of Golden Age. CBS3 is the Season Media Sponsor.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's season continues with Kathleen Turner in the world premiere of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel on March 19-April 18; and August Wilson's first major play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on May 21-June 13.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is Philadelphia's only not-for-profit professional theater dedicated exclusively to producing world and regional premieres of works by contemporary American Playwrights. Sara Garonzik has been the company's Producing Artistic Director since 1982, and in 2007, Diane Claussen became its Managing Director. Philadelphia Theatre Company continues to experience ever-increasing national impact, having produced 34 world premieres of new American plays and musicals in its 34 seasons. Recent world premiere productions include: Unusual Acts of Devotion by Terrence McNally; The Happiness Lecture by Bill Irwin; Nerds://A Musical Software Satire by Jordan Allen-Dutton, Erik Weiner, and HAl Goldberg; Some Men by Terrence McNally (later produced at the Second Stage); Adrift in Macao, a musical by Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick (produced at Primary Stages); Bruce Graham's According to Goldman; Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso (later produced at Manhattan Theatre Club); Daniel Stern's comedy Barbra's Wedding (moved to the Westside Arts Theatre in 2003); John Henry Redwood's No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs (later produced at Primary Stages); J.T. Rogers' White People; David Ives' Lives of the Saints; three-time Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terrence McNally, starring Zoe Caldwell; Bunny Bunny by Alan Zweibel (Lucille Lortel Award, 1997); and the American premiere of Birdy by Naomi Wallace, among others.

Philadelphia Theatre Company has received numerous "Best Theater Company" citations from media sources such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Style Magazine, and Philadelphia City Paper. Since 1995, Philadelphia Theatre Company has received 135 nominations and 36 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is in its third season at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, designed by the award-winning firm of KieranTimberlake Associates LLP. This new state-of-the-art venue on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts was built as the result of an innovative partnership between PTC and Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff. The project promotes the city's leading arts district both regionally and nationally and represents a model for civic development that capitalizes on the ability of the arts to reinvigorate urban districts for residential and commercial revival.

For further information on Philadelphia Theatre Company, call 215-985-0420 or visit PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

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