New City Stage Company Announces 2011-2012 Season

New City Stage Company has announced its 6th season, entitled The Terror Within, a body of work that considers the many questions posed as we marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Who is the real enemy and what evil lurks on the home front? How has the tragedy changed how we look upon our fellow man? What can we, as individuals, do to make a difference and what or who do we sacrifice in the name of liberty? We live with terror every day but what does it really mean? What must we do? How can we cope? For the 2011-12 season, New City continues its residency at the Adrienne Theater at 2030 Sansom Street in Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia. The first two shows will be performed on the Main Stage andthe third will be mounted on the Second Stage. Plus there will be a limited re-mounting of our 2011 Philadelphia Fringe Festival hit in May andJune at the Second Stage.

This season New City Stage Compnay moves into a Small Professional Theatre Company (SPT) Agreement with Actor's Equity Association, joining their contingent of professional regional theatres. This is also the first 4 show season for New City, which is "among Philadelphia's numerous small, spunky professional theater companies" according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Subscription and single ticket information is available at www.NewCityStage.org.

Season Line-Up:

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM

A Philadelphia premiere by Christopher Durang

Directed by Michael K. Brophy

December 8, 2011 - January 8, 2012

Opening Night: Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 8 PM

Adrienne Theatre Main Stage

Starring Paul Nolan*, Marcia Saunders*, Ginger Dayle, Sam Henderson, Ed Swidey*, Sonja Robson and Russ Widdall*.

* Denotes members of Actor's Equity Association.

From the screwball imagination of local playwright Christopher Durang (author of New City's 2010 winter hit Miss Witherspoon), an uproarious new comedy about America's ongoing "war on terror." A young woman wakes up to a strange man, a hangover, anda whole lot of questions: Is her new husband, whom she married while drunk, a terrorist, a crazed alcoholic, or both? Is her father's hobby of butterfly collecting for real, or is it a cover for his involvement in a right-wing shadow government? Is her mother a theater-loving eccentric, or is she actually insane? Honing in on our private terrors both at home and abroad, Durang oddly relieves our fears in this black comedy for an era of yellow, orange and red alerts.

TERRORISM

A Philadelphia premiere of the newly revised version by the Presnyakov Brothers

Directed by RoseMary Hay

March 1 - 25, 2012

Opening Night: Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 8 PM

Adrienne Theatre Main Stage

Featuring Sarah Gliko*, Dan Olmstead*, Drucie McDaniel*, Sue Giddings, Jamison Foreman and several other local favorites.

* Denotes members of Actor's Equity Association.

There's a bomb scare at the airport, a suicide at the office. A man ties up his lover, an old woman plots murder. At the scene of a gas explosion the rescue workers are busy photographing limbs, for fun. What do these situations have common? Everyone is a terrorist and everyone is a victim of terror. In 6 interconnected scenes, the play takes a startlingly humorous look at a society in which an imminent threat of collective uncertainty looms on The Edges of everyday life. Originally presented at the Moscow Arts Theatre.

ASYMMETRIC

A world premiere espionage thriller by Mac Rogers

Director to be announced...

May 17 to June 10, 2012

Opening Night: Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 8 PM

Adrienne Theatre Second Stage

Featuring Paul Felder*, Russ Widdall *, Ginger Dayle and an additional cast member to be announced shortly.

* Denotes members of Actor's Equity Association.

There is a mole on the Fifth Floor. Sometimes finding a mole is the easy part. To exterminate a mole takes guts...it takes guile...it takes extreme prejudice. And the only way to come out on top is to be...asymmetric. New City is thrilled to close our sixth season with our very first commissioned play - a gut-wrenching espionage thriller from New York City scribe Mac Rogers. Asymmetric takes a long dark look at the chilling outcome of a life in black ops. Josh was the top interrogator on the Fifth Floor, an elite anti-terrorist intelligence wing of the CIA. At least he was until it all fell apart and he burned out and landed in a bottle. But now he has one more chance to redeem himself, to put his life and his career back on track, but to do so could mean destroying the only person who ever really mattered to him.

SAVAGE/LOVEand TONGUES

Written & Conceived by Sam Shepard & Joseph Chaiken

Directed by Ryder Thornton

5 performances only:

Opening Night: Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 11 PM

Sunday May 27 at 6 PM

Monday May 28 at 8 PM

Saturday June 2 at 11 PM

Sunday June 3 at 6 PM

Adrienne Theatre Second Stage

Featuring Russ Widdall* with DJ Butterface

* Denotes members of Actor's Equity Association.

As an added bonus, New City Stage Company is happy to present an encore limited run of our 2011 Philadelphia Fringe hit, our first production in the festival. Audiences were enchanted by these rarely performed modern soliloquies, which the City Paper hailed as a "soaring soul plunge." Innovative poetry and movement unfurl in this physical theatrical experience. Savage/Love is a propulsive quest of a lonely man looking for love and serves as a prelude to Tongues, a passionate fever dream in which a dying man delivers his last rites. These stream of consciousness confessionals are performed with live original percussive music created just for our production.

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