Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Opens Billie Holiday Musical LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival will present Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, written by acclaimed playwright Lanie Robertson with musical arrangements by Danny Holgate. Philadelphia award-winning artists Amina Robinson and Ebony Pullum reunite to stage the production which previews July 19 and 20, opens Friday, July 21 and runs through August 6 in the Schubert Theatre at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA.

The setting is 1959, and the intimate Schubert Theatre transforms into the Philadelphia bar where legendary jazz songstress Billie Holiday takes the stage to deliver one of her final performances. In this engrossing tour-de-force musical, Billie tells her own story, interlaced with more than a dozen of her most famous songs, including “God Bless the Child,” “Strange Fruit,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” and “Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do.” Patrons can choose optional table seating directly on the stage for a front row seat to experience the  song and storytelling.

“I'm going for the realism at the heart of Lady Day, the café-table route for the kind of immersive experience the play suggests,” says Director Amina Robinson. “But I want it to succeed spiritually as well, to allow the audience to feel as if, 'Wow! That felt like I was in the room with Billie Holiday.' That's the mood I'm after.”

When Robinson accepted the offer to direct the PSF production, she recommended friend, South Philly neighbor, and professional colleague Ebony Pullum to play the titular role.

Among their shared accolades, both artists received Barrymore Awards, an award honoring professional theatre in Philadelphia, in 2019 for The Color Purple at Theatre Horizon. Robinson became the first Black woman to win a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical, and Pullum won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Shrug Avery.

An actress, singer and teaching artist based out of Philadelphia and New York City, Pullum reprises the role of Holiday following her performances at Florida Repertory Theatre and Curio Theatre Company. For Pullum, the chance to play Billie for a third time offers the opportunity for “new discoveries” allowing her and Robinson to “dig more deeply into the character and nuance.”

Joining them is the production's music director Cedric D. Lyles, who will accompany Pullum onstage as Billie Holiday's pianist Jimmy Powers. Originally from Washington, D.C., Lyles is an arts administrator, educator, performing artist, and a skilled pianist and musician who has served Toby's Dinner Theatre, Everyman Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, and other arts organizations in the D.C./Baltimore Metro area. As a musical director and performer, he focuses on “telling a story through music and encouraging actors to make musical choices that support the story.”

Transforming the Schubert Theatre into Emerson's Bar & Grill are Trey Brazeal (lighting designer), Charlie Calvert (scenic designer), Larry D. Fowler, Jr. (sound designer), and Levonne Lindsay (costume designer). The Stage Manager is Ashani Smith.

Patrons can also enjoy a cameo appearance by Bruno Pullum King—the leading lady's (Pullum) real life dog companion will play Holiday's pet Pepi. This is Bruno's second appearance playing the role of Pepi with his person and he is simply happy to make his PSF debut.

To enhance the Festival experience, audiences can enjoy live music and a variety of dining options “On the Green” before every show. Other special offerings are an Opening Night post-show champagne toast in the lobby with the PSF Company on Friday, July 21; a talk back with the actors after the show on Thursday, July 27 and August 3; and an Audio Described performance on Saturday, August 5, 2:00pm.

PSF would like to extend special thanks to its Sponsors: Production Co-Sponsors Lutron and The Martin Guitar Charitable Foundation; Actor Sponsors Lee and Dolly Butz; the 2023 Season Sponsors Yvonne Payne and Edward Spitzer; and the Associate Season Sponsors Douglas Dykhouse, Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy E. Nolan, The Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 610.282.WILL [9455] or by visiting the PSF box office at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts.

Summer 2023 Season:

Schubert Stage: Henry IV, Part 2 (May 31 to June 11); James and the Giant Peach (July 7 to Aug 5); Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (July 19 to August 6).

Main Stage: In the Heights (June 14 to July 2); The Tempest (July 12 to August 6); Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (July 20 to August 6); Shakespeare for Kids (July 26 to August 5).

Outdoor Summer Stage: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] (June 28 to July 16).

“Play On!” A Midsummer Night's Dream Community Tour: (June 2 to June 18).

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is the only professional Equity theatre of its scope and scale within a 50-mile radius. PSF is one of only a handful of theatres on the continent producing Shakespeare, musicals, classics, and contemporary plays, all of which can normally be seen in repertory and in multiple spaces within a few visits in a single summer season. Similarly, PSF was among just a handful of theatres on the continent in recent summers to produce three Shakespeare plays in a single summer season. A patron would have to travel seven to nine hours from PSF to find a comparable range of offerings at a single theatre within a few weeks' time.

The Festival's award-winning company of many world-class artists includes Broadway, film, and television veterans, and winners and nominees of the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, Hayes, Lortel, and Barrymore awards. A leading Shakespeare theatre with a national reputation for excellence, PSF has received coverage in The Washington Post, NPR, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and in recent seasons The New York Times has identified PSF as one of the leading summer theatre festivals in the nation. “A world-class theater experience on a par with the top Bard fests,” is how one New York Drama Desk reviewer characterized PSF.

Founded in 1992 and the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PSF's mission is to enrich, inspire, engage, and entertain the widest possible audience through first-rate productions of classical and contemporary plays, with a core commitment to Shakespeare and other master dramatists, and through an array of education and mentorship programs. A not-for-profit theatre, PSF receives significant support from its host, DeSales University, from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Traditionally, with 150 performances over ten weeks, the Festival attracts patrons each summer from 30+ states. In 30 years, PSF has offered 200+ total productions (82 Shakespeare), and entertained 1,000,000+ patrons from 50 states, now averaging 34,000-40,000 in attendance each summer season, plus another 13,000 students each year through its WillPower Tour to schools. PSF is a multi-year recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare in American Communities, and is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). In 2013, leaders of the world's premiere Shakespeare theatres gathered at PSF as the Festival hosted the international STA Conference. The Festival's vision is for world-class theatre.

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