Philadelphia Theatre Company Reveals 2015 McNally Award Winner

Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) is pleased to announce James Ijames as the recipient of the fourth Terrence McNally New Play Award for the development of his play White. The Terrence McNally New Play Award is a $10,000 cash prize given annually to recognize a new play that celebrates the transformative power of art. The Award will also include a year of development support at PTC, including readings as well as administrative support and networking to help manage the future of the play beyond its time at PTC.

This year PTC offers its first Special Citation for Continuing Development to Jacqueline Goldfinger for her work-in-progress Fresh, in recognition of its innovative storytelling. The Citation brings with it a $1,000 stipend to support the future development of the play.

The Terrence McNally New Play Award is underwritten in part by The Peter Arger and Donald Wilf New Play Fund.

"Philadelphia Theatre Company is thrilled to work with playwright James Ijames on his funny and provocative play. We're especially pleased that he is based here in Philadelphia and is representative of our region's rich and burgeoning theater community. We look forward to developing White to its fullest potential, and giving James the artistic support he needs to continue his process," said PTC's Executive Producing Director Sara Garonzik in announcing the award recipient.

"We are so pleased to honor an adventurous new voice in the fourth year of this award. James' exploration of artists and art enthusiasts is both funny and bold. There is enormous promise with this particular piece, and we anticipate great things out of its continued development," said playwright Terrence McNally. "Additionally, we are excited that Philadelphia Theatre Company is awarding a special citation to Jacqueline Goldfinger. Her play uses live performance to explore boldly how we interact with the virtual world we are constantly plugged into."

A Philadelphia playwright, actor and director, James Ijames's play The Most Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington was developed at PlayPenn in 2013, selected for the NNPN New Play Festival, and received its world premiere with Flashpoint Theatre last season. He is a founding member of Orbiter 3 where his play Moon Man Walk received its world premiere this summer. A resident of South Philadelphia, Ijames is an InterAct Theatre Core Writer, an Arden Theatre-commissioned playwright, and Assistant Professor of Theater at Villanova University.

White tells the story of Gus, who wants to be a famous visual artist, and Vanessa, who wants to be a working actor. When these two cross paths, their assumptions about art and being an artist are dismantled. In this modern Frankenstein story, Gus' desire to be acquired by a major contemporary art museum inspires him to hire a woman to claim his work to meet the museum's demand for "new perspectives." This play spins out of control as it explores issues of race, gender, sexuality and art.

A Philadelphia-based playwright and dramaturg, Jacqueline Goldfinger's work has been produced nationally at theaters including Seattle Public, Azuka, Manhattan Theatre Works, Unexpected Stage, North Coast Rep, Penobscot, Flashpoint, Acadiana Rep, and BTE. She recently completed a Dakin Fellowship under the mentorship of Paula Vogel, and her work has been developed at PlayPenn and the Lark's Playwrights Week. Her newest play, The Arsonists, will have a workshop at the Kennedy Center this fall and is currently nominated for the Weissberger Award. Her comedy, Trish Tinkler Gets Saved, will premiere at the National Women's Voices Festival in October. She co-founded The Foundry, an emerging playwrights lab in Philadelphia, and sits on the Advisory Boards for Orbiter 3 and the Director's Gathering.

Fresh is a technological mystery-drama inspired by hacking cases like Aaron Swartz and Anonymous, and the social media rape cases like Steubenville and Rehtaeh Parsons. A visual artist and hacktivist tags websites with virtual graffiti under the pseudonym Fresh. Her artistic guerilla warfare targets the websites of organizations and individuals that are exploiting their communities. Fresh investigates the rules of personal identity, upends the stigma of victimhood, and reclaims the marriage between online activism and art, all while traversing the predatory jungle that is social media.

PTC has enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration with Terrence McNally, having produced the world premieres of Master Class, Golden Age, Some Men and Unusual Acts of Devotion and the Philadelphia regional premieres of Mothers and Sons, Love!Valour!Compassion!, Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. PTC established the Terrence McNally New Play Award in 2012 to recognize writers whose work, like McNally's is both timely and compassionate. Past winners are Bill Cain for Unvarnished (now called American Canvas), A. Zell Williams for The Urban Retreat, and Martin Zimmerman for Let Me Count The Ways.

PTC's upcoming mainstage season features the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar; the East Coast premiere of Exit Strategy, a new play by rising Chicago playwright Ike Holter, a co-production with Primary Stages; Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason; the East Coast premiere of Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath and, the McCarter Theater/Arena Stage production of Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company that produces, develops and presents entertaining and imaginative contemporary theatre focused on the American experience. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops, PTC generates a national impact and reaches broad regional audiences. Under the guidance of PTC's Executive Producing Director, Sara Garonzik, since 1982 and Executive Managing Director, Priscilla M. Luce, who joined the leadership team in early April of 2013, PTC supports the work of a growing body of diverse dramatists and takes pride in being a home to many nationally recognized artists who have participated in more than 140 world and Philadelphia premieres. PTC has received 57 Barrymore Awards and 180 nominations. PTC's home on the Avenue of the Arts, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre which opened in October 2007, has helped revitalize of Center City Philadelphia's thriving arts district.

For further information, please call 215-735-7356.

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