Philadelphia Theatre Company to Kick Off 2013-14 Season with Amy Herzog's 4,000 MILES, 10/11-11/10

Philadelphia Theatre Company kicks off its 2013-2014 season with the OBIE Award-winning 4,000 Miles by Amy Herzog October 11-November 10 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by Mary B. Robinson, the ensemble cast features Beth Dixon, Leigha Kato, David Raphaely, and Shannon Sullivan.

Previews begin Friday, October 11 with Opening Night on Wednesday, October 16. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays until November 10. Tickets starting at $46 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 in Center City Philadelphia.

In 4,000 Miles, a poignant yet comic drama, Leo unexpectedly arrives on the doorstep of his feisty grandmother's West Village apartment, after a grueling cross-country bike trip. Over the course of a month, these unlikely roommates infuriate and bewilder one another, and discover the fragile line between growing up and growing old through humor, heartache, and love.

4,000 Miles premiered in the summer of 2011 at Lincoln Center 3 and then returned to Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre in the spring of 2012. Afinalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 4,000 Miles won the 2012 OBIE Award for Best New American Play, and was named Time Magazine 's #1 Play or Musical of 2012.

"We are delighted to be premiering the work of Amy Herzog for Philadelphia audiences. She has quickly become one of the shining lights of American theater with a diverse body of plays whose characters ring with truth and intelligence," said Sara Garonzik, PTC's Executive Producing Director.

Amy Herzog (Playwright) has written the Lilly Award-winning After the Revolution, produced at Williamstown Theater Festival and Playwrights Horizons, and The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons). Her play Belleville, produced at Yale Repertory Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop was a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist and nominated for a Drama Desk Award. She is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill Award, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York TimesOutstanding Playwright Award.

Mary B. Robinson (Director) returns to PTC where she has directed At Home at the Zoo, Third, Dinner with Friends, This is Our Youth, Molly Sweeney,and Three Viewings. Her work is also known to Philadelphia audiences from her five years as artistic director of the Philadelphia Drama Guild, where she directedA Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, A Moon for the Misbegotten, A Normal Life, Dancing at Lughnasa (with Beth Dixon), and Of Mice and Men (Barrymore Award), among others. In New York, she directed Women on Fire at the Cherry Lane, with Judith Ivey, and String Fever at Ensemble Studio Theatre, with Cynthia Nixon. She was nominated for the Drama Desk Award in 1986 for her production of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky at Second Stage, and she was the first recipient of the Alan Schneider Award in 1987. She worked most recently at Arena Stage in Washington DC, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City.

Beth Dixon (Vera) comes to PTC following her appearance in Gina Gionfriddo's Rapture, Blister, Burn at The Geffen in a role she premiered last season at Playwrights Horizons. She has appeared on Broadway in Major Barbara, Wrong Mountain, and The Royal Family, and Off-Broadway in Wings; The Show Off; and The Bee Keeper's Daughter. Her regional theatre credits include productions at Long Wharf Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, and Dallas Theatre Centre.

Leigha Kato (Amanda) makes her PTC debut having recently graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She understudied the role of Anne last spring in the Arden Theatre Company's A Little Night Music and was featured in Hair at The Chance Theatre.

David Raphaely (Leo) starred in the title role of Romeo and Juliet at Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival where he has appeared in eleven productions. He was featured in the Walnut Street Theatre production of Proof as well as its subsequent international tour. In addition to productions at The Wilma Theatre, Flashpoint Theatre Company, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, InterAct Theatre Company, and in eleven productions at Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, he has appeared as Pinocchio at Arden Theatre Company and in the Barrymore Award nominated If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as well as Sleeping Beauty and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Shannon Sullivan (Bec) has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and Happy Now?, both at Yale Repertory Theatre, Nicholas Maeve Marianne at FringeNYC,The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Barbara, and in numerous productions including several world premieres at the Yale School of Drama. Her television credits include a recurring role on Blue Belle and co-starring roles on Person of Interest and Blue Bloods.

4,000 Miles reunites PTC's creative team from the recent production of Venus in Fur: set designer Jason Simms (also the recipient of 2012 USITT Rising Star Award, sponsored by Live Design); lighting designer Thom Weaver (recipient of 14 Barrymore Award nominations and two Barrymore Awards); andsound designer Bart Fasbender (who also directed PTC's reasons to be pretty, The Mountaintop, and The Outgoing Tide). Costume designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy returns to PTC, having designed Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins with Kathleen Turner.

PTC's mainstage season continues with Nerds with book and lyrics by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner and music by Hal Goldberg (November 29-December 29); Tribes by Nina Raine (January 24-February 23); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang (March 21-April 20); and A Boy and His Soul, written and performed by Colman Domingo (May 23-June 22).

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company whose mission is to produce, develop and present entertaining and imaginative contemporary theatre focused on the American experience that both ignites the intellect and touches the soul. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops, PTC generates projects that have a national impact and reach broad regional audiences. Under the guidance of PTC's Executive Producing Director Sara Garonzik since 1982 and PTC President 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 46 Barrymore Awards and 155 nominations. In October 2007, PTC opened the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, their home on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, which has helped contribute to the revitalization of Center City Philadelphia's thriving arts district.

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