Philadelphia Theatre Company to Open 40th Anniversary Season with DETROIT, 10/10-11/9

Philadelphia Theatre Company opens its 40th Anniversary season with the Pulitzer Prize finalist Detroit by Lisa D'Amour running October 10-November 9 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by Maria Mileaf, the cast features K.O. DelMarcelle, Tom McCarthy, Genevieve Perrier, Steven Rishard, and Matteo J. Scammell.

Previews begin Friday, October 10 with Opening Night on Wednesday, October 15. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays until November 9. Tickets starting at $25 are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

Somewhere in the suburbs, Ben and Mary welcome into their lives the transient couple who've moved into the deserted house next door. As this foursome bonds over backyard barbecues, their fragile neighborly connection threatens to unravel and change them forever. Shining both a disturbing and bracingly funny spotlight on our country's middle class, Detroit exposes the raw nerves that live just beneath the surface in the pursuit of the American dream.

Detroit was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer and Susan Smith Blackburn Prizes. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2010 and subsequently ran Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in fall 2012 where it won the OBIE Award for Best New American Play in 2013.

Lisa D'Amour (playwright) an OBIE Award-winning performance artist, is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert Award for the Arts in theater, the 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award and is a recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Her plays have been commissioned and produced by theaters across the country, including New York's The Women's Project, Playwrights' Horizons, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, Clubbed Thumb, The Wilma Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company, and the Royal National Theater in London. Her newest play, Airline Highway, premieres this fall at Steppenwolf before heading to Broadway under the direction of Joe Mantello. She has received fellowships from the Jerome and McKnight Foundations; an independent artist commission from NYSCA for Stanley 2006, created with her brother Todd D'Amour; and an NEA/TCG Playwrights' Residency to create Hide Town with Infernal Bridegroom Productions.

Maria Mileaf (Director) returns to PTC for her eighth production, having directed Ruined, The Story (Barrymore Award for Best Director), Nickel & Dimed, Wit, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and How I Learned to Drive. Recent credits include the Primary Stages productions of A Body of Water and Going to St. Ives, which won an Outer Critic Circle Award for Best Play, The Argument at The Vineyard, Lobster Alice at Playwright Horizons, Third at The Geffen Playhouse with Christine Lahti, and Underneath the Lintel at The Dutchess Theatre in London's West End. Regionally she has worked at the La Jolla Playhouse, The Geffen, Theatre X, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival and New York Stage and Film.

K.O. DelMarcelle (Sharon) makes her PTC debut, having appeared locally at Lantern Theater Company in Private Lives and Henry V, The Wilma Theater in Hysteria, People's Light & Theatre Company in Gossamer, and Bristol Riverside Theatre in Laughter on the 23rd Floor. She received her MFA in Theatre from Villanova University where she won the Brian Morgan Memorial Acting Award.

Tom McCarthy (Frank) returns to PTC where his appearances include Take Me Out, Minutes from the Blue Route and Prelude to a Kiss. Honored with the Barrymore Award's Lifetime Achievement Award, he has also performed at Arden Theatre Company in Death of a Salesman for which he won a Barrymore Award for Best Actor in a Drama, as well at Theatre Exile, originating the role of The Philly Fan by Bruce Graham, Walnut Street Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, and InterAct Theatre Company.

Genevieve Perrier (Mary) returns to PTC where she was seen in Seminar and reasons to be pretty, for which she won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She has also won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Leading Actress in Skylight and was nominated for her work in Private Lives, The Lonesome West, Go, Dog, Go, and Pay Up. She has appeared recently in The 39 Steps at both Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Theatre Horizon, A Lady from the Sea at EgoPo Classic Theater, and A Child's Christmas in Wales at Lantern Theater Company.

Steven Rishard (Ben) has performed in New York at Lincoln Center and La MaMa Theater, and in several productions at the Public Theater. In addition to appearing locally in Big Love at The Wilma Theater, his other regional credits include Quartet, Life's A Dream, and The Real Thing, all at Court Theatre as well as productions at O'Connell Theatre and Triad Stage.

Matteo J. Scammell (Kenny) was seen recently in Other Desert Cities at the Walnut Street Theatre, Our Class at The Wilma Theater, How I Learned to Drive at Theatre Horizon, and Cinderella at Arden Theatre Company. He has appeared in several productions at New Paradise Laboratories, including The Adults, 27, and PROM. He is a recent graduate of Philadelphia's University of the Arts.

Detroit brings together the creative team of PTC veterans Janus Stefanowicz as costume designer and Vince Mountain as set designer, and introduces lighting designer Nicole Pearce and sound designer Daniel Perelstein. Janus Stefanowicz returns for her 27th PTC production, having won a Barrymore Award for Intimate Apparel. Vince Mountain, who designed PTC's reasons to be pretty, has also worked at the Geffen Playhouse, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and Alley Theatre. Nicole Pearce, nominated for an Outer Critics Award for Best Lighting Design, has designed at The Cherry Lane, The Play Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and LABrynth Theatre Company. Daniel Perelstein won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Sound Design for Knives in Hens; Barrymore Award nominations for both sound designer and original music for Shipwrecked; and an F. Otto Haas Semi-Finalist Award.

PTC's 40th Anniversary season continues with Tony-nominated Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley (November 28-December 28); Tony-nominated Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally (February 6-March 8); brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Kimber Lee (May 1-May 31); and the Off-Broadway hit musical Murder for Two with book and music by Joe Kinosian and book and lyrics by Kellen Blair (June 6-June 28).

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 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 53 Barrymore Awards and 169 nominations.

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