Philadelphia Theatre Company to Open New Season with DISGRACED

Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced kicks off Philadelphia Theatre Company's 2015-2016 season, October 9 - November 8 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by Mary B. Robinson, the ensemble cast features Anthony Mustafa Adair, Ben Graney, Aimé Donna Kelly, Monette Magrath and Pej Vahdat.

Previews begin Friday, October 9 with Opening Night on Wednesday, October 14. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays until November 8. Tickets starting at $15 are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

In this highly acclaimed and provocative play, Ayad Akhtar tells the story of a successful Pakistani-American lawyer and his wife - an artist influenced by Islamic imagery - who enjoy their comfortable life on New York's Upper East Side. When a co-worker and her husband come to dinner, what begins as polite conversation explodes, leaving everyone's relationships and beliefs about race, religion and identity in shards. Complex and unpredictable, Disgraced stuns audiences in a tour-de-force of dramatic revelation. PTC is proud to partner with Intercultural Journeys to create a stimulating public conversation centered on the themes raised in this award-winning play.

"Ayad Akhtar is a brilliant and complex storyteller, creating a multi-layered and thrilling story about ethnic identity set against the background of cultural mistrust and conflict," said PTC's Executive Producing Director Sara Garonzik. "Disgraced will be igniting stages and sparking conversation across our nation this season, and we are proud to be premiering it here in Philadelphia."

Disgraced premiered at the American Theatre Company in Chicago in 2012. It had its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 in 2012 and its London premiere at the Bush Theatre in 2013. Disgraced was re-mounted on Broadway in the fall of 2014 with a cast lead by Gretchen Mol and Hari Dhillon. It received a 2015 Tony Award nomination for Best Play.

Ayad Akhtar is a playwright, author and screenwriter. His latest play, The Who & The What, opened at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater last summer. His book American Dervish has been published in over twenty languages and was a 2012 Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, Toronto's Globe and Mail, Shelf-Awareness, and O Magazine. Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within, he has been the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, as well as commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Mary B. Robinson (Director) returns to PTC where she has directed Outside Mullingar, 4,000 Miles, 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 directed A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, A Moon for the Misbegotten, A Normal Life, Dancing at Lughnasa, 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's worked most recently at Shakespeare on the Sound, Westport Country Playhouse, Arena Stage in Washington DC, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. She teaches at Brooklyn College, and her book Directing Plays, Directing People: A Collaborative Art was recently published by Smith and Kraus.

Anthony Mustafa Adair (Abe) is a recent graduate of University of the Arts. He has appeared in La Bete at Arden Theatre Company and Pay Up at Pig Iron Theatre Company, and will direct Me First: An Autobiographical Comedy about Dying at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Ben Graney (Isaac) appeared on Broadway in the recent revival of The Heidi Chronicles, War Horse, and When the Rain Stops Falling. A graduate of the NYU MFA Acting Program, he has also been featured at McCarter Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, and in several productions at Chautauqua Theater Company.

Aimé Donna Kelly (Jory) comes to PTC following an Off-Broadway production of Macbeth at Epic Theatre Ensemble. A 2014 finalist for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist, she has appeared locally in four iterations of This is the Week That Is at 1812 Productions, where she received the Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Residency, and at Arden Theatre Company, People's Light & Theatre Company, and Flashpoint Theater Company. She has received a 2015 Barrymore Award nomination for Leading Actress for her work in The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane at InterAct Theatre Company.

Monette Magrath (Emily) appeared on Broadway in All The Way as well as in the East Coast premieres of Stick Fly at McCarter Theatre and Book of Days at Arena Stage. She has been a frequent guest at Pasadena Playhouse where she was featured in the world premiere of The Night is a Child and the West Coast premiere of Mauritius. Other regional credits include productions at Cleveland Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company and Milwaukee Rep.

Pej Vahdat (Amir) has had a recurring role on television in Bones as Arastoo Vaziri and has guest starred in Satisfaction, Perception, The Mysteries of Laura, and Dallas. His New York credits include Blood and Gifts by J.T. Rogers at Lincoln Center Theater and Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard at The Roundabout Theater. Regionally he has appeared in The Merchant of Venice at Colsac Theatre, Barefoot in the Park at Trinidad Theatre, Glengary Glen Ross at Foothill Theatre, and King Lear at Leland Theatre.

Disgraced brings together the creative team of PTC veteran designers: set designer Jason Simms (PTC's Outside Mullingar, 4000 Miles and Venus in Fur and recipient of the 2012 USITT Rising Star Award, sponsored by Live Design); lighting designer Thom Weaver (PTC's 4000 Miles and Venus in Fur, seven Barrymore Award nominations and one Barrymore Award); sound designer Christopher M. Colucci (PTC's Outside Mullingar, 15 Barrymore Awards nominations and five awards, and an F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist nomination), and features the PTC debut of three-time Barrymore-nominated costume designer Mark Mariani (Freud's Last Session Off-Broadway and numerous designs for the Walnut Street Theatre).

PTC's 2015-2016 season continues with the McCarter Theater/Arena Stage production of Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (November 27 - December 27); the East Coast premiere of Exit Strategy, a new play by rising Chicago playwright Ike Holter, co-produced with Off-Broadway's Primary Stages (January 29 - February 28); Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, a co-production with George Street Playhouse (April 8 - May 8); and the East Coast premiere of Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath (May 27 - June 26).

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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