Quintessence Theatre Group Continues Tradition of Holiday Classics for the Whole Family with WILDE TALES

Quintessence Theatre Group continues it's tradition of holiday classics for the whole family with Oscar Wilde's Wilde Tales. Celebrated up-and-coming experimental director Jeremy Bloom adapts and directs this amalgamation of short stories. Wilde Tales begins performances on Wednesday, December 7 at 7pm and opens on Saturday, December 10 at 7pm. All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave. in Mt Airy, Philadelphia, 19119. To purchase tickets visit www.QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 215.987.4450.

Including the The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince, The Devoted Friend, The Nightingale and the Rose, and The Remarkable Rocket, Wilde Tales is centered on the story of a selfish giant who builds a wall around his beautiful garden to prevent the local children from playing in it. When the wall is finished, the garden falls into perpetual winter and doesn't awake until a young boy finds his way in through a hole in the wall.

Through Oscar Wilde's soaring prose, original songs by David Cope and puppetry by Marina Plag, Wilde Tales celebrates the values of selflessness, charity, compassion, and love in soul-stirring, wondrous and timely tales for the entire family.

QUINTESSENCE: A CLASSIC REPETORY ENSEMBLE FOR PHILADELPHIA

Quintessence Theatre Group is a professional classic theatre, dedicated to the performance and adaptation of epic works of classic literature and drama for the Contemporary Stage, which ignites the mind, body and soul through the power of the actor, design and spoken word.

Quintessence continues to work towards the establishment of an acting ensemble and a rotation repertory at the historic Sedgwick Theater in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. As Quintessence Theatre's home, the Sedgwick Theater, a 1928 art deco movie palace designed by William Lee, will regain its place as a jewel in Philadelphia's cultural landscape.

Quintessence Theatre Group was named Best of Philly 2015 for up-and-coming theater company and has had 9 Barrymore recommended productions in the past three years. This fall E. Ashley Izard won the Barrymore Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Winnie in Quintessence's production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.

Wilde Tales plays December 7-31. A special PAY WHAT YOU CAN preview will be presented on Wednesday, December 7 at 7:00pm. Post-show talkbacks with the cast and director will take place on Thursday, December 15 and Sunday, December 18.

All evening performances begin at 7:00pm. There are 2:00pm matinees on December 11, 18, 23, and 30; and 12:00 pmmatinees on December 24 and 31. Please check the performance schedule at www.QuintessenceTheatre.org for exact performance times and schedules.

Tickets are $27-$34 general admission, $25 for seniors (65 and over), $15 for students/youth (21 and under). Special family packages are now available. Savings of up to 40% on tickets when you bring the whole family. To purchase tickets, visit:www.QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 1.215.987.4450. For ticket information please email BoxOffice@QuintessenceTheatre.org.

THE ENSEMBLE

Ashton Carter Quintessence: Mother Courage And Her Children, As You Like it, Richard II. Philadelphia: Lights Rise On Grace (Azuka Theatre), The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre). Training: Middle Tennessee State University (B.A.)

Ife Foy Quintessence: Saint Joan, Doctor Faustus. Philadelphia: Metamorphoses(U/S - The Arden), Black Nativity (U/S - Theatre Horizon),The Taming of the Shrew (Delaware Shakespeare Festival), Ojo (Bricolage), King Henry V (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre). Training: Point Park University (BFA).

Michael Gamache Quintessence debut. Philadelphia: Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Philadelphia Shakespeare). The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet (Delaware Shakespeare). Pride and Prejudice, Inherit The Wind, Pirates of Penzance (Bristol Riverside). Regional: The Rivals, As You Like It, Othello, Comedy of Errors, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth (Illinois Shakespeare). 39 Steps, The Musical of Musicals, Jerry Springer: The Opera (Bootless Stageworks). Pirates of Penzance, Jekyll and Hyde (Broadway Theatre of Pitman) Much Ado About Nothing (Virginia Shakespeare). Training: Illinois State University (MFA in Classical Acting).

TERENCE GLEESON* Quintessence: Mourning Becomes Electra. Regional: As You Like It, Our Town (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey). Philadelphia: Much Ado About Nothing (Arden Theatre); As You Like It, Hamlet (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre); The Diary of Anne Frank (Media Theatre); The Good Doctor, A Flea in Her Ear (Hedgerow); Underneath the Lintel (Jersey Fringe); Traveling Light (Philly Fringe); Better Angels (Delaware Humanities Forum); Shades of Poe (Fractured Mirror Productions); Proof (Neumann University). Screen: Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. Training: Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Mattie Hawkinson* Quintessence: Mourning Becomes Electra, Arms and the Man, The Misanthrope and, as co-writer, The Three Musketeers. Regional: The City of Conversation (Northlight Theatre), Little Row Boat or Conjecture (Cleveland Playhouse) Love's Labours Lost (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), As You Like It (Centerstage), A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Winter's Tale, Real Inspector Hound (Theatre at Monmouth), Circle Mirror Transformation (Cincinnati Playhouse), Othello (Milwaukee Rep); The Game's Afoot (Cleveland Playhouse), A Little Night Music (Centerstage), Third (Denver Center); Equivocation (u/s Manhattan Theatre Club); The Snow Queen, Half & Half, Hanging Fire, Blackbird (Victory Gardens Theatre), Rock 'N' Roll (The Goodman), I Never Sang for My Father (Steppenwolf), A Winter's Tale, A Flea In Her Ear, A Little Night Music (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Hillbilly Antigone (Lookingglass), Inherit the Wind (Indiana Rep). Training: Northwestern University.

ANEESA NEIBAUER Quintessence debut. Aneesa Neibauer Philadelphia: Bodas de Sangre (Philadelphia Fringe Festival), Jamaica (New Freedom Theatre), Dark of the Moon Dark (Ritz Theatre Company). Regional: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Seminar (Gladys G. Davis Theatre), American Buffalo, Sunshine, The Colored Museum (Vivian Davis Michael Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Gamut Theatre Group), The Vibrator Play (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Romeo and Juliet (Hershey Area Playhouse), Anna in the Tropics (Alcalar Hershey Area Playhouse), A Memory, a Monologue... (Hershey Area Playhouse), A Behanding in Spokane (Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg), Snap! (Hot Chocolate Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg) Training: West Virginia University (BFA).

Vanessa Sterling* Quintessence debut. Regional:?Hamlet (Capital Repertory Theatre), Henry IV, Part 1,?Henry IV, Part 2 (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Blood Brothers, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure (Texas Shakespeare Festival), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, A Year With Frog and Toad (The Arkansas Arts Center).?Training: Ithaca College (BFA Acting).

HANNAH WOLF Quintessence debut. New York: Midsummer Night's Dream (Rev Theatre), Messages (Davenport Theatre), Antigone (Access Theatre). Training: Rutgers University (BFA Acting).

*Actor appears courtesy of Actor's Equity Association

JEREMY BLOOM (Adapter/Director) Quintessence debut. Jeremy directs original theatrical adaptations including La Boheme (Spoken), LIVE Mermaids LIVE, and Leaves of Grass (Nude). As artistic director of Rady&Bloom, new film and theater work with Brian Rady includes The Orange Person, The Girl of The Golden West and currently The Upper Room (these projects have appeared in collaboration with Ars Nova and The Ice Factory, funded in part by Manhattan Community Arts Fund, and are currently in residence at the New Ohio). Opera world premieres include Center for Contemporary Opera, Guerrilla Opera and the Avant Media, and poetry plays include Walt and Emily: Between the Rooms by Jonathan Cott. Assistant credits include: The Met, Broadway, and regional theaters (for Mary Zimmerman, Liz Swados, Alex Timbers). Mr. Bloom is an artist-in-residence at the cell and is a HERE Arts HARP Artist. He is a Drama League Directing Fellow, an EST Resident Director, Soho Rep Lab Director, a TS Eliot director at The Old Vic, and an alum of Northwestern University's Performance Studies Program. radyandbloom.com

Lighting Design by Jay Ryan.

Set Design by Doug Greene.

Costume Design by Jane Casanave.

Puppetry by Martina Plag.

Original Songs by David Cope.

Sound Design by Daniel Ison.

Stage Management by Jaci Entwisle.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

WILDE TALES

Wednesday, December 7 @ 7:00pm Pay What You Can Preview

Thursday, December 8 @ 7:00pm Preview

Friday, December 9 @ 7:00pm Preview

Saturday, December 10 @ 7:00pm Opening Night

Sunday, December 11 @ 2:00pm

Wednesday, December 14 @ 7:00pm

Thursday, December 15 @ 7:00pm Talkback

Friday, December 16 @ 7:00pm

Saturday, December 17 @ 7:00pm

Sunday, December 18 @ 2:00pm Talkback

Wednesday, December 21 @ 7:00pm

Thursday, December 22 @ 7:00pm

Friday, December 23 @ 2:00pm and 7:00pm

Saturday, December 24 @ 12:00pm

Tuesday, December 27 @ 7:00pm

Wednesday, December 28 @ 7:00pm

Thursday, December 29 @ 7:00pm

Friday, December 30 @ 2:00pm and 7:00pm

Saturday, December 31 @ 12:00pm

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