THE DISAPPEARING QUARTERBACK, HOLD THESE TRUTHS and More Set for Plays & Players' 2014-15 Season of One-Person Shows

Plays & Players, a Philadelphia institution for over 100 years, offers you theater that reflects our city. For the 2014-15 season, we take a look at what a single voice can... and can't do. Those who speak up, those who speak out, and those who remain silent. Five one person shows. A chorus of voices. Join us in these amazing stories told with passion, humor, and strength.

The season will comprise of five production slots:

September 20 to 27, 2014 - The Disappearing Quarterback (Mainstage & Skinner Studio)

November 6 to 23, 2014 - A P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth) World Premiere (Skinner Studio)

January 29 to 31, 2015 - Voices of a People's History of the United States (Mainstage)

February 12 to March 1, 2015 - Hold These Truths (Skinner Studio)

May 21 to June 7, 2015 - Homebody/My Name is Rachel Corrie (Skinner Studio)

Special events:

October 4, 2015 - Fringe Recovery 24-Hour Play Festival (Skinner Studio)

November 17, January 26, March 23, June 1 - EAR Fuzz (Skinner Studio)

March 8, 2015 - "Spring Ahead" Bake-Off (Mainstage)

June 14, 2014 - Honey Bee Cabaret IV (Mainstage)

Subscriptions start at just $80 per person and can be purchased at www.playsandplayers.org or by calling 866-411-8111. Consider adding a membership to Plays & Players to your subscription for just $40 more. Plays & Players members engage in the social and educational side of theater, including play reading clubs, theater philosophy symposiums, cheap classes, access to a daytime play library, and free tix or discounts to fun events at our Quig's Pub such as stand-up comedy nights and Quigzo!

About Plays & Players - Over 100 years old, Plays & Players was reborn in 2011 as a professional theatre under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Daniel Student. A coalition of theatre artists and enthusiasts, Plays & Players produces theater that reflects its city and strives to provide intelligent, inclusive and diverse plays that engage and entertain audiences; to invest in local talent; and to preserve its historic landmark home. Plays & Players Theater, nestled into a quiet block just off of Rittenhouse Square, was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The company is the oldest consecutively producing theater in Philadelphia, and as a membership club, is a centerpiece gathering place for the local theatrical community. It continues to have local and national relevance, earning two feature articles in American Theater Magazine since 2011, and named Best In Philly in consecutive years in Philadelphia Magazine in 2010 and 2011. Whether it be in its beautiful 295 seat historic theater with 1919 murals by Edith Emerson, or its recently added intimate third floor 60 seat Skinner Studio, named after first Board President Maud Skinner, Plays & Players provides contemporary, locally-driven theater that sits at the intersections of the broad cultural landscape of the city it has proudly represented for over 100 years.

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2014-2015 SEASON

The Disappearing Quarterback

Encore performance of Philadelphia Premiere One Person Show!

Written and performed by Mike Boryla

Directed by Daniel Student

Tickets: $15-$30

9/20-9/27

9/20@8pm and 9/21@3pm at the Plays & Players Mainstage

9/23@7pm, 9/24@7pm, 9/25@7pm, 9/26@8pm, 9/27@2pm&8pm in the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

Mike Boryla was the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1974-1976, and then he... disappeared. In a World Premiere encore, he returns to Philadelphia, the city that made him famous, to tell the story of walking away from the team he loved.

The Second Annual Fringe Recovery 24-Hour Play Festival

Saturday, October 4 at 7pm & 9pm

In the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

Tickets: $15

Designed to be an opportunity for Philadelphia's theater artists to "recover" together just after the annual Fringe Festival has swept through Philadelphia, this play-creation marathon serves to launches Plays & Players' season and celebrates its artist members. Join us to see the theatrical magic that can happen when a people come together to write and plan through the night, rehearse all day and premiere new works just hours after their inception.

A P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth) World Premiere

A One Person Show for all ages!

Commissioned from and originally written by Jeremy Gable
Performed by Jennifer MacMillan

Directed by Jack Tamburri

In the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

11/6-11/23

Wed @10am&3pm, Thurs-Fri@10am, Sat-Sun@2pm&4:30pm in the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

Tickets: $12-$20

In the yet to be titled second installment of a new yearly series, P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth), that entertains and inspires theater goers of all ages! Jenn returns to the old Philadelphia house that she grew up in. With a thunderstorm coming, and the memories of the house haunting her, can she learn to use her imagination to fight her grown-up fears? Written by a local playwright with a focus on original and local stories, this imaginative new program offers a theatrically immersive, interactive experience for young audiences, engaging their creativity to help build and spark each performance, sharing living stories that capture the magic all around us.

E.A.R. (Emerging Artists in Residence) Fuzz

An open dress rehearsal of artistic exploration by Plays & Players' resident artists!

Produced with PDC and sponsored in part by the Melissa Lynch Foundation

In the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

11/17, 1/26, 3/23, 6/1 @8pm

Tickets: $5, Free for Plays & Players and PDC Members

The aim of the EAR Residency is to develop theater artists' work towards goals that they have articulated for themselves. EAR Fuzz highlights the work of two Melissa Lynch Memorial actor residents and two PDC @ Plays & Players playwright residents, as they engage big questions as to the artist they are and the artist they want to become.

Each EAR Fuzz focuses on a different theme:

11/17 - Play Another Part (playwrights become actors, actors become playwrights)

1/26 - Change Your Medium (try on another style, method, or art form you've never tried before)

3/23 - Fight Your Fear (face the thing that scares you most in your artistic journey)

6/1 - What Is Theater (attempt to figure out who is the theater artist you want to be)

Voices of a People's History of the United States

A new Plays & Players tradition is performed!

Based on the book edited by Howard Zinn

Directed by John Doyle

Performed by Bob Weick as Howard Zinn and a cast of other Philadelphia favorites

At the Plays & Players Mainstage

1/29-1/31

1/29@7pm, 1/30@8pm, and 1/31@8pm on the Mainstage, Student Matinee performances on 1/29 & 1/30 @10am

Tickets: $12-$30

From Martin Luther King Jr. to Susan B. Anthony to Bob Dylan, Voices of a People's History of the United States brings to life speeches, letters, poems, and songs from the extraordinary history of ordinary people who built the movements that made the United States what it is today. See a diverse cast of Philadelphia actors bring passion and power to the words that helped end slavery and Jim Crow, fight war and genocide, advance gay and women's rights, and singularly define the American spirit.

Hold These Truths

Philadelphia Premiere One Person Show!

Performed by Makoto Hirano

Written by Jeanne Sakata

Directed by Daniel Student

In the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

2/12-3/1

Wed & Thurs @7pm, Fri @ 8pm, Sat @ 2pm & 8pm (no 2pm show on 2/14), Sun @ 3pm, Student Matinee 2/21 @ 10am.

Tickets: $12-$30

Hold These Truths tells a story, buried by history, of one American's attempt to reconcile his love for a country that labeled him a second class citizen. Gordon Hirabayashi's real life 50-year journey brings us the astonishing facts of Japanese Internment, the US government's orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast, through the eyes of a Quaker college student who was simply looking for love and the American Dream. Join Philadelphia actor Makoto Hirano as he gives voice to over thirty characters in this one-man tour-de-force regional premiere, and celebrate the triumph of the power one person has to change a nation.

"Spring Ahead" Philly Bake-Off

A community event celebrating playwrights, amateur and professional!

Co-produced with PDC

At the Plays & Players Mainstage

March 8 @ 12pm

Tickets: FREE! Must have written a play or have been invited to attend

Playwrights, from first-timers to seasoned vets, are invited to "bake" a play using "ingredients" provided by nationally recognized playwrights and actors from Plays & Players membership, residency, and season read them aloud!

Homebody/My Name is Rachel Corrie

Two one woman shows about the relationship of the Western World and the Middle East in rep!

In the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theatre

Homebody

Performed by Corinna Burns

Written by Tony Kushner

My Name is Rachel Corrie

Performed by Isa St. Clair

Taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner

5/21-6/7

5/21 - 7pm (Homebody), 9pm (Corrie)

5/22 - 7pm (Corrie), 9pm (Homebody)

5/23 - 7pm (Homebody), 9pm (Corrie)

5/24 - 3pm (Corrie)

5/27 - 7pm (Homebody)

5/28 - 7pm (Corrie)

5/29 - 7pm (Homebody), 9pm (Corrie)

5/30 - 2pm (Corrie), 8pm (Homebody)

5/31 - 3pm (Homebody), 7pm (Corrie)

6/3 - 7pm (Corrie)

6/4 - 7pm (Homebody)

6/5 - 7pm (Corrie), 9pm (Homebody)

6/6 - 2pm (Homebody), 8pm (Corrie)

6/7 - 3pm (Homebody)

Tickets: $15-$30

Plays & Players pairs two contemporary one-woman shows about the complex relationship between the Middle East and the Western world.

Homebody, straight from the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, hilariously tackles the topic through the eyes of a British housewife sitting in her kitchen, contemplating the Western interpretation of Kabul, Afghanistan, her dysfunctional family and hats. In a world of global isolation, she struggles with questions that thousands of years of civilization have failed to answer.

My Name is Rachel Corrie is based on the diaries and emails of the titular American college student who met her death on the Gaza Strip in 2003, revealing the voice of a joyful and brilliant woman who celebrated life to its fullest and was lost to the world too soon. Corrie's journey from the whimsical poetry of childhood to the essays of idealistic youth inspires us to see the best in others while giving us an unflinching look at the bleak socio-political situation that is Israel.

Honey Bee Cabaret IV

Sunday, June 14th at 7pm

At the Plays & Players Mainstage

Tickets: $60 VIP, $30 general admission

A yearly celebration of art, theater and life, in memory of local actress Melissa Lynch, the Honey Bee Cabaret is a wine and cheese reception, silent auction and performance featuring P&P regulars doing the highlights of Plays & Players seasons from the past 100 years and the future. Plays & Players regulars perform songs, monologues and scenes from Season One to One Hundred and Four as we celebrate our history, the end of our season and a sneak peek at next year! Proceeds in part benefit the Melissa Lynch Foundation, named after a brilliant Philadelphia actress, who support Philadelphia actors through generous donations to local theater companies.

Photo Credit: Trevor Reynolds

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