Terrence McNally & Tom Kirdahy Join Philadelphia Theatre Company Board

Philadelphia Theatre Company announces the election of playwright Terrence McNally and Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy to its Board of Directors. In their roles as newly-created Artists Board Members, McNally and Kirdahy will add a national artistic perspective to the Board's fiscal decision-making.

"Given that part of PTC's mission is to develop new plays, the Board believes that PTC will benefit from the experience and guidance of professionals in the art and the business of theater, which, after all, is our business," said PTC's Board Chair E. Gerald Riesenbach. "Terrence McNally, as one of America's great playwrights, brings us the perspective of the creator of the story and the words. Tom Kirdahy, a noted Broadway producer, brings us the perspective of the business of theater."

"Tom and Terrence have been a wonderful part of our artistic family for many years and formalizing the relationship in this way is a natural evolution," continued Sara Garonzik, PTC's Executive Producing Director.

"PTC has always been a welcoming venue for American playwrights who understand the special power of theatre to transform hearts and minds and a company that has continued to nurture me creatively," said McNally.

"We hope to use our experience and insight to continue to cement PTC's important role on the national theater landscape," continued Kirdahy.

PTC has enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration with Terrence McNally, having produced the world premieres of Master Class, Golden Age, Some Men, and Unusual Acts of Devotion, and the Philadelphia premieres of Mothers and Sons, Love!Valour!Compassion!, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, and Frank and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. In 2012 PTC established the Terrence McNally New Play Award to recognize writers whose work, like McNally's is both timely and compassionate.

Terrence McNally is the winner of Tony Awards for his plays Love!Valour!Compassion! and Master Class, and his books for the musicals Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Mothers and Sons, his 20th Broadway production, received a 2014 Tony Nomination for Best Play, and his TV script Andre's Mother received an Emmy Award. Awarded the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, he was elected to the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Tom Kirdahy was the lead producer of last Broadway season's runaway hit It's Only A Play, and the five-time Tony-nominated Broadway musical The Visit. He has previously been nominated for Tony Awards for Mothers and Sons and After Midnight as well as for his revivals of Ragtime and Master Class on Broadway. Additional credits include the West End revival of Master Class, The Visit at Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Fiesta at Vineyard Theatre, Corpus Christi at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Afraid of the Dark at London's West End, Deuce which marked Angela Lansbury's return to the stage, and Some Men at Second Stage Theatre which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Play. He is currently producing the Off-Broadway run of White Rabbit Red Rabbit at The Westside Theater and upcoming productions of Anatasia and The Bandstand.

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