The Wilma Theater Hosts Conversation with Obie Award-Winning Playwright and TV Writer Gina Gionfriddo, 1/10

In conjunction with the Philadelphia Premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist 'Becky Shaw', The Wilma Theater will present an afternoon of conversation with playwright Gina Gionfriddo.  The talk with the Obie Award-winning American playwright and TV producer and writer of "Law & Order" will follow the Sunday, January 10, 2 p.m. matinee performance and will begin at 4:15 p.m.

Gionfriddo's 'Becky Shaw' has been hailed as one the top 10 stage shows of 2009 by Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times.  Her other writing credits include Off-Broadway's After Ashley (2004) and U.S. Drag (2002), in addition to writing and producing many episodes of "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and "Cold Case."  Her work has earned her a number of prestigious awards and accolades including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  Gionfriddo graduated from Barnard College in addition to completing Brown University's MFA playwriting program. During her time at Brown, she studied under the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel.
 
In Becky Shaw, Suzanna decides to set her best friend Max up on a blind date with her husband's mysterious co-worker, Becky Shaw, setting into motion a series of cataclysmic events forever changing all of their lives. Fresh from its critically acclaimed premiere at the 2008 Humana Festival and its extended Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre earlier this year, Becky Shaw was hailed by The New York Times as being "as engrossing as it is ferociously funny, like a big box of fireworks fizzing and crackling across the stage from its first moments to its last."
 
Directed by Obie Award-winning guest director Anne Kauffman, Becky Shaw begins previews on December 30, 2009, opens on January 6, 2010 and closes on January 31, 2010.

Tickets are $36 - $65 and are available by calling the Wilma Box Office at (215) 546-7824 or online at www.wilmatheater.org. Student tickets are available for $10, depending on date and time, made possible by a grant from PNC Arts Alive.
 
The Wilma will host a second symposium, "Women Directors at the Wilma," on Sunday, January 17 at 4:15 p.m. with Wilma co-Artistic Director Blanka Zizka, Becky Shaw director Anne Kauffman, and other guests who will engage in a spirited conversation about directing in the American theater today.  Kathryn MacMillan, Associate Artistic Director of Lantern Theater Company and Barrymore Award nominee for last season's The Hothouse, will moderate the discussion.
The Wilma Theater's Symposium Series is supported by The Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant. The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards were created to support exemplary arts organizations to pioneer effective practices to engage more people in high-value arts activities.

 

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