terraNOVA Collective Presents Daniel Kitrosser's HANNAH + THE HEALING STONE

Media Contact: Liz Powers
elipowers@gmail.com/215.206.5989

terraNOVA Collective is back to present hometown and award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Dan Kitrosser's Hannah + The Healing Stone.

There's something afoot in Jenkintown. The guy who works at Marvin's Aquarium has anger issues while the Woman who Lives in the Yellow House can't see through the clutter she's amassed. A screenwriting duo who haven't seen each other in ten years attract and repel each other like magnets in a diner and the Chinese restaurant counter girl has a bad attitude and a hopeless crush. And then there's Hannah. Hannah seems to be the only one who is hell bent on getting out of her hometown and onto something bigger, but Jenkintown has ideas of its own.

Heartfelt and full of magical realism with a dash of 'bless your heart', Hannah + The Healing Stone encourages you to let go and feel your peace amongst the uncertainty of what's ahead.

Playwright, Dan Kitrosser says, "I'm ecstatic that Philly will have the World Premiere production of Hannah + The Healing Stone! I started writing this play out of frustration during the pandemic. Frustration of not being able to connect with others as well as just being able to process what was happening to us as a people - as a culture. What would happen if we were all able to take that heaviness, that anger, that guilt, that pressure we were all under and collectively release it? Would we be kinder to each other? Would we be able to remember who we were before? What better place for us to collectively release than right here right now and right in this city I get to call home."

"This is a beautifully simple story told in a most unusual way," said Director, Kyle Metzger, " Dan uses magical realism and humor to craft these eclectic characters that really sparked my imagination. I've assembled a cast with loads of devising experience and a highly creative design team to make unforgettable magic onstage for our audiences. Live video, puppetry and theatre magic combine to make something really special that you won't want to miss!

Hannah + The Healing Stone runs August 18 - August 28 at The Drake in Philadelphia.

Tickets are available now, through Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/haths22

Dan Kitrosser is a really gay, really Jewish playwright, screenwriter and storyteller currently residing in Philadelphia. He co-wrote the screenplay for WE THE ANIMALS which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, winning the NEXT: Innovator Award, Best Narrative at OutFest and was nominated for 5 Independent Spirit Awards and a GLAAD Award. His plays include TAR BABY (First Fringe Award, Edinburgh Fringe, and an Amnesty International Citation for Excellence), DEAD SPECIAL CRABS (monologues published in Smith & Kraus Best Men's and Women's...) and THE MUMBLINGS (optioned for TV series by FOX).

Dan is currently the executive producer for a forthcoming TV show for EntertainmentONE and his screen adaptation of Edouard Louis' novel HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for Flute Films will go into production in the fall. He is currently working with iHeartRadio and The Documentary Group on SVETLANA! SVETLANA!, a ten-episode podcast about Josef Stalin's daughter, which will begin airing in October 2022.

For much of the 2000s, Dan was the resident storyteller for Central Park and Bryant Park. He is the Artistic Director of Writopia Lab's Worldwide Plays Festival, a festival of plays written by young playwrights from all over the world, now in its 15th year. He received his MFA from The New School for Drama in 2014, where he is now on faculty. Dan is the 2018 Peter Shaffer Award Winner, a 2016 TimeWarner 150 Fellow, a 2014 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow, a 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Fellow, a 2015 terraNOVA Collective Groundbreaker, a Maryland Filmmakers Fellow and for his writing of TAR BABY, Dan received the Fringe First Award for Playwriting at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a Special Citation from Amnesty International's Freedom of Expression Awards.

Kyle Metzger is a Philly based theatre director, producer, deviser and educator. He has directed and devised plays in NYC and New England for over a decade. Recent directing includes WYCK Live! - an immersive play at Wyck Historic House, Garden and Farm in Germantown (Philadelphia, PA), Murder for Two (Playhouse on Park - Hartford CT), Of Mice and Men, The Game's Afoot (Monomoy Theatre - Chatham MA) Macbeth, Twelfth Night (Stages on the Sound, NYC).

As Producing Artistic Director of The Glass Eye theatre company, Kyle has directed and produced new plays and toured Shakespeare productions throughout New York and Connecticut. Directing projects include work at the Signature (Columbia Stages), terraNOVA Collective, Culture Project, Tenement Street Workshop, Theatre Row, New Georges, Ugly Rhino, Flying Carpet, Stages on the Sound, Caps Lock Theatre, Perchance to Dream, and Network Theater Co. In 2017, he was selected for the Access Theatre Residency program for Untitled Parlor Play, devised with Dina Vovsi.

Kyle holds an MFA in Directing from UNC Greensboro and a BFA in Music Theatre from The Hartt School. As an educator, Kyle has taught acting, directing, and script analysis courses at UNCG and led Shakespeare workshops with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company and Stages on the Sound. Educational directing credits include Rider New Works (Rider University), The Diviners (Hartt School), All My Sons, Urinetown, The Normal Heart, and Okay (UNCG).

Kyle currently teaches theatre at Rowan University and is developing a performance series at the National Liberty Museum in Old City. This fall he will be directing the world premiere of the pigeon by Jonathan Edmonson - the debut production by queer Philly theatre company The Strides Collective. kylemetzger.com

Hannah & the Healing Stone

By Dan Kitrosser

Directed by Kyle Metzger

Hannah & the Healing Stone Cast

Ryan Pater as Marvin's Aquarium Guy

Kelly McCaughan as Woman in Yellow House & Merl

Meagan Kimberly Smith as Hannah

Fionx Chin as Maddie

Olivia Gendron as Connie

Jordan Siegel as Geffen

Hannah & the Healing Stone Creative Team

Producer | Kisha Jarrett

General Mnagement: Jennifer Conley Darling and Cathy Bovitz.

Marketing | Young Park

Production Stage Manager | Lyndsey Connolly

Production Stage Manager & Sound Design | Tanner Richardett

Scenic/Props/Puppet Designer | J. Bean Schwab

Costume Design | Anna Sorrentino

Lighting Designer | Lindsay Stevens

Video & Projections Designer | Chris Carcione

To post a comment, you must register and login.