PHILADELPHIA: Philadelphia Theatre Company has announced its 2015–16 season. The five featured plays will showcase work by up-and-coming American playwrights, including a slate of East Coast premieres.
“Our 2015–16 season is a richly varied one, with a wide range of compelling subject matter and a diverse group of playwrights with fascinating stories to tell,” said Sara Garonzik, PTC’s executive producing director, in a statement. “Each play feels intensively personal, yet reflective of the larger ideas that make up our national conversation. We could not be more thrilled to welcome these playwrights to Philadelphia.”
The season begins with Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced (Oct. 9–Nov. 8). Mary B. Robinson directs this story of a Muslim-American lawyer and his Caucasian wife, and a dinner party that turns explosive. Disgraced won 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Then it is the McCarter Theatre/Arena Stage production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Nov. 27–Dec. 27). Amanda Dehnert directs this comic theatrical adaptation of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most popular mysteries.
Ringing in the New Year will be the East Coast premiere of Exit Strategy (Jan. 29–Feb. 28, 2016) by Ike Holter. In this coproduction with New York’s Primary Stages, a Chicago public school is intended to be closed, but a power struggle ensues between the school’s faculty and students who fight to keep the doors open.
Laura Eason’s Sex with Strangers (April 8–May 8, 2016) follows. In this coproduction with New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse, two writers meet while trapped overnight in a bed and breakfast.
Concluding the season is the East Coast premiere of Hillary and Clinton (May 27-June 26, 2016) by Lucas Hnath, a play set during a fraught moment of the 2008 primary campaign.
Philadelphia Theatre Company was founded in 1974. It has received 53 Barrymore Awards and 180 nominations.
