For Immediate Release: April 15, 2005
Media Contact: Deborah Fleischman, Philadelphia Theatre Company, 215.735.7356

Philadelphia Theatre Company concludes its 2004-2005 season with the Philadelphia premiere of Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning drama Take Me Out. Already extended due to popular demand, Take Me Out will run May 13 through June 19, 2005 at 1714 Delancey Street. Directed by James J. Christy, the ensemble cast features Armando Batista, James Chen, Jacques Cowart II, Todd Gebhart, Nathan Hinton, John Lumia, Tom McCarthy, Ivan Sanchez, Josh Shirley, Kraig Swartz, and David Whalen.

Previews begin Friday, May 13 with opening night on Wednesday, May 18. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until June 19. Tickets are $30 to $50, with discounts for students, seniors and groups and are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting www.phillytheatreco.com.

The Production Media Sponsor for Take Me Out is the Philadelphia Gay News. PTC's Media Partner is CBS 3. The Season Media Sponsor is the Philadelphia City Paper.

A humorous and hard-hitting look at masculinity, sexuality, and race, Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out is a love letter to the all-American game of baseball, focusing on Darren Lemming, an all-star center fielder of mixed race heritage. Darren has it all: looks, money and a successful career, but he throws his teammates and the sports world a curve ball one day when he announces during a press conference that he's gay.

Take Me Out premiered in London in 2002 before moving to the Public Theater and then to Broadway where it won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Play.

Playwright Richard Greenberg's work has been celebrated with Tony, New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel Awards with plays such as The Dazzle, Three Days of Rain, Everett Beekin, Hurrah at Last, Eastern Standard, and the recent adaptation of August Strindberg's Dance of Death starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, among many others. He has received an Oppenheimer Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Take Me Out and Three Days of Rain.

James J. Christy (Director) returns to PTC where he has directed Gross Indecency, Sideman, and The Laramie Project. All three productions received a number of Barrymore nominations, the last of which won Best Production, Best Ensemble and Best Director for 2001. He has had a long partnership with local playwright, Bruce Graham at the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays. Recent productions include Proof for the Arden Theatre Company, The Merchant of Venice for the People's Light and Theatre Company, and Michael Hollinger's Red Herring for the Actors Theatre of Louisville. A professor of theater at Villanova University where he directed Twelfth Night this winter, he has directed at many Shakespeare Festivals around the country. Last summer, in a particularly satisfying project, he directed James Christy, Jr,'s new play, Never Tell for the New York Fringe Festival.

Jacques Cowart II (Darren) has appeared in starring roles in Law and Order and All My Children. Regionally he has appeared in leading roles in Fences at Weston Playhouse and Othello at Purchase Theatre Ensemble as well as several productions at Abbott Kaplan Theatre, Performing Arts Center, and San Antonio Ana Rep. A graduate of SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatory, he starred in the independent film Shook, which premiered on Showtime in February.

Kraig Swartz (Mason) returns to PTC where he starred in Fully Committed for which he won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Leading Actor. He has received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings at Chicago's Lifeline Theatre; two Michigan Thespie Awards for The Cripple of Inishmaan and Greetings!, both at BoarsHead Theatre; two Carbonell Award nominations for Bent and Love! Valour! Compassion!, both at Caldwell Theatre; and a Detroit Free Press Theater Excellence Award for Broadway Bound at Meadowbrook Theatre. He has also appeared in several productions at the Guthrie Theater, Asolo Theatre Company, Rep. Theater of St. Louis, and Milwaukee Rep Theatre.

David Whalen (Kippy) has been seen in the New York production of The Member of the Wedding at Roundabout Theatre as well as in several productions at South Coast Rep and Playmakers Repertory. Locally he has performed at InterAct Theatre Company, most recently in Homeland Security, People's Light & Theatre Company in A View From The Bridge, Arthur's Stone/Merlin's Fire, and The Forgiving Harvest, and Act II Playhouse in Inventing Van Gogh. He has also appeared regionally at Laguna Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Huntington Theatre and Center Stage.

Josh Shirley (Shane) makes his local debut with this production. He has appeared at The Mint Theatre in New York in When Aunt Daphne Went Nude. Regionally he has appeared at Kent Shakespeare Festival, Riverside Shakespeare Festival, and Missouri Repertory Theatre.

Nathan Hinton (Davey) was awarded the Audelco Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Dramalogue Award for Best Ensemble Performance. He appeared in the first national tour of Angels in America as well as Macbeth and the world premiere of Insurrection at the Public Theatre, Living in the Wind at American Place Theatre, A Fair Country at Lincoln Center Theatre and The Tempest at New York Shakespeare Festival. Regionally, he has performed at the Ford Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Great Lakes Theatre Festival.

Tom McCarthy (Skipper) returns to the theme of baseball, having recently appeared in Philly Fan at Theatre Exile. He last performed at PTC in Minutes from the Blue Route and Prelude to a Kiss. McCarthy received the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Theatre Alliance. The bulk of his recent stage work has been at Arden Theatre Company: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, All My Sons, Working, Grapes of Wrath, and Death of a Salesman for which he was awarded the Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play in 1997. He has served as the Tri State Area president of the Screen Actors Guild for the past twenty years.

John Lumia (Toddy), winner of the 2000 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, appeared in PTC's production of Sideman. He received a Barrymore nomination for his work in Third and Indiana and was the recipient of an Independence Foundation grant for his solo project Spin Cycle. Other recent credits include Visiting Mr. Green at Walnut Studio 3 and Dilapidating at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Amputation Nation at 1812 Productions.

James Chen (Kawabata) returns to PTC where he appeared last winter in the PTC/Young Playwrights collaboration in Daddy's Wish. Other Philadelphia credits include The Taming of the Shrew at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Pip/Theo in Three Days of Rain and Pony in subUrbia, both at Allens Lane Theatre, and Doctor in Seance at Mum Puppettheatre.

Armando Batista (Martinez), Todd Gebhart (Jason), and Ivan Sanchez (Rodriquez) are the cast rookies, making their first professional appearance with PTC from Temple University, University of the Arts, and Rutgers University, respectively.

Take Me Out brings together PTC alumni set designer Todd Rosenthal (Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? and The Infidel), lighting designer Annie Wrightson (Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, According to Goldman and The Infidel), and sound designer Matt Callahan (Topdog/Underdog and A Picasso) with costume designer Pamela Scofield (Off-Broadway productions of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and Summer of ‘42). PTC's dramaturg for Take Me Out is Warren Hoffman.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, now in its 29th season, is Philadelphia's only non-profit professional theater dedicated exclusively to producing regional and world premieres of works by contemporary American playwrights. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director, Sara Garonzik, PTC has had ever-increasing national impact with over 100 new American plays. Recent world premiere productions include: Bruce Graham's According to Goldman; Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso; Daniel Stern's comedy Barbra's Wedding; John Henry Redwood's No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs; J.T. Roger's White People; David Ives' Lives of the Saints; three-time Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terrence McNally; Bunny Bunny by Alan Zweibel; and the American premiere of Birdy by Naomi Wallace. A Picasso received its New York premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club in April, 2005. Philadelphia Theatre Company was chosen Best Theatre Company 2003 by Philadelphia Magazine. Since 1995, PTC has received 83 nominations and 24 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards, most recently for The Last Five Years (Overall Outstanding Production of a Musical, 2002-2003) and A Picasso (Outstanding New Play, 2002-2003). Philadelphia Theatre Company has been in residence at the historic Plays & Players Theater since 1982.

For further information, please call 215-985-1400 or visit www.phillytheatreco.com.

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