For Immediate Release: July 25, 2005
Media Contact: Whitney Estrin, Theatre Exile, 215.922.4462

Theatre Exile, producers of last year’s smash hit The Philly Fan, will present Last Call… Remembering my Dad, based on the book by WIP and Fox 29’s Big Daddy Graham and directed by Joe Canuso in The Red Room Cabaret in the Society Hill Playhouse during the 2005 Philly Fringe, September 7th through the 17th.

Last Call written by and starring radio and T.V. personality Big Daddy Graham and directed by Theatre Exile Founder and Artistic Director Joe Canuso, Last Call is an honest, entertaining memoir about a man trying to remember his long-gone father and making an amazing discovery along the way. Based on the autobiography Last call… Remembering my Dad, the piece is a recalling of his childhood with his father, who was a blue-collar West Philadelphia guy who worked at the Navy Yard and drank too much and died leaving only scattered memories that are few and far between. “The piece is on my short list of crucial stuff such as Bruce Springsteen's Independence Day, The Godfather movies and Phillip Roth's Patrimony. Not to mention all those Sinatra CD's."” ~Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer. Adapted for the stage with the dramaturgical assistance of local Playwright and Screenwriter Bruce Graham (no relation), Last Call is a moving and humorous remembrance of one man’s childhood, his father and of growing up in a row home community. There will be ten performances of Last Call in the 2005 Philly Fringe.

Joe Canuso (Founder & Artistic Director of Theatre Exile and Director of LAST CALL): has directed many past hits for the Philly Fringe Festival, including The Philly Fan, Cryptome, Amputation Nation, Live at the Apollo Diner, The Frankenharry Plays, Death & Taxes and Escurial. He also starred with John Lumia in the 1998 Fringe hit Parking. He recently performed in John Patrick Shanley’s the dreamer examines his pillow at the 2005 Prague Fringe Festival.

Big Daddy Graham (Writer and performer of LAST CALL) has been entertaining audiences as a standup comic, radio and TV personality, writer and recording artist for over 20 years. He has won Philadelphia Magazine's Best Of… seven times, has worked with the likes of Ray Charles, BB King, Smokey Robinson and has recorded numerous novelty songs that have sold over 100,000 copies. The award winning Big Daddy’s Big List and the Big Daddy Snack Segment have run nightly on WIP, CN8 and FOX 29 for over a decade. His book Last Call… Remembering my Dad was a critical and commercial success. He is returning home to Society Hill Playhouse where he performed as the Lion in George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Line back in 1980 something.

Bruce Graham (Dramaturge): Writer of Theatre Exile’s recent smash hit The Philly Fan conceived and performed by Tom McCarthy. Published Plays: Burkie, Early One Evening At The Rainbow Bar & Grille, Moon Over The Brewery, Minor Demons, Belmont Avenue Social Club, The Champagne Charlie Stakes, Desperate Affection and Coyote On A Fence (1998 Rosenthal Prize winner - nominated for two DRAMA DESK Awards). According to Goldman, recently premiered at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and Coyote on a Fence (starring Ben Cross) opened in London’s West End in April ’04. Feature Film Credits: Dunston Checks In, Anastasia, Steal This Movie. Television Movies: Hunt For The Unicorn Killer, The Christmas Secret, Right On Track, and A Ring Of Endless Light (2003 Humanitas Award Winner - Best Children's Film) and Tiger Cruise (starring Bill Pullman).

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe run from September 2-17, 2005. Tickets prices range from free to $25 (tickets for Last Call are $15), and can be purchased online beginning August 8 at www.livearts-fringe.org or after August 22 by calling 215.413.1318. Fringe guides which include dates, times, and venues for all performances for both festivals, will be available in the Philadelphia City Paper on August 25, 2005 and after this at all festival venues.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe were originally founded in 1997 as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Today, the Live Arts Festival serves as a series of selected cutting-edge, boundary-breaking performing arts events, created by some of the most renowned contemporary artists from our region and around the world. The Fringe serves as a collective home for artists bringing their work to audiences in every conceivable form - in traditional and untraditional venues, using new artistic forms and established ones, breaking rules or refining them.

Performances of Last Call will take place at the Red Room Cabaret at The Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. 8th St., Philadelphia, PA. Tickets are $15, and are available at the Philly Fringe Box Office at 215-413-1318 (opens August 23rd) or online at www.liveartsandfringe.org (tickets available August 9th). For more info/ Theatre Exile Subscription info: 215-922-4462, www.theatreexile.org.

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