For Immediate Release: September 27, 2006
Media Contact: Deborah Fleischman, for Philadelphia Theatre Company, 215.735.7356

Philadelphia Theatre Company today revealed the interior design for its new home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on the Avenue of the Arts at Broad and Lombard Streets. Board members and major donors toured the site in a sneak peek and left their mark by signing the stage. Designed by KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, the new state-of-the-art theater will include a 365-seat proscenium auditorium designed to envelope both the actors and audience, a dramatic lobby and mezzanine level reception areas with commanding views of the city, as well as superior patron amenities, box office, disabled accessibility including an elevator to all floors. KieranTimberlake Associates' other notable clients include the Yale University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Arden Theatre Company and the Federal General Services Administration Design for Excellence Program.

Visitors to the theater will be initially greeted by a dramatic three-story glass façade spanning more than 100 feet which integrates the city and the theater. The lobby will continue this welcoming expanse with a sequence of light and airy urbane spaces. Upon entering the mainstage auditorium, visitors will be transported to a fresh and contemporary setting that anticipates the events on stage. The deep red-wine colors of the interior space, combined with decorative leather tile and natural wood will add to the feeling of urbanity, intimacy and warmth.

The theater, which uses universal-design in key areas, will be one of the most disabled-accessible performance facilities in the region. Wheelchair users will be able to experience a performance from the middle of the orchestra, rather than being limited to the rear side aisles of the venue. With full accessibility to both the backstage and front of house areas as well as to control booths, the theater will accommodate directors, designers, actors and audience members regardless of physical needs.

"In creating a new venue for Philadelphia Theatre Company our primary goal was to design an appropriate setting for new American plays and musicals. We wanted to retain the warmth and intimacy of a traditional proscenium theater while offering greatly improved audience comfort and aesthetics that complement what is happening on stage," explained Richard Maimon, an associate of KieranTimberlake Associates. "Working closely with Philadelphia Theatre Company, we arrived at the use of undulating glass-reinforced gypsum panels which participate in the natural acoustics of the theater while creating visual rhythms of shade and shadow."

"KieranTimberlake Associates has designed a contemporary, sophisticated theater that is welcoming, highly functional and relates wonderfully both to the city and to the Avenue," stated Sara Garonzik, Producing Artistic Director of Philadelphia Theatre Company. "They have captured the vibrancy of the urban life of our city in the dramatic exterior marquee, and also created an interior theater space that is sympathetic to the human voice and visually arresting while giving pre-eminence to the audience-actor relationship."

"Our new theater will not only be an exciting home for the provocative work on stage but also an accessible environment for new audiences whose previous accessibility to theater may have been restricted," said E. Gerald Riesenbach, President of the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Founded in 1984, KieranTimberlake Associates LLP is an award-winning and internationally recognized architecture firm noted for its research, innovation and inventive design. The firm's projects include programming, planning and design of all types of new structures and their interiors; and the renovation, reuse and conservation of existing structures. The firm has received over fifty design awards and projects have been published in Architecture, Architectural Record, Interiors, Interior Design, I.D. Magazine, Metropolis, Time, WIRED, World Architecture, and The New York Times.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, one of our nation's leading producers of new American theater, is proud to be known as an innovator, a risk taker and an educator. For more than thirty years Philadelphia Theatre Company has put the spotlight on established and emerging American playwrights, and emphasized the rich tradition, unique perspective and cultural diversity of the American experience. Ever mindful of its responsibility to provide a necessary forum and nurturing environment for the fresh creative voices that will keep American theater vital, Philadelphia Theatre Company has introduced numerous award-winning world premieres to audiences in Philadelphia, New York, and beyond, including: Some Men by Terrence McNally (to be produced at NYC's Second Stage Theatre in Spring 2007); Adrift in Macao by Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick (to be produced at NYC's Primary Stages, Winter 2007); Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso (which moved to Manhattan Theatre Club last spring); and three-time Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terrence McNally, starring Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald. Philadelphia Theatre Company was named Best Theater by Philadelphia Style Magazine in 2006, Theater Company of the Year by Philadelphia Weekly in 2005, and Best Theater Company in the 2005 City Paper Readers' Choice Awards. Since 1995, Philadelphia Theatre Company has received 109 nominations and 30 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards.

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