For Immediate Release: February 1, 2007
Media Contact: Fleischman Gerber & Associates, for Theatre Exile, 215.735.7356

Theatre Exile presents the world premiere of HEARTS & SOLES, an evening of short plays by local playwrights Bruce Graham, Michael Hollinger and Arden Kass on February 2-25 at Christ Church Neighborhood House (20 North American Street). HEARTS & SOLES will be featured in the Philadelphia New Play Festival: Where Theatre Begins, a program of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, taking place February 8 – 18, 2007.

Previews begin Friday, February 2 with opening night on Wednesday, February 7. Performances run Wednesday through Sunday until February 25. Tickets are $18 to $35 with discounts for students, seniors and groups. Tickets are available by calling the Theatre Exile Box Office at 215-922-4462.

HEARTS & SOLES is also part of Theatre Exile’s own new play festival, PHILLY ORIGINALS, which features a series of plays readings all written and performed by local artists, talk-back discussions and workshops on how plays are developed.

HEARTS & SOLES is a sexy, smart look at the misfiring of human connections, between lovers, between friends, and between fathers. The evening will feature Bruce Graham’s Full Figured/Loves to Dance, directed by Joe Canuso and starring Pete Pryor and Karen Getz; Michael Hollinger’s Senior Moment, with Harry Philibosian and Allen Radway, and Truth Decay with Amanda Schoonover and Allen Radway, both directed by Deb Seif; and Arden Kass’s Sole Searching, with Julie Czarnecki and Harry Philibosian, and Kick Me, with Julie Czarnecki, Amanda Schoonover, and Allen Radway, both directed by Deborah Block.

“Our PHILLY ORIGINALS Festival celebrates the city’s extraordinary playwriting talents. Bruce Graham, Michael Hollinger and Arden Kass are truly Philadelphia originals whose works have challenged and entertained audiences for over twenty years,” said Theatre Exile’s Artistic Director Joe Canuso. “This Festival explores not only the works of these three established playwrights but also seeks to introduce audiences to the works of new Philadelphia original writers such as Nick Wardigo.”

Bruce Graham’s plays have all premiered in Philadelphia at Theatre Exile, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Mum Puppettheatre. They have subsequently been presented at Cincinnati Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, New York’s Circle Theatre, Florida Stage, and London’s West End. They have been nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, four Jefferson Award nominations (winning one award) and seven Barrymore Awards. He teaches playwriting and film courses at University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University and has taught graduate level playwriting at Villanova University and Rutgers.

Michael Hollinger’s plays, which have all premiered at Arden Theatre Company, have earned him the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding New Play, and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award, and the Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theatre. He is a resident playwright of New Dramatists and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova University.

Arden Kass’s plays have been produced in Philadelphia by Brat Productions, Tapestry Theatre, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Azuka Theatre and InterAct Theatre. In addition to playwriting, she has written poetry, children’s literature, first person essays and three one-hour documentaries on rock stars for A&E. She is the winner of the 2005 Multi-Stages Playwriting Contest.

PHILLY ORIGINALS also features play readings on each of the three Monday nights at 7:00 PM during the fun of the Festival, with proceeds of each performance benefiting a different charity. The reading of Bruce Graham’s Belmont Avenue Social Club on Monday, February 5 will benefit Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia. The reading of The Dos and Don’ts of Time Travel by Nick Wardigo on Monday, February 12 will benefit the American Cancer Society. The play reading series will conclude on Monday, February 19 with a Philly Original, revisiting a classic Philadelphia play, with proceeds benefitting a charity to be decided.

Now in its tenth season, Theatre Exile is a non-profit theatre company dedicated to providing a creative environment in which Philadelphia artists can grow and experiment, while introducing the greater Philadelphia community both to new locally written works and established plays that are reinterpreted in original ways or held in unique site-specific locations. Theatre Exile has received 7 Barrymore nominations and 2 awards for Best Ensemble in a Play for Killer Joe and Best Supporting Actress for Amanda Schoonover in Killer Joe.

PHILLY ORIGINALS was made possible in part by a grant from the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts.

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