For Immediate Release: February 9, 2007
Media Contact: Deborah Fleischman, for Philadelphia Theatre Company, 215.735.7356

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents the Philadelphia premiere of the critically acclaimed international hit In The Continuum March 16-April 15 at 1714 Delancey Street. A production of Primary Stages and Perry Street Theatre, In The Continuum is written and performed by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter and directed by Robert O'Hara.

In The Continuum received its world premiere in September 2005 at Off-Broadway's Primary Stages, subsequently moving to the Perry Street Theatre, and was hailed by the New York Times as one of the Ten Best Plays of 2005. It has since enjoyed a sold-out international tour including stops in Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Previews begin Friday, March 16 with opening night on Wednesday, March 21. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until April 15. Tickets are $33 to $51 with discounts for students, seniors and groups. Tickets are available by calling the Philadelphia Theatre Company Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting www.phillytheatreco.com.

Living worlds apart in L.A. and Zimbabwe, two young women experience a kaleidoscopic weekend of darkly comic events when their lives are changed forever as each is diagnosed with HIV. Abigail (Danai Gurira) is a successful news reader for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Pregnant with her second child, she hopes the arrival of a baby will breathe new life into her marriage. Nia (Nikkole Salter) is a teenage girl with a blossoming talent in poetry living in South Los Angeles. Estranged from her own family, she dreams of a future with her new baby and boyfriend, a promising high school basketball player with college scholarships and a real shot at the NBA. Over the course of one weekend, they encounter the realities and cultural biases surrounding AIDS in their communities and must come to terms with the life-changing revelations of their diagnoses. Portraying a rich array of characters, playwrights/actresses Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter offer a funny, mesmerizing, and highly theatrical evening of parallel denials and resonant self-discoveries.

"In The Continuum was born of our profound concern for the experience of black women in the present fight against HIV/AIDS," said Gurira and Salter who wrote the play as graduate students together at New York University. "Black women currently represent the highest rate of new infections both in the U.S. and Africa, and this is a story told from their perspective. It is a representation of the humanity behind the statistics and an invitation for more unheard stories to be brought 'In(to) the Continuum'."

Director Robert O'Hara received a 2006 OBIE Award for his direction of In The Continuum. He wrote Insurrection: Holding History at New York Stage and Film, which went on to win the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play. He has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, TCG Extended Collaboration Grant, NEA/TCG Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists, was recipient of the first Mark Taper Forum's Sherwood Award, and the TANNIE Award for Exceptional Body of Work. He has been an artist-in-residence at the American Conservatory Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, and Theater/Emory as well as a Visiting Professor at DePaul University School of the Arts, Mark Taper Forum, National Endowment of the Arts, McCarter Theater, Theatres de Nimes, Le Theatre L'odeon, and Theaterworks/USA.

Danai Gurira returns to Philadelphia Theatre Company where she last appeared in Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story (2005). She is the recipient of a 2005 OBIE Award, 2005 John Gessner Outer Critics Award, and honored by the Theater Hall of Fame for her work on In The Continuum. She has also appeared at Lincoln Center Workshop, New York Shakespeare Festival's New Works Now, and Edinburgh Theater Festival. Gurira was born in the U.S. to Zimbabwean parents and raised in Zimbabwe.

Nikkole Salter has appeared in Jitney at the Studio Theater, The Story at the Kesselring Project at the Player's Club, and in several productions at Studio Tisch at NYU. She is also featured in the films Pride and Glory and All Fall Down. In addition to the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Fellowship, as co-author and co-performer of In The Continuum, she has received the 2004 Global Tolerance Award from the Friends of the United Nations, 2005 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance, 2005 OBIE Special Certificate, and 2005 Outer Critics John Gassner Award.

US Airways is the premiere season sponsor. CBS3 is the season media sponsor. The Philadelphia Inquirer, philly.com and Philadelphia Weekly are the Season Media Sponsors. Blank Rome is the Outreach/Education sponsor for this production of In The Continuum.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is Philadelphia's only non-profit professional theater dedicated exclusively to producing world and regional premieres of works by contemporary American playwrights. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director, Sara Garonzik, Philadelphia Theatre Company has had ever-increasing national impact having produced 34 world premieres of new American plays and musicals in its 31 seasons. Recent world premiere productions include: Nerds://A Musical Software Satire by Jordan Allen-Dutton, Erik Weiner, and Hal Goldberg; Some Men by Terrence McNally (to be produced at Second Stage Theatre in Winter 2007); Adrift in Macao by Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick (to be produced at Primary Stages, Winter 2007); Bruce Graham's According to Goldman; Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso; Daniel Stern's comedy Barbra's Wedding (moved to the Westside Arts Theatre in 2003); John Henry Redwood's No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs; J.T. Rogers' White People; David Ives' Lives of the Saints; three-time Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terrence McNally, starring Zoe Caldwell; Bunny Bunny by Alan Zweibel (Lucille Lortel Award, 1997); 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, Theater Company of the Year by Philadelphia Weekly in 2005, Best Theater Company in the 2005 City Paper Readers' Choice Awards, and named Best Theater by Philadelphia Style Magazine in 2006. Since 1995, Philadelphia Theatre Company has received 109 nominations and 34 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards.

Philadelphia Theatre Company has embarked on a groundbreaking Capital Campaign in support of building its new home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on the Avenue of the Arts, scheduled to open in Fall, 2007 when it concludes its 25-year residence at the historic Plays & Players Theater.

PREVIEWS:
Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at 8:00 PM; Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 PM; Tuesday, March 20 at 8:00 PM

OPENING:
Wednesday, March 21 at 7:00 PM

PERFORMANCES:
Tuesday - Saturday at 8:00 PM; Early curtain performances at 7:00 PM on April 10 and April 11; Wednesday matinee at 1:00 PM on March 28, April 4 and 11; Saturday matinee at 2:00 PM on March 24, April 7 and 14; Sunday matinee at 3:00 PM on March 18, 25, April 1, 8, and 15

CLOSING PERFORMANCE:
Sunday, April 15 at 3:00 PM

LOCATION:
Plays & Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Street

TICKET PRICES:
Friday preview, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, Wednesday and Saturday matinees: $33 and $39; Saturday preview, Thursday and Friday evenings, Sunday matinees: $39 and $45; Saturday Evenings and Opening Night: $45 and $51; Student, Senior Citizen and Group Discounts available

PARKING/TRANSPORTATION:
On-street parking is available as well as lot parking at 17th & Pine. The theater is also accessible by taxi, SEPTA buses and trains, and the PATCO High Speed line.

ACCESSIBILITY:
PTC provides large print, Braille and audio cassette programs upon request. Open-captioned performance on Saturday, April 7 at 2:00 PM. Audio described performance on Saturday, April 14 at 2:00 PM.

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT:
Plays & Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Street:
Monday-Friday 10:00AM - 5:30 PM
215/985-0420 or 866/985-0420 or online at www.phillytheatreco.com.

SPECIAL EVENTS:
Pay What You Can: Thursday, March 15 at 8:00 PM, to benefit BEBASHI

Meet-the-Artists Post-Show Discussions on March 22, April 5 and April 10

Panel Discussion on April 1 after 3:00 PM performance: Discussion about HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia and Around the World: Join playwrights/performers Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira; Gary Bell, Executive Director of BEBASHI; and Arun Skaria from Atlanta’s Center for Disease Control office as they discuss the real life issues surrounding In The Continuum.

In the Community: Join playwrights/performers Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira and representatives from BEBASHI and other local HIV/AIDS organizations as they discuss In The Continuum and the status of HIV/AIDS issues in the local community

Pre-Show Wine Tasting on March 27 and April 12 at 7:00 PM (FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY)

Night OUT! pre-show LGBT-friendly reception on Thursday, March 29 at 6:30 PM before 8pm performance.

NEXT! A post-performance reception for patrons ages 26-40 on Friday, March 30.

PLAYWRIGHTS:
Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter

DIRECTOR:
Robert O'Hara

CAST:
Abigail - Danai Gurira
Nia - Nikkole Salter

DESIGNERS:
Set designer - Peter R. Feuchtwanger
Costume designer - Sarah Hilliard
Lighting designer - Colin Young

PRESS INFORMATION:
Deborah Fleischman 215/735-7356

TICKET INFORMATION:
215/985-0420 or 866/985-0420 or www.phillytheatreco.com

SYNOPSIS
Living worlds apart in L.A. and Zimbabwe, two young women experience a kaleidoscopic weekend of darkly comic events when their lives are changed forever as each is diagnosed with HIV. Portraying a rich array of characters, playwrights/actresses Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter offer a funny, mesmerizing, and highly theatrical evening of parallel denials and resonant self-discoveries.

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