Act II Playhouse Presents 1st US Production of The Pride of Parnell Street

Act II Playhouse continues its 2010-2011 season with the first American production of The Pride of Parnell Street (March 22-April 13) by renowned Irish playwright Sebastian Barry. Act II Associate Artistic Director Harriet Power directs this lyrical, stunning drama of love and redemption.

Three preview performances of The Pride of Parnell Street will be held March 22-24 at 8 p.m., with tickets discounted to $22. Opening night (press opening) is March 25 at 8 p.m., and the show runs through April 17. Tickets are $27 for all regular Wednesday-Thursday performances, and $33 for Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees. Discounts are available for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. For more information, visit www.act2.org or call the Act II Box Office at (215) 654-0200.

Sebastian Barry is the internationally acclaimed author of such plays as The Steward of Christendom and Boss Grady's Boys, and such novels as A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), both of which were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Barry began writing The Pride of Parnell Street while he was in residence at Villanova University in 2006, serving as the visiting Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Endowed Chair in Irish Studies.

Power, a professor of theatre at Villanova, was one of the first to read a draft of the play. "The moment I read it, I knew I had to direct it someday," she said. "Barry's capacity to create utterly human, complex characters whom we get to know as intimately as those dearest to us in life is unique in my experience. And the story his characters tell is extraordinary."

In The Pride of Parnell Street, Janet and Joe Brady chronicle the intimacies of their love and the rupturing of their relationship, as well as their enduring love affair with the city of Dublin itself. This is an intimate, heroic tale of ordinary and extraordinary life on the streets of Dublin.

"The Pride of Parnell Street is about the mysteries of love and intimacy, the ups and downs of life, and the difficulty and ultimate grace of forgiveness," Power said. "Audiences, I am certain, will feel surprise, compassion, and intense involvement in the characters and story - they'll laugh, they'll probably cry, and they'll surely identify with what they see and hear onstage."

When first performed in Ireland in 2007, The Pride of Parnell Street was nominated for an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Play.

"Sebastian has an uncanny ear for dialogue," Power said. "He somehow manages to find and honor the humor, the grit, the yearnings, the hurt, the surprises, and the poetry within everyday speech."

The Pride of Parnell Street is part of the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival. Act II Playhouse is proud that this production is funded in part by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.

David Whalen and Kittson O'Neill will portray Joe and Janet Brady. "They are veteran actors who are willing to access all the love and all the dark places they know," Power said. "Both are subtle, quick, funny, flexible, and passionate, just as their characters are."

O'Neill's husband, Rob Kaplowitz, will be the production's sound designer. Kaplowitz is the Tony Award winning sound designer for the Broadway production of Fela!, as well as the winner of an OBIE award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design. Rounding out the design team - Barrymore winners all - are scenic designer Dirk Durossette, costume designer Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind, and lighting designer James Leitner.

SPECIAL DRESS REHEARSAL FUNDRAISER
The final dress rehearsal of The Pride of Parnell Street will be open to the public on Sunday, March 20, at 2 p.m. Suggested donation is $10, and all contributions go to the Women's Center of Montgomery County. According to its mission statement, "The Women's Center of Montgomery County is a volunteer, community organization with a primary focus on freedom from domestic violence and other forms of abuse. Our programs, policies and procedures reflect our strong commitment to empowering women."

ABOUT ACT II PLAYHOUSE
Act II Playhouse, now in its 12th season of professional theatre in the Philadelphia suburb of Ambler, PA, is committed to creating world-class theatre in a venue whose intimacy draws audiences and actors into dynamic interaction. Act II produces new, classic, and contemporary plays and musicals under the direction of Bud Martin (Producing Artistic Director) and Harriet Power (Associate Artistic Director). In July 2010, Howard Shapiro of The Philadelphia Inquirer declared that "Act II Playhouse is arguably the most up-and-coming of the region's small professional theaters outside Center City."

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Sebastian Barry (Playwright) was born in Dublin in 1955 and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He was Writer Fellow there in 1996. He was also Writer in Association at The Abbey Theatre in 1990, and recently held the Heimbold Visiting Chair in Irish Studies at Villanova University in the USA. His plays include Boss Grady's Boys (Abbey 1988), The Steward of Christendom (1995, which played London and New York and toured internationally with Out-of-Joint theatre company), and Our Lady of Sligo (1998, London, Dublin and New York, Out-of-Joint). His theatre awards include the BBC/Stewart Parker Award (1989), the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Ireland/America Literary Prize, the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play, the Writers' Guild Award, the Lloyds Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award and the Peggy Ramsay Play Award (jointly), as well as a nomination for the Olivier Award. Sebastian has also published several works of poetry and fiction, including the novels The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (Picador 1998), Annie Dunne (Faber and Faber 2002) and A Long Long Way (Faber and Faber 2005) which was short listed for the Booker Prize 2005 and the International Dublin Impac Prize, and won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. His new novel is The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber, 2008). Sebastian Barry's play The Pride of Parnell Street was nominated for an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Play. It opened in London in 2007, and played the Dublin Theatre Festival; and toured to France, Germany, and the US. His latest play Andersen's English enjoyed a successful run at The Hampstead Theatre in London earlier last year and his new novel On Canaan's Side is due to release in UK later this year.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
HARRIET POWER (Director) is Associate Artistic Director at Act II and also a Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, where she teaches directing and acting. She has divided her professional directing and dramaturgy career between classics (Shakespeare and Chekhov being her favorites) and new plays, working with playwrights at New Dramatists (New York), Philadelphia's PlayPenn, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, West Coast Playwrights, Iowa Playwrights Festival, and the International Women Playwrights Festival. Recently, she directed Act II's seven-actor adaptation of The Tempest, the sold-out hit Boeing-Boeing and the best new play she's ever directed, Bruce Graham's Any Given Monday (Barrymore Award, Outstanding New Play). At Act II, she has also directed James Still's Iron Kisses, the world premiere of Jeff Baron's Brothers-in-Law, and the Barrymore-nominated Syncopation. Among her many directing credits, favorites include this fall's Why I'm Scared of Dance by Jen Childs for 1812 Productions, Donald Margulies' Dinner With Friends in Rome, Italy, at Teatro L'Arciliuto, co-produced by The English Theatre of Rome and the American Embassy (winner of "Best of Rome" citation in Trova Roma), A Moon for the Misbegotten and Mad Forest (Venture Theatre), and two world premieres at InterAct Theatre, both by Seth Rozin-Reinventing Eden and Missing Link (Barrymore nomination, Outstanding New Play). A three-time Barrymore Outstanding Direction of a Play nominee, she received the 1997 Barrymore Award with James J. Christy for Angels in America: Perestroika. She has been honored to serve on the selection committee for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist.

ABOUT THE CAST/CREW (SELECTED)
David Whalen (Joe Brady) is thrilled to be back in Philadelphia and at Act II, where he played Vincent Van Gogh in Inventing Van Gogh. In Philly, David was last seen as Dorian in Opus at The Arden Theatre and Kippy in Take Me Out at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Both productions won multiple Barrymore Awards. Also, he has appeared in several shows at People's Light & InterAct Theatre. He just finished the World Premiere of Charming Billy at the Roundhouse Theatre in Washington DC, Other DC appearances include Hamlet and The Winter's Tale for the Folger. Recently, he appeared in the world premiere of The Morini Strad at City Theatre in Pittsburgh opposite Philadelphia actress Carla Belver. Pittsburgh appearances include: Betrayal, An Ideal Husband, Doubt, Stuff Happens, Pride & Prejudice, Julius Caesar, among others for Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre; The Royal Family, A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Pgh Public; and world premieres of Opus, Speak American, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for City Theatre. He played Padraic in The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (Kevin Kline Award for Best Actor) and was named the 2007 Performer of the Year by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. New York credits include The Roundabout, Primary Stages, and others. Regional credits: South Coast Repertory (10 productions), Houston's Alley Theatre, Hartford Stage, Center Stage in Baltimore, Huntington Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Clarence Brown Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse,, among others. TV & Film credits include: 61*, The Xmas Tree, Black Dahlia, My Bloody Valentine 3D, True Blue, Without Warning, Indictment: The McMartin Trial, Three Rivers, Diagnosis: Murder, All My Children & The Guiding Light. Next up: God of Carnage (Alan) at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre.

KITTSON O'NEILL (Janet Brady) is delighted to make her debut with Act II Playhouse. She was most recently seen in Lidless at Interact and The Early Bird with Inis Nua. She has also worked locally with PlayPenn and People's Light and Theater Company. Her NYC credits include Second Stage, The Lark, The Public and countless off-off Broadway productions. Regionally she has worked with New Jersey Repertory, The Playwrights Center, South Coast Repertory, Curious Theater, NY Stage & Film and in Blue Jacket: The Epic Outdoor Drama. Her Film & TV credits include the feature films 200,000 Dirty (with Coolio) and Ghostlight as well as the shorts Mimeograph (by installation artist Jenny Perlin), 15 Films (A&E), & Overtime (Kanbar Festival - Best Ensemble). Her voice can be heard in dozens of unexpected places. She is a Graduate of The Shakespeare Lab and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's internship program. This and every performance are made possible by the love of her boys, Rob and Niall.

Robert Kaplowitz (Sound Design) - Credits include: Bill T. Jones' Fela! (Broadway & the National in London); John Beluso's The Poor Itch, Lemon Anderson's County Of Kings, (the Public); David Adjmi's Stunning (LCT3); Kia Corthron's Light, Raise the Roof (NYTW); Abbey Spallin's Pumpgirl (MTC), Chloe Moss's This Wide Night (Naked Angels); Francis Ya-Chu Cowhig's Lidless (Interact); Tanya Barfield's Blue Door (Arden); and Adam Bock's The Thugs (Soho Rep) and A Small Fire (Playwrights Horizons). He has also designed for 2nd Stage, LAByrinth, MCC, Primary Stages, The Vineyard, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Sundance, PlayPenn, and others. He received a Tony for Fela!, an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design, and is married to a former John Deere Catalog Model whom he loves, along with his son Niall, more than any work he's ever done.

ABOUT THE PHILADELPHIA IRISH THEATRE FESTIVAL
The Pride of Parnell Street is part of the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival and Irish MixTix. During the Festival, six Philadelphia-area theater companies are presenting works by Irish playwrights between December 2010 and May 2011. With the Irish MixTix - available only at http://mixtix.phillytheatretix.com - patrons can order tickets to two or more plays and save 20% off the ticket prices listed.

The Pride of Parnell Street Fact Sheet

Theater:
Act II Playhouse
56 E. Butler Ave.
Ambler, PA 19002

Prices:
Adults: $22-$36
Special discounts are available for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more.

Tickets:
Phone: (215) 654-0200
Online: www.act2.org

Performances:
Tues 3/22 at 8 p.m. (Talkback)
Wed 3/23 at 8 p.m. (Talkback)
Thurs 3/24 at 8 p.m.
Fri 3/25 at 8 p.m. (Opening Night)
Sat 3/26 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, 3/27 at 2 p.m.
Wed 3/30 at 2 p.m.
Wed 3/30 at 8 p.m.
Thurs 3/31 at 8 p.m.
Fri 4/1 at 8 p.m. (Wine Friday)
Sat 4/2 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, 4/3 at 2 p.m.
Wed 4/6 at 2 p.m.
Wed 4/6 at 8 p.m.
Thurs 4/7 at 8 p.m. (Talkback w/ special guest)
Fri 4/8 at 8 p.m. (Wine Friday)
Sat 4/9 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, 4/10 at 2 p.m. (Talkback)
Wed 4/13 at 2 p.m.
Wed 4/13 at 8 p.m.
Thurs 4/14 at 8 p.m.
Fri 4/15 at 8 p.m. (Wine Friday)
Sat 4/16 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, 4/17 at 2 p.m.

The Pride of Parnell Street
By Sebastian Barry
Directed by Harriet Power

Cast
David Whalen as Joe Brady
Kittson O'Neill as Janet Brady

Production Team
Dirk Durossette, Scenic Designer
Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind, Costume Designer
James Leitner, Lighting Designer
Rob Kaplowitz, Sound Designer