InterAct Theatre Company: 2009/2010 Season Introduction

Experience The World... One Play At A Time

On behalf of the entire InterAct family, I invite you to join us for our 22nd season. While we continue to remain committed to our mission of producing new plays that explore important social, political, and cultural issues, we are particularly excited to be offering some new and adventurous interpretations of our world this season.

Through the eyes of two up-and-coming playwrights, as well as one Tony Award nominee, each of the three remaining plays in our 2009-2010 Season represents unexplored territory for InterAct. Whether it be the the journey from well-meaning activism to transformational art in CITY OF NUMBERS, the provocative examination of how we tacitly reinforce the actions of our leaders in WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA, or the music-filled story of heritage and humanity in BLACK PEARL SINGS!, each story adds to the InterAct dialogue about our place within – and our responsibility to - the larger world.

I invite you to experience the depth and diversity of our world on stage.

- Seth Rozin, Producing Artistic Director

INTERACT THEATRE COMPANY'S
REMAINING 2009/2010 SEASON

January 22 - February 21, 2010
Previews: January 22, 23 (New this season:
2 p.m. matinee & 8 p.m. evening), 24 & 26

Opening Night: January 27

The World Premiere Of
CITY OF NUMBERS
mixtape of a city...

Written & Performed by
Sean Christopher Lewis

Orginating with a collaboration between InterAct and the City of Philadelphia's Mural Arts program (funded by a grant from the Violette de Mazia Foundation), CITY OF NUMBERS was created by playwright Sean Christopher Lewis as part of an outreach effort in which he interviewed lifetime inmates at Graterford Prison about their work as mural artists. Since its early beginnings, CITY OF NUMBERS has grown into a dynamic one-man tour de force performance that interweaves the stories of dozens of Philadelphians - from convicted murderers to victims' relatives to physicians to artists to community leaders to Mayor Michael Nutter. A sobering, moving, and ultimately, uplifting portrait of a city gripped by violent crime, CITY OF NUMBERS reveals both the sharp divisions and deep sense of community that define the City of Brotherly Love.

April 9 - May 9, 2010
Previews: April 9, 10 (New this season:
2 p.m. matinee & 8 p.m. evening), 11 & 13

Opening Night: April 14

The World Premiere Of
WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA

Written by Lee Blessing
Directed by Paul Meshejian

Commissioned by InterAct in 2008 through its 20/20 New Play Commission program, WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA is a provocative new play by Tony Award-nominated playwright Lee Blessing, author of A WALK IN THE WOODS, WHORES, and GOING TO ST. IVES. Set in a high-end hotel room at The Hague, WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA imagines former President George W. Bush on the eve of his trial for international war crimes. Tended to by an inscrutable Dutch butler and an alluring masseuse, the President embarks on a long night of drinking, joking, and ruminating, taking the audience through a deep exploration of how we regard our leaders - loving them, fearing them, unintentionally deifying them. WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA takes aim at an American populace that has grown strikingly complacent in the wake of extraordinary global challenges, exposing one of the world's most intriguing and influential conflicts: the battle between the elected leader of the free world and a democracy of millions.

May 28 - June 27, 2010
Previews: May 28, 29 (New this season:
2 p.m. matinee & 8 p.m. evening), 30 & June 1

Opening Night: June 2

The Regional Premiere Of
BLACK PEARL SINGS!

A Play with Music by Frank Higgins
Directed by Seth Rozin
Featuring C. Kelly Wright

Frank Higgins' beautiful play with music follows the Depression-era journey of two extraordinary women, each of whom is dependent on the other to gain acceptance in society. In 1935 Texas, Susannah, a Caucasian academic and song collector for the Library of Congress, visits a high-security prison where she meets Pearl, an African-American woman imprisoned for murder. Hoping to record the treasure trove of spirituals and African folk songs that only Pearl knows, Susannah bargains for Pearl's parole and arranges for several public performances. The two women soon find themselves walking a delicate line between exposure and exploitation. Featuring beautiful, live a capella renditions of little-known American folk songs, BLACK PEARL SINGS! chronicles a powerful story about being a woman in a man's world, being Black in a White world, and losing one's soul in a world where anyone can be a commodity.

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