How to Share Your Comments With InterAct

Want to share your opinion about an InterAct performance you've recently attended? Need to tell the world your thoughts on an issue raised in an InterAct play? Want to respond to a critic's review that you feel doesn't adequately describe a production? Know of a play that addresses an important social issue you'd like to bring to our attention?

TWO SIMPLE WAYS TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH US...

• Post your comments on InterAct's blog by clicking on the "Comments Link" at the bottom of a blog entry and then entering your thoughts in the box at the bottom of the blog entry page. This may be done annonymously or otherwise.

• Email your comments directly to InterAct by contacting David Golston, Director of Marketing & PR, at dgolston@interacttheatre.org. In order to protect the privacy of those who contact us, we will identify comments with a first name and last initial only.

We will gladly post any comment that is intended to share sincere reactions and opinions or promote thoughtful discourse and debate. We reserve the right to delete posts without notice or explanation and ignore emails that are rude, insulting, contain personal attacks or inflammatory comments, or exist solely to advertise a person, product or website that has no connection to InterAct Theatre Company or its productions. While this rule is intended to cover most common situations, we cannot anticipate every possibility, and consequently, reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure this blog is not abused in any way.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say...

- David Golston
Director of Marketing & PR

An Audience Member Reacts To THE RANT

-----Email Message-----
From: Jim W.
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 10:34 PM
To: InterAct Theatre Company
Subject: The Rant

... this was one of my outstanding theatrical experiences in philadelphia. we saw the play on february 10th and it was unbelieveably good. i don't read reviews and was totally unprepared for such an exciting and well crafted evening. the play is outstanding; full of dramatic tension, just the right touch of irony and humor, the opening monologue i am sure is one that any actor would die for, interesting characters and perspectives and a stunning climax. not an extra word or clammy sentence - truly wonderful and with great pace, energy and dramatic impetus. even the two characters who aren't there become totally real.

the acting was perfection. what an ensemble, what a team! they were engaged with one another as characters and actors and drew the audience completely into their anger, their passions, their cynicism, their lies and their truths.

the staging, the excellent sets, the lighting, the costumes, and, of course, the direction were outstanding in every respect. i felt honored to have witnessed such a production being pioneered here in philadelphia. i think it will put our town on the national theatrical map!
well done and keep it up. a tough act to follow, as they say.

sincerely,
jim w.

SAVE THE DATE: InterAct Announces Date for Annual Benefit

We are all so excited about InterAct's upcoming annual benefit! Here are a few of the details:

SAVE THE DATE!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Labor of Love: A May Day Cabaret
A Benefit for InterAct Theatre Company

The event will take place at PACE Local Union Hall, 410 N. 8th St., Phila. It will feature cocktails & hors d’oeuvres, a cabaret performance of labor anthems & social-protest songs, and the presentation of InterAct’s Kaki Marshal Arts & Community Award. The evening will honor Tom McCarthy & Terry Graboyes.

For reservations or more information, call InterAct's Box Office: 215.568.8079

InterAct Presents CITY OF NUMBERS, A New Drama About Crime In Philadelphia

In conjunction with InterAct’s mainstage production of THE RANT, Andrew Case’s thought-provoking new drama exploring the link between inner-city crime and personal bias, InterAct will present the first public performance of CITY OF NUMBERS, a new play addressing inner-city crime based on interviews with prison inmates, victims’ families, and other Philadelphia residents affected by violent crimes. Subtitled “mixtape of a city...” and written by Sean Christopher Lewis, who developed the play during his tenure as emerging-playwright-in-residence at InterAct last season, CITY OF NUMBERS is being presented as a collaboration between InterAct’s InterAction education program and The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, funded by a grant from the Violette de Mazia foundation. CITY OF NUMBERS will be presented in preview performances on InterAct's home at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., on Thursday and Friday, February 19 and 20, at 10 p.m., with an opening performance on Saturday, February 21, at 2:00 p.m. The play will then be performed in Spring 2009 at St. Gabriel’s Hall and Graterford Prison, where much of the playwright’s research, including inmate interviews, were conducted.

ABOUT THE PLAY

The summer of 2008, the City of Philadelphia found itself in the midst of a murder epidemic. Comparable to that of a third world country, Philadelphia’s murder rate had become so pervasive that the city was commonly referred to as housing “more bodies than days.” Exploring the issue of crime through interviews and narratives, CITY OF NUMBERS introduces us to inmates at Graterford Prison, located just west of Philadelphia. These inmates are men who have been employed to create murals towards the beautification of the city, even as they serve life sentences for murder. Exploring multiple perspectives, CITY OF NUMBERS also presents the voices of victims of violent crimes and their families,as well as Mayor Michael Nutter, hip hop artists, ER doctors and people on the street – all to provide a clearer picture of the city in which we live. Culled entirely from interviews, blog entries, recorded, and documented television, CITY OF NUMBERS is a stunning and shocking portrait of the City of Brotherly Love.

Artwork by Luis ‘Suave’ Gonzalez, inmate, SCI Graterford

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

SEAN CHRISTOPHER LEWIS is the inaugural recipient of the Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice in Playwriting from the Kennedy Center. A former National New Play Network Emerging Playwright in Residence at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, he has toured his critically-lauded solo shows I WILL MAKE YOU ORPHANS (Uno Festival of Solo Performance, Available Light 01 Festival, Equinox Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Center for Independent Artists, Galapagos Art Space, Hyde Park Theatre, TIXE Arts Center, Bowery Poetry Club) and THE GONE CHAIR (Penn State University's Cultural Conversations Festival, Openstage Harrisburg's Flying Solo Festival, Riverside Theatre). His other plays include MILITANT LANGUAGE (nationally-premiered at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Halcyon Theatre of Chicago, Bang and Clatter in Cleveland and Theater for the New City in NY) and THE APERTURE (Cleveland Public Theatre). Mr. Lewis has been a playwriting fellow at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and has had his work developed at the PlayPenn New Play Conference, Lark New Play Development Center, Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s Harriet Lake Festival of New Work and at the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University. Also a noted actor, he has worked Off-Broadway at the Pearl Theatre, in NYC at La Mama ETC, and regionally with companies like the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and mostly recently in the feature films GOD COUNTRY and BLOOD FANTASY.

All three performances of CITY OF NUMBERS are FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For reservations, call InterAct's box office at 215.568.8079. For more information, visit InterAct’s website at http://www.interacttheatre.org/ or Mural Arts program’s website at http://www.muralarts.org/.