Join Plays & Players as it celebrates the end of the season with a fundraiser for the Next 100 Years, co-presented by the Melissa Lynch Foundation, including music, dance, puppetry and more from Philadelphia’s top performers and local celebrities! Hosted by John Clancy!

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Plays & Players’ 2013-14 season focuses on brothers and sisters; those with whom we are closest, those who share our blood, and those with whom, familiar or unknown, we seek connection. Through rituals old and new, we continue searching for those who are both distant from and deeply within us as we attempt to unwrap the simplest of notions: brotherhood.

Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet

By Tarell Alvin McCraney

October 17 – November 3, 2013

From the theater that brought you 2012’s hit production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, comes the Philadelphia premiere from the African-American playwright touted as the “next August Wilson,” Tarell Alvin McCraney. A provocative, poignant, fiercely humorous, and ultimately universal story of a “sweet” young man’s journey to discover the “secret” of who he really is and where he really came from. Days before Hurricane Katrina strikes the projects of Louisiana, the currents of his life converge, overflowing into his close-knit community and bringing three generations of characters, all named after African gods, together in the stirring conclusion of McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy.

On the Main Stage

• Wednesday and Thursdays at 7pm
• Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm
• Saturdays at 2pm
• Sundays at 3pm

The Disappearing Quarterback
World Premiere

January 16 – February 2, 2014

Michael J. Boryla was the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1975 and 1976. He had everything he wanted, but he didn’t want what he had. Two years later, he quit professional football and… disappeared! In a World Premiere one-man show, he returns to Philadelphia for the first time in over 35 years to tell the story of walking away from the sport and the teammates he loved. With the average life-span of a professional football player being 55 (Time Magazine, 2010), the effects of concussions becoming ever more clear, and even our president speaking out against its future, should “America’s Game”… disappear? A play for football fanatics and amateurs alike and set in the intimate Skinner Studio, The Disappearing Quarterback puts you inside the helmet of a unique athlete, a self-described “long-haired hippie,” with a passionate purpose and a story to share as he comes home to the city that made him famous.

Third Floor Skinner Studio

• Wednesday and Thursdays at 7pm
• Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm
• Saturdays at 2pm
• Sundays at 3pm

P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth) World Premiere

By Greg Romero

March 13 – March 30, 2014

Plays & Players proudly launches a new yearly series that entertains and inspires, P.L.A.Y. (Philadelphia Local Artists for Youth)!  Written by a local playwright with a focus on original and local stories, this imaginative new program offers a theatrically immersive, interactive experience for young audiences, engaging their creativity to help build and spark each performance, sharing living stories that capture the magic all around us.  This season’s work will explore mythic animals local to the area (The Great Blue Heron, The Red Fox, The Box Turtle), people once indigenous to the Delaware River (The Lenni-Lenape), and the rituals and journeys that speak across time and species, reflected through the lens of our season theme, brothers and sisters. P.L.A.Y. is appropriate for ages 4-104!

On the Main Stage

• Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 10am
• Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 2:30pm

Cloud Tectonics

By Jose Rivera

June 5-22, 2014

Celestina de la Sol is a young woman who claims to be 54 years old and to have been pregnant for two years. From Obie Award winning acclaimed Puerto Rican playwright Jose Rivera, Cloud Tectonics brings new meaning to a “timeless” love story. When Anibal Sanchez picks up Celestina in a torrential storm, her arrival to his house literally makes the clocks stop, and that’s only where this enchanting and unconventional romance takes off. With the world outside his house awashed in pain and war, Cloud Tectonics reminds us that simple miracles exist all around us if we care to find them.

Third Floor Skinner Studio

• Wednesday and Thursdays at 7pm
• Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm
• Saturdays at 2pm
• Sundays at 3pm

Special Events

Fringe Recovery 24-Hour Play Festival

September 28, 2013

Taking place just after the annual Fringe Festival has swept through Philadelphia, this play-creation marathon will write, rehearse and present new works to kick off Plays & Players’ new season.  Coming together despite the post-Fringe exhaustion, a troupe of Philly’s most promising young artists will write and plan through the night, rehearse all day and premiere new works just hours after their inception.  Join us for a bevy of new theatrical experiences in celebration of the season theme, Brothers and Sisters.

According to the omnipotent Wikipedia, “Pygmalion is a 1912 play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological character of the same name. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.”

Pygmalion will be brought to discussion by members on Tuesday, May 14 at 6:30 pm UPStairs at Plays and Players. As always, beverages will be served along with the expansive conversation that literally thrilled members who attended book club II’s Glass Managerie. So, since were are so far lucking out with old man winter, come join us at Plays and Players book club to discuss Pygmalion. Bring a friend too! Every friend is a potential member who can invigorate our theater community.

Need a copy of the play?

Starting Tuesday, May 7

Did you know symposium comes from the Greek sympinein meaning to drink together? After our members’ Social Hour (4:30-6:30), stick around for our first in a series of symposia to get that brain moving.

Topic: Philosophy in Theater

The Symposium at Plays and Players is one of our many new programs designed to enhance the social club experience. Originating from the Greek, sympinein (to drink together), we have modeled this event to be something as simple as having some snacks and drinks while discussing a general topic, or something more intensely driven by specific activities of our members choosing. As this is a new event we will continue to encourage our members to utilize the time we have set for the symposium to run some of their own. Tuesday, May 7th, we will host the first of these symposia UPstairs at Plays and Players at 7pm. Our topic: “Philosophy in Theatre.” Some snacks will initially be provided but we do encourage bringing things like cheeses and fruit.

No specific material will be required to be read beforehand, but your bartender Mathias Bable will have some short selected texts and ideas to move the discussion along if it needs to be. Please feel free to bring a guest if you feel they would have an interest in the topics and activities. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Click here to see Daniel’s personal artistic statement.

Click here to see photos of Daniel’s work.

Learn more at danielstudent.com