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WORLD PREMIERE!
By Russell Davis
Directed by Abigail Adams
Main Stage

The Day of the Picnic mentioned in the GoPhila segment on the !10 Show:

Betsy Fullbright keeps hearing someone outside or down the hall call out "yoo hoo!" The television seems to be stuck on a program where people are burning flags. A goat seems to have been left out on the lawn and there may be a leopard prowling nearby. Meanwhile, the nursing home staff has vanished and almost everyone else is away on a picnic. A silent African man, who arrived the night before, now sits in a wheelchair and stares at Betsy. Could this be someone she knew once upon a time in Kenya. Did this person somehow follow her here after all these years?

Betsy Fullbright: Carla Belver*
Denise Jones: Brenda Thomas*
Dinko Tasovac/Elijah: Graham Smith*
Udaya (Dawn) Kumari Sastri/Mary Magdalene: Nalini Sharma*
Julius Nkumbi: Michael Rogers*
Cookie Brault/Deutero Isaiah: Alda Cortese*

Director: Abigail Adams
Set Designer: Matt Saunders
Costume Designer: Marla Jurglanis
Lighting Designer: Dennis Parichy
Sound Designer: Christopher Colucci
Assistant Director/Choreographer: Samantha Bellomo
Video Designer: Jorge Cousineau
Resident Dramaturg: Elizabeth Pool
Stage Manager: Pat Sabato*
Alexander Teacher/Coach: Jano Cohen
Dialect Coach: Lynne Innerst

* Member, Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 11, 2009

PEOPLE'S LIGHT & THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS:
THE DAY OF THE PICNIC
January 28 - February 15, 2009

(Malvern, PA) - People's Light & Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of a new play by Russell Davis. THE DAY OF THE PICNIC runs from January 28 � February 15, 2009, on the Main Stage. Artistic Director Abigail Adams directs. People's Light & Theatre is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern. For tickets call 610-644-3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org.

THE DAY OF THE PICNIC is a mysterious new play about memory and the past confronting the present. The play concerns, in part, a witch doctor's revenge on the widow of a white missionary thirty years later.

Playwright Russell Davis says of THE DAY OF THE PICNIC, "Sometimes a new play is 25 years in the making."

Davis wrote a very different version of THE DAY OF THE PICNIC in the early 1980s. It received a production at Yale Repertory Theatre starring James Earl Jones in 1984 and also at City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh.

"I found these productions frustrating," says Davis. "I realized that the script skirted some of the main issues I was grappling with."

Almost 25 years later, Davis completed a first draft of what is fundamentally a new script. Characters were radically rewritten or simply replaced. A good 80% of the old dialogue was tossed. What remained was its original setting, its essential original story and the opening line. This script was then further developed in rehearsed readings at New Dramatists in New York, the PlayPenn Development Conference in Philadelphia and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison, NJ. People's Light & Theatre presents the first full production of the new work.

Playwright Russell Davis is a politically engaged playwright with a long and distinguished career. His past PLTC productions include CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD, THE THOUGHTS AND TRAVELS OF NICKI, SALLY'S GONE, SHE LEFT HER NAME, and THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SHOW. He is the recent recipient of a coveted Pew Fellowship in the Arts award, a prestigious $60,000 grant given to individual artists.

THE DAY OF THE PICNIC previews on Wednesday, January 28th and Thursday, January 29th at 7:30pm. The show opens on Friday, January 30th at 8pm and runs through February 15, 2009. Tickets range in price from $29 - $48 with special discounts available for groups of 10 or more, seniors and students. Audiences are encouraged to join the artists after each Thursday evening performance to discuss the production.

Subscriptions to the 2008/2009 Season are still available at a significant savings. You can see four shows for as little as $92. Shows are: The Day of the Picnic (January 28 - February 15, 2009); A Tale of Two Cities (March 11 - May 3, 2009); Doubt: A Parable (June 3 - 28, 2009); and End Days (July 8 - August 2, 2009). For information, tickets and subscriptions, please call the box office at 610-644-3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org.

KEY BIOS

Abigail Adams (Director) is Artistic Director of the People's Light & Theatre Company. During her 32-year association with the Theatre, she has directed more than 60 plays. Recent productions include Getting Near to Baby, Theophilus North, Twelfth Night, Something You Did, Fabulation, The Member of the Wedding, The O'Conner Girls, Sleeping Beauty, The Miser, String of Pearls, Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire, In the Blood, The Little Red Riding Hood Show and The Little Foxes. Abbey served for ten years on the faculty at Swarthmore College and has also taught at New York University, Bryn Mawr College, Carnegie Mellon University and the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. She has served as a panelist and site reporter for the NEA and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Ursinus College.

Russell Davis (Playwright) received his B.A. from Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., in 1971. He also attended the New York School for Circus Arts and the Circus Arts Center in Hoboken, N.J. Davis's plays include Cecilia's Last Tea Party, Appointment with a High Wire Lady, Crispin: The Cross of Lead, The Song of Grendelyn, The Second Death of Pricilla, and The Thoughts & Travels of Nicki. They have been produced at various theatres, some of which include the Passage Theatre Company, Trenton, N.J.; School House Theatre, Croton Falls, N.Y.; Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City; People's Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA; and the Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem, PA. In 2004, Davis received a playwright fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and from 1999-2001 he was resident playwright at People's Light & Theatre Company for the Theatre Residency Program of the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group. Davis received two earlier fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as grants from the McKnight Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Carla Belver (Betsy Fullbright) was last seen in The O'Connor Girls and this production of The Day of the Picnic marks her 37th show with People's Light. She has been nominated twice for a Barrymore Award, the last time being for Kate in All My Sons. Carla's previous performances with People's Light include Toys in the Attic, A Lesson from Aloes, Talking With, and The Workroom.

Alda Cortese (Cookie Brault/Deutero Isaiah) has been with People's Light since 1976, first appearing in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage at the Yellow Springs Center for the Performing Arts in Chester Springs. She has since appeared in nearly 100 productions with this theatre - most recently in Sherlock Holmes & The Case of the Jersey Lily and The Persians. Less recent appearances include Humble Boy, The Foreigner, Jack & the Beanstalk, The O'Connor Girls, The Miser (for which she received a Barrymore nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress), String of Pearls, and Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire. Alda also serves as the Literary Manager.

Michael Rogers (Julius Nkumbi) has appeared at theatres across the United States and internationally in roles as diverse as Dracula, Titania, Othello, and with the Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra. As a founding member of La Compagnia De' Colombari he has performed the roles of Mak and God in The Medieval Mystery Plays in Orvieto, Italy. He performed in seven productions with The Theatre for a New Audience. On television he has appeared on all the major networks in shows including Kay O'Brien, All My Children, Law and Order, The Jury, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Six Degrees, and One Life to Live. Filmwork includes The Mosquito Coast, Weekend at Bernie's ll, Inscape, Dead Witness, and Moonfire. As a director, Mr. Rogers has worked for The Everyman Company, The Providence Black Rep., Manhattan Class Company, The Manhattan Theatre Club, The Vineyard Theatre, and Ubu Rep. on material by Kia Corthron, Sam Pinkerton, Lynn Nottage, Sony Labu Tansi, Earl Lovelace, and Alice Childress. Mr. Rogers has served as a language and cultural consultant for Disney, ABCTV, The Yale Rep., and Playwrights Horizons. As an educator, Mr. Rogers has taught and lectured at Hofstra University, Towson University, NYU Tisch's Undergraduate and Graduate schools, and various galleries. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Mr. Rogers is currently story editor for Soho films U.S.

Nalini Sharma (Udaya (Dawn) Kumari Sastri/Mary Magdalene) began her acting career in Atlanta and is now based in New York City. She was nominated for best supporting actress in the production of M*A*S*H at OnStage Atlanta, was selected as a finalist at the Reel Actors Film Festival in LA for her film reel and has been part of several workshop productions in NY (New Dramatists, The Lark, Second Stage, Desipina Co. and more). She has performed in full productions in the 365 Series by Suzan-Lori Parks at The Public and with Vital Theatre Company, 13th Street Rep and NJ Playwrights' Theatre. This is her first time with People's Light & Theatre Company. She received her training from The Maggie Flanigan Studio.

Graham Smith (Dinko Tasovac/Elijah) has been in more than 180 plays and 10 films. His history includes a B.A. (Davidson College), M.F.A. (Hilberry Classic Theatre), twelve years with the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (NCSF), plus 24 seasons with the Charlotte Repertory Theatre. A member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at PLTC since 1999, he lives in Charlotte with his wife, Audrey Brown, and their two golden retrievers, Henry Possum and Slim Underfoot. Recent work at PLTC includes Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Danforth in The Crucible, Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes & The Case of the Jersey Lily; Gonzalo in The Tempest at Actors' Theatre of Louisville; Lear in King Lear, Verges in Much Ado, and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at North Carolina Shakespeare Festival.

Brenda Thomas (Denise Jones) is appearing at People's Light for the first time. Most recently she appeared at New York's Abingdon Theatre in Beachwood Drive. Other Off-Broadway appearances include The Lambs (The God Committee) and CAP 21 (Killing Louise). Regional theatre work includes Milwaukee Rep. (The Glass Menagerie), Yale Rep. (The Cherry Orchard), Westport Country Playhouse (The Old Settler), Dallas Theater Center (Wit), The Guthrie (Blood Wedding) and numerous productions of Having Our Say.