Philadelphia, PA - Artistic Directors Blanka and Jiri Zizka will lead The Wilma Theater into an exciting 23^rd season, with four plays in the subscription series. The Wilma will kick off the season with the U.S. Premiere of Jason Sherman's Patience, directed by Blanka Zizka, from September 19 - October 21, 2001. Next up is Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Jiri Zizka, from November 21 - December 23, 2001. From February

13 - March 17, 2002, Blanka Zizka will direct Yellowman by Dael Orlandersmith, a World Premiere Co-Production with The McCarter Theatre Center. The season will end with the Philadelphia Premiere of Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink directed by Jiri Zizka from May 1 - June 2, 2002.

"The Wilma Theater's 2001/2002 is a wonderful montage of old and new. Philadelphia audiences will delight in the classics like Les Liaisons Dangereuses, soon to be classics like Stoppard's Indian Ink and brand new pieces in Patience and Yellowman," commented Wilma Managing Director Naomi Grabel.

Patience, September 19 - October 21, 2001 directed by Blanka Zizka, tells the story of Reuben, a slick, deal-making, fast-talking city dwelling corporate executive about to close the biggest deal of his career. But a series of catastrophic events takes Reuben on a wild ride, forcing him to question the "randomness of the universe" and his own existence. Reuben journeys back and forth through time revisiting his past, desperately trying to make sense of his life, in this modern day story of Job. One of the most successful plays of Toronto's 2000 theater season, the Toronto Globe & Mail applauded Jason Sherman's "bright comedy, sharp dialogue and bitter drama."

Jason Sherman has received more honors than any Canadian playwright of his generation, including a Dora Award and a Chalmers Award for Patience. His accolades include a Governor General's Award for Three in the Back, Two in the Head and a Chalmers Award for The League of Nathans.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, November 21 - December 23, 2001, directed by Jiri Zizka, charts the seduction of both the young, voluptuous and willing Cecile and the demure and yet passionate Mademoiselle de Tourvel by Le Vicomte de Valmont. Valmont begins the play as an unworthy, cynical pleasure-seeker, proud of his reputation as a seducer. He is encouraged in his enterprises by his former mistress, Le Marquise de Merteuil, who would seem to share his cynicism, but who has an ulterior motive. Set in pre-Revolutionary France, this play is just as pertinent today, dealing with sexual manners and manipulation.

Christopher Hampton's plays include Total Papa Villone Eclipse, The Philanthropist, Savages and Treats at the Royal Court. He earned a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Sunset Boulevard. His adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangerueses has won several awards including the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Drama and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay - from his own play - for the film Dangerous Liaisons. Les Liaisons Dangereuses is based on the novel of the same title by Choderlos de Laclos.

Yellowman, February 13 - March 17, 2002, directed by Blanka Zizka, is the newest play by actress and playwright Dael Orlandersmith. Eugene and Alma are two innocent soulmates growing up together in the South, singing Monkees songs and playing Batman, until society intervenes. Yellowman takes an unflinching look at internal racism in the American South in the 1960s, where the sins of the parents are passed on as legacies to the children, and where nothing is as insurmountable as the color of your skin.

Originally developed in collaboration with Co-Artistic Director Blanka Zizka at Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, Yellowman will be co-produced with the McCater Theatre in Princeton, NJ.

Dael Orlandersmith has performed throughout the U.S. appearing in productions of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Raisin in the Sun and Goin' for Dolo on Broadway and has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poet's Café throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia. Her plays include Monster, Liar Liar and Beauty's Daughter for which she won an OBIE Award in 1994. Orlandersmith's The Gimmick was performed in the Wilma² series in April, 2000.

The season will close from May 1 - June 2, 2002 with Tom Stoppard's lush romance Indian Ink. Jiri Zizka will direct this Philadelphia premiere of one of Stoppard's newer works. This lyrical comedy transports us to 1930's India where beguiling, English poet Flora Crewe befriends a widowed painter who struggles to capture her romantic essence. Fifty years later, biographer Eldon Pike struggles to piece together Flora's adventurous life from the fragmented bits of evidence she left behind. This love story is set against one of the great shifts in history, the emergence of the Indian subcontinent from the grip of the British Empire.

Some of the most exciting theater in Philadelphia has emerged from collaborations between Tom Stoppard and the Zizkas, and Indian Ink will be no exception. The Wilma is proud to share with Philadelphia audiences this Stoppard play that was hailed by The Washington Post as "a gracious civilized charmer, a delight."

Tom Stoppard was introduced to American audiences in 1967 with the Broadway hit, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which was followed by After Magritte, Jumpers, Travesties, Dirty Linen, New-Found-Land, Night and Day and Arcadia. His off-Broadway productions include Enter a Free Man and the double bill of Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth. Tom Stoppard has written screenplays for the films Despair, The Romantic Englishwoman, The Human Factor, Brazil, Empire of the Sun, The Russia House, Billy Bathgate and received the Academy Award for his screenplay of Shakespeare In Love. The East Coast premiere of The Invention of Love played to enormous critical acclaim at the Wilma in February 2000, while his plays Arcadia, On the Razzle, The Real Inspector Hound and Travesties, have delighted Wilma audiences in past seasons.

From March 22 - 31, the Wilma² series will continue with an independent theater artist or artists that will pose a unique and cutting edge style, often with a minimum of physical production elements. Previous Wilma² presentations include comedian puppeteer Paul Zaloom's Velvetville and Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick.

The Wilma Theater has grown to national and international prestige in the arts community. The Zizka's staging of George Orwell's 1984 was presented at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and at the Joyce Theater in New York. The Wilma co-produced Vaclav Havel's Temptation at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and a PBS broadcast of Largo Desolato, a feature film directed by Jiri Zizka, which was adapted by Tom Stoppard from Vaclav Havel's play. In Philadelphia, Zizka-led productions at The Wilma Theater have received 26 Barrymore Awards, more than any other theater, and have received high critical acclaim from The New York Times, The New York Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune.

Subscription prices for the Wilma Theater's 2001-2002 season range from $96 to $180. Single ticket prices for each production are from $27 to $50, with discounts available for groups of 10 or more and special rates for students, young adults under the age of 35 and seniors. Subscriptions are available at the Wilma Theater Box Office, Broad & Spruce Streets, by calling (215) 546-STAGE or online at www.wilmatheater.org.

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