Philadelphia, PA - The Wilma Theater presents a fast-paced, exciting US Premiere with Patience, Jason Sherman's witty, eye-opening look at the unpredictability of life. Co-Artistic Director Blanka Zizka will direct this production by one of Canada's top writers. Patience begins previews September 19, opens September 24, and runs through October 21. Tickets range from $7 - $39 and can be purchased by calling (215) 546-7824 or online at www.wilmatheater.org.

Director Blanka Zizka states several reasons for choosing this play to kick off the Wilma's 23^rd season. "I have seen Jason's work both in Toronto and Philadelphia and was very impressed by the intricacy of his story lines as well by his wry and ironic sensibility and humor. When I read Patience I was struck not only by Jason's ability to capture the narcissism and selfishness that lies behind success in a materialistic society, but also by his subversive achievement to make us recognize some of this narcissistic behavior in ourselves"

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

In this complex and darkly comic play, the ambitious and arrogant Reuben is on the verge of his biggest business deal ever, when he loses everything - his business, his wife, his children and his brother. With the help of a singing Rabbi, a long lost love, and a friend he betrayed, Reuben journeys back and forth through time, revisiting his past and attempting to make sense of his life. Sherman asks if redemption is possible in a modern, materialistic world, which at times seems ruled by chaos, rather than cause and effect.

Jason Sherman (playwright) was born in Montreal, Quebec. A York University graduate, he co-founded What Publishing and edited the influential What! magazine; Sherman also edited Canadian Brash and Solo for Coach House Press. In addition, Sherman worked in journalism for Canadian Theater Review, The Globe and Mail, and Theatrum before devoting his complete attention to playwriting. Sherman's first work, A Place Like Pamela, was produced in 1991, followed by The League of Nathans that won the Floyd S. Chalmer's Canadian Play Award in 1993. Sherman's Three in the Back, Two in the Head earned the Governor General's Literary Award in Drama in 1995. Other productions include To Cry Is Not So (1991), What the Russians Say (1993), Field (1993), The Merchant of Showboat (1993), Reading Hebron (1995), None is Too Many (1997), Its All True (1999) and An Acre of Time (1999/2000). After Patience debuted at the Tarragon Theater in 1998, it appeared at the Grand Theater, London, The Belfry Theater, Victoria, BC, and at the Vancouver Playhouse. Sherman currently resides in Toronto, works on playwriting commissions for the Canadian Stage, is a playwright-in residence at the Tarragon Theater, writes for CBC Radio's satire, National Affairs, featured weekly on This Morning and writes for Hoop Life, featured on American television.

Blanka Zizka (Director) has been the Co-Artistic Director of the Wilma Theater since 1981. She has directed over 40 plays and musicals. This spring she directed the Barrymore-recommended Perfect Pie by Judith Thompson. She was awarded the first Barrymore Award for Best Direction of a Play for Cartwright's Road, and in November 1995 she and the cast of Road presented their production at the Prague International Festival in the Czech Republic. Ms. Zizka directed Jiler and Leslee's Avenue X (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Musical and Harold Prince Award for Direction of a Musical) and Wright's Quills (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play) and The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard (Barrymore winner, Best Overall Production of a Play, Best Direction of a Play). Her other favorite productions include Orwell's Animal Farm, O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, Ionesco's Macbeth, Fugard's Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Playland, Dulack's Incommunicado, Sherman's When She Danced, Stoppard's Travesties, Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Freed's The Psychic Life of Savages, Klavan's and Pen's Bed and Sofa, Williams' Orpheus Descending, and Carr's Portia Coughlan, which she directed for the McCarter Theatre. She is currently working on the development of a new play by Dael Orlandersmith called Yellowman, which she will direct at McCarter Theatre Center, The Wilma Theater and Long Wharf Theatre in winter 2002.

Jeremy Woodward (Set Designer) is a Rhode Island-based set designer. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, Jeremy worked as the resident set designer for Perishable Theater. Highlights of the eighteen shows he designed for Perishable include: Exchange at Café Mimosa, Year of the Baby and The Potion. He has recently created designs for the 9^th Annual Women's Playwriting Festival, a remount of The Sound and the Fury. Jeremy has also designed Pantomine at The Providence Black Repertory Company, Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Providence College and Pussy Boy at the Brown University New Plays Festival. His designs at The Wilma Theater will be his first work in Philadelphia.

Janus Stefanowicz (Costume Designer) has designed for many Philadelphia theaters including The Wilma Theater (most recently Passion, Perfect Pie, Black Comedy, The Real Inspector Hound, Spin, The Invention of Love, Orpheus Descending, Love and Anger and The Cripple of Inishman), Philadelphia Festival Theater for New Plays, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival, Arden Theater Company and The People's Light & Theatre Company. She earned an MA in Theater at Villanova University and an MFA at Temple University. She teaches costume design at The University of Pennsylvania and Villanova Graduate Theater Department. Since 1995, Ms. Stefanowicz has been nominated for six Barrymore Awards, and in 1998, won the Barrymore Award for Best Costume Design for On the Razzle for The Wilma Theater.

Russell H. Champa (Lighting Designer) Previous Wilma credits include Perfect Pie, The Invention of Love (Barrymore Award Winner), Bed and Sofa, The Psychic Life of Savages, The Threepenny Opera, Quills (Barrymore Award Winner) and Avenue X. Broadway credits include God Said "Ha" at the Lyceum Theatre. Other New York credits include Circle Repertory Theatre, The Barrow Group, East Cost Artists and Zena Group. Regional credits include: Trinity Repertory Theatre, Providence; Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington; The Actor's Gang, Los Angeles; Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.; and Dallas Theater Center, Dallas.

Eileen Tague (Sound Designer) previously worked at The Wilma Theater on Passion, The Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy, Spin, The Psychic Life of Savages, Avenue X, Rendezvous with Reality, which earned her a Barrymore nomination, and Road, which earned her the 1995 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Sound Design. Also in Philadelphia she designed Wit, White People, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, How I Learned to Drive and 7 Guitars at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and Angels in America: Part I: Millennium Approaches at Villanova Theatre. In 1998 she was nominated for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Artist.

Patience features a cast of 6 actors.

Lise Bruneau (Sarah) has been seen regionally at Seattle Repertory Theatre in Pygmalion and An Ideal Husband; at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in The Winters' Tale and Love's Labour's Lost; at the American Conservatory Theater in Angels in America and at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Pentecost, The Triumph of Love and Lady from the Sea. Lise is making her Philadelphia debut at The Wilma Theater.

David Chandler (Reuben) has appeared on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers, Death of a Salesman, and The American Clock. Off-Broadway he has been seen in The Grey Zone at the Manhattan Class Company and in Slavs! and The Trestle at Popelick Creek, at the New York Theatre Workshop. Regionally, he has performed in Syncopation and Questions of Mercy at the Long Wharf Theater and in Zara Spook and Other Lures at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. He has also been seen in Meshugah and The Comedy of Errors at the McCarter Theatre. David performed in the Philadelphia Theater Company's productions of Sight Unseen and Sideman. He is making his Wilma Theater debut.

Jay Edwards (Paul) has been seen in numerous regional productions, including Lovers and Executioners, The Odyssey, Twelfth Night, and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Arena Stage and in As You Like It and The Hostage at Center Stage. At the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., he appeared in Christmas on Mars, Searching for David's Heart and Even Steven Goes to War. He starred as Macbeth and Hamlet in the Washington Shakespeare Company's productions. Jay is making his Philadelphia debut at The Wilma Theater.

Jeffrey Hayenga (Phil) appeared on Broadway in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Ah Wilderness, Long Days Journey into the Night and The Elephant Man. Off-Broadway highlights include Jeffrey, Two Rooms, Breaking Up, Hamlet, Brand, Love's Labor's Lost, Beyond Therapy, and A Peep into the Twentieth Century. Recent regional performances include Glimmer, Glimmer, & Shine at the Penguin Repertory Theater, Love! Valour! Compassion! at the Intiman Playhouse/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Pride's Crossing at the Old Globe. He is making his Philadelphia debut at The Wilma Theater.

Sonja Robson (Donna) has performed regionally in The Chairs/The Lesson at the Eureka Theatre, in Twelfth Night at the Delaware Theater Company and in Naomi in the Livingroom and Springtime at City Theater Company. She has appeared in Philadelphia productions at the Walnut Street Theater in The Heiress and The Lover/A Kind of Alaska, which earned a 1998 Barrymore Nomination. Sonja is making her Wilma Theater debut.

Christina Ross (Liz) has performed in New York in I Never at The Riant Theatre. Regional highlights include The Threepenny Opera at the American Conservatory Theater and Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare Santa Fe. She is making her Philadelphia debut at The Wilma Theater.

The award-winning Wilma Theater has been producing innovative work in Philadelphia for 22 years. Next up in the Wilma's 2001-2002 season will be Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, November 21- December 23, 2001.

Patience at The Wilma Theater runs from September 19 through October 21, 2001. Ticket prices range from $26 - $39, with discounts available for seniors and groups of 10 or more, and special discounted tickets for students. Tickets are available at the Wilma Box Office:

Phone:	(215) 546-7824
Fax:	(215) 893-0895
Email:	tickets@wilmatheater.org
Online:	www.wilmatheater.org
In person:	Broad Street & Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Hours:	Monday and non-performance days 10:30am - 5:00pm Tuesday - Thursday 10:30am - 7:00pm Friday and Saturday 10:30am - 7:30pm Sunday 10:30am - 1:30pm (or 10:30am - 7:00pm when evening performance).

Reuben Phil Sarah Donna Paul Liz Playwright Director Set Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer

Cast

David Chandler Jeffrey Hayenga Lise Bruneau Sonja Robson Jay Edwards Christina Ross Jason Sherman Blanka Zizka Jeremy Woodward Janus Stefanowicz Russel Champa Eileen Tague

# # #