As part of its 2024-2025 Season, The Old Academy Players is proud to present The Dining Room, a comedy written by American playwright A.R. Gurney.  The Old Academy Players’ 547th production will run June 13-29, 2025; with Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m. and two Sunday matinées, June 20 and 27 at 2 p.m.

Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr. – better known as ‘A.R.’ Gurney was an American playwright, novelist, and academic.  He is known for plays including:  The Dining Room (1982), Sweet Sue (1986/7), The Cocktail Hour (1988), and for his Pulitzer Prize nominated play Love Letters (1988).

The Dining Room premiered at the Studio Theatre of Playwrights Horizons on January 31, 1981 and transferred to the Astor Place Theatre on February 24, 1982 and closed on July 17, 1982.

Old Academy Players’ stellar cast (playing various roles) includes:  Susan Blair, Norm Burnosky, Bonnie Kapenstein, Susan Mattson, Harrison Rothbaum, Jay Steinberg, and Michael Tarringer.

Loretta Lucy Miller directs.

 

If You Go

June 13-29, 2025.

Friday and Saturday performances at 8 pm and Sunday matinées at 2 pm.

Ticket prices are: $25 per adult; $15 for Students under 25 with valid ID; group rate (15 or more) $21 each.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.OldAcademyPlayers.org. Reservations and more information can be obtained by calling the Box Office at 215-843-1109.

Old Academy Players is located at 3544 Indian Queen Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19129.  Parking for all performances is free.

About The Old Academy Players

The Old Academy Players has provided continuous community theater entertainment since 1923 and is a non-profit community theater in East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Constructed in 1819, the Old Academy building has been the OAP home since 1932. Old Academy Players is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.  Most notable alumni include Tony Award-nominated actor Robert Prosky and Hollywood icon, Grace Kelly.  Support is provided by the “Philadelphia Cultural Fund”.

Post expires at 12:11pm on Monday June 30th, 2025

Inis Nua Theatre Company will present Kieran Hurley & Gary McNair’s “Square Go!”  a raucous and tender comedy featuring the talents of Philadelphia performers Tyler Elliott and Owen Corey. Performances at the Louis Bluver Theater at the Drake.

Post expires at 8:45pm on Monday June 23rd, 2025

If you go:

The Barn Playhouse is at 1700 Christopher Lane, Jeffersonville

Performances :

Tickets: $24, with a $2 discount for seniors/students

Post expires at 9:15pm on Sunday June 22nd, 2025

Philadelphia-based and worker-owned Obvious Agency premieres its newest production, Space Opera, a “playable theater” and sci-fi/fantasy game for building empowered community. The groundbreaking interactive theatrical experience blending immersive role-playing, live performance, and collaborative storytelling debuts to audiences and participants Saturday, June 14 and  continues on Saturday, June 21 and Saturday, June 28 at Arch Street Meeting House (320 Arch St,  Philadelphia). 

 Space  Opera is not just a show—it’s a living, evolving universe where participants play an active role in shaping the story and collaborate with game masters and performer/facilitators in a unique combination of gameplay and theatricality. Participants develop relationships with fellow players and performers as they join forces to determine the fate of the universe, which carries over into each weekend of play. 

Drawing from traditions of both tabletop role-playing games and theater, Space Opera participants will craft the story of fictional societies attempting to survive an oncoming cataclysm over multiple days. 

The result is a dynamic, ever-evolving narrative that changes with every performance, reflecting the unique imprint of each player group. The story is non-linear, meaning no two performances are the same. Decisions made in one session will ripple through the following weekends, creating an  interconnected narrative across multiple performances. Players are encouraged to attend for all three weekends to see how their choices have shaped the world—or take on a new role entirely.

The Space Opera world premiere in June follows a series of playtests conducted over the last two years. Unlike a piece of theater that might undergo workshops or previews, Space Opera is an interactive game that requires frequent playtesting. The feedback from play testers help create a better, more accessible game. 

Space Opera has openings for a total of 40 players and 100 observers for each session, which begin at noon and end at 7 p.m. and includes a catered meal. 

Obvious Agency’s interactive live performances blur the lines between audience and performer, theater  and game. The cooperative partners with cultural institutions and universities to attract new audiences  and create unique ways for their existing audience to engage more deeply in the work that they are  already doing, and shares their wisdom on democratic practice across the arts ecosystem. 

If You Go

Tickets to participate in all three weeks of the Three Episode Saga of Space Opera are $360 with a  minimum of $90, all on a sliding scale. It includes three full-day sessions of Space Opera gameplay and three catered meals.

One Episode Experience tickets for a session are a minimum of $50 based on a sliding scale and includes one full-day session of Space Opera gameplay and a catered meal.

Galactic  Witness or Slot-based Observer tickets are a minimum of $15 based on a sliding scale. It includes  entrance to Space Opera as an observer for two-hour sessions. All participants must be masked. Covid  tests are provided. 

Information and tickets are available online. 

Post expires at 9:30pm on Sunday June 29th, 2025

Colonial Playhouse presents the 23rd Annual Colonial Quickies Short Play Festival

This year’s lineup:

The Devil and the DMV by Nora Louise Syran

The Jar by Julie Zaffarano

The Friendship Dynamic by Alex Dremann

Planned Spontaneity by Hilary Bluestein-Lyons

Up on the Roof by Mark Harvey Levine

The Pity Mourner by Paul Donnelly

C.O.C.K. Therapy* by Mike Byham * (Children of Captain Kirk)

Sicko by Rob Carroll

Ticket link:  23rd Annual Colonial Quickies – Colonial Playhouse

Post expires at 8:50pm on Monday June 23rd, 2025

Beginning June 10, the Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater, recipient of the 2024 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, presents the regional premiere of A Summer Day by Nobel Prize-winning  playwright Jon Fosse, translated by Sarah Cameron Sunde.

Directed by inventive Co-Artistic Director  Yury Urnov, the whimsical production weaves together mystery and magical realism as a woman investigates one day from her past, obsessively trying to understand what went wrong. The cast features Wilma HotHouse Acting Company members Krista Apple, Campbell O’Hare, Melanye Finister, Brett Ashley Robinson, and Ross Beschler, with Philadelphia-based actor Jaime Maseda. The regional  premiere of A Summer Day runs from June 10 to 29, with 21 performances presented in the Wilma’s  300-seat theater.  

Fosse is a Norwegian author and playwright who is one of the most internationally performed contemporary playwrights. While his plays have been presented on over a thousand stages worldwide, Fosse’s work is rarely  produced in the United States.  A Summer Day had only been presented once before in an Off-Broadway production at Cherry Lane Theatre in 2012, with film actress Karen Allen starring in the lead role.  

Fosse knows  how to keep you on the edge of your seat. He mixes genres like no one else. The play is simultaneously a suspenseful investigation story, an emotional drama, a piece of theater, poetry, and philosophy. – Wilma Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov, who directs the upcoming regional premiere production of A Summer  Day.  

If You Go

• Previews from Tuesday, June 10, to Thursday, June 12.
• Invite-only performance on Friday, June 13, at 7 p.m.
• Runs through Sunday, June 29 at 265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
• Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the box office at 215-546-7824. 
• A Summer Day has an estimated 80-minute runtime with no intermission. The production is recommended for audiences 13 years or older.   

Post expires at 11:38am on Monday June 30th, 2025

Playcrafters of Skippack presents….

For more information, visit Playcrafters

Post expires at 9:33pm on Sunday July 20th, 2025