Arden Theatre Company Announces Inaugural Season of Arden Cabaret Series
(Philadelphia, PA) Arden Theatre Company announces the Inaugural Season of the Arden Cabaret Series. Four cabaret shows for a total of 13 performances are planned. All performances take place at the Arden’s Hamilton Family Arts Center at 62 N. 2nd Street in Old City, Philadelphia.
The Arden Cabaret Series features live music and performance in the 100-seat Studio Theatre at the Arden’s Hamilton Family Arts Center. Created to provide an opportunity for artists to perform, develop and present work that is important to them, the Arden Cabaret Series offers a unique and intimate conversation between Arden artists and audiences.
A-list Philadelphia musical theatre performers including Jeff Coon, Joilet Harris, Kristine Fraelich and more will perform cabaret acts curated and directed by Arden Associate Artistic Director, Matthew Decker, and Music Supervised by Amanda Morton.
Says Decker, “I have wanted to curate a Cabaret Series ever since the Arden opened the Hamilton Family Arts Center and we realized we have the perfect space to do it. Many of our cabaret performers work regularly at the Arden and at other theatres in the region. The intimate Studio Theatre in the Hamilton Family Arts Center gives our audiences, and perhaps new audiences, a chance to see their favorite performers in an up-close and personal way.”
Decker adds, “We realized that the local cabaret scene often features performers from outside of Philly. Philadelphia is home to some of the finest actors in the region, and to be able to showcase their talents is both thrilling for us and deserved for them.”
The 2015/2016 Inaugural Season includes:
Jeffrey Coon
Friday, December 11 at 8pm
Saturday, December 12 at 7pm and 10pm
Sunday, December 13 at 2pm
Jeffrey Coon has been a member of Philadelphia’s theatre community since attending the University of Pennsylvania. One of the leading musical theatre actors in this region, he has performed in close to 100 professional productions and worked at most of the area’s theatre companies including Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, Act 2 Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Prince Music Theatre. Jeff is the producer of The Summer Club, an evening of Big Band Music featuring a 17-piece band that tours throughout the summer months and a 10-time Barrymore Award nominee, winning for his performance as Dominique in The Baker’s Wife at Arden Theatre Company. Arden productions include George Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Charles Lindbergh in Baby Case, Frog in A Year with Frog and Toad, and Britt Craig in Parade. He will be playing Archibald Craven in the Arden’s spring production of The Secret Garden.
Joilet Harris
Friday, February 12 through Sunday, February 14
Joilet Harris is the recipient of the Barrymore Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her role as Caroline in the Arden’s production of Caroline, or Change. Other Arden roles include Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, Tulipomania, Violet, Jacques Brel, and Third and Indiana. She has appeared on many Philadelphia stages including the Walnut Street Theatre, Act 2 Playhouse, People’s Light and Theatre Company and has toured the country as Ella in Ella, The Ella Fitzgerald Story. She has appeared on television as Detective Caroline in The Wire, as well as on Law & Order: SVU and Do No Harm.
Kristine Fraelich
Friday, April 22 through Sunday, April 24, 2016
Kristine Fraelich was last seen at the Arden as Diana in Next to Normal. Other Arden roles include Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George, Baby Case, Jacques Brel and Sweeney Todd. She appeared on Broadway in Frank Wildhorn’s The Civil War. Other credits include Mama Rose in Gypsyat the Media Theatre, the Witch in Into the Woods at Theatre Horizon, Eva Peron in Evita at the Walnut Street Theatre, the Narrator in the National Tour of Joseph…Dreamcoat, Ellen in Miss Saigon at the Lenape Performing Arts Center, and has performed with Jason Robert Brown in Songs for a New World at Symphony Space. She lives in Springfield with her husband Nick and her three children.
TBD
Friday, June 17 through Sunday, June 19
Arden Cabaret Series shows include weekend performances at various times. Tickets are $30 for general admission seating and $200 for one of four tables that seats four patrons each. Table purchasers receive a complimentary bottle of wine when they arrive at their table. Arden donors and subscribers receive a $5 ticket discount. For tickets, call the Arden Box Office at 215.922.1122, visit here or walk-up at the box office at 40 N. 2nd Street in Old City, Philadelphia.
About the Arden
Founded in 1988, Arden Theatre Company is dedicated to bringing to life great stories by great storytellers–on the stage, in the classroom, and in the community. Five productions are staged each season as part of the Mainstage series and two productions through Arden Children’s Theatre, the city’s first resident professional children’s theatre program. New work is produced through the Independence Foundation New Play Showcase. The Arden’s Education Department includes: Arden for All (AFA), a theatre access and education program for underserved young people; Arden Drama School, the after-school, Saturday, and summer camp classes for students in grades pre K-12; Teen Arden, an immersive after-school access program for Philadelphia-area based teenagers; and the Arden Professional Apprentice Program, a nationally renowned comprehensive theatre management training program. The Hamilton Family Arts Center is the new facility dedicated to education programs and new play development.
The Arden has received numerous honors including 62 awards and 307 nominations from the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The Arden is a winner of four “Theatre Company of the Year” designations (Philadelphia Inquirer), five Philadelphia Magazine “Best of Philly” awards and three “Best of Philly Kids” awards, the City Paper’s Reader’s Choice Award and the prestigious “Great Friend to Kids Award” from the Please Touch Museum for Arden Children’s Theatre work. For accessibility efforts, the Arden was named a “Keystone of Accessibility” by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Arden Theatre Company is a professional, nonprofit 501(c)(3) theatre company and a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the League of Resident Theatres, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Old City Arts Association. The Arden also participates in The Barrymore Awards, a program of Theatre Philadelphia.