For Immediate Release: August 11, 2005
Media Contact: Whitney Estrin, Theatre Exile, 215.922.4462

August 10th, 2005 Theatre Exile's acclaimed production of Bruce Graham's The Philly Fan was nominated for the Independence Foundation Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play. The Philly Fan, like many of Theatre Exile's one-person productions, had its first workshop performances in the 2004 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. This year, as part of the Philly Fringe, Theatre Exile will present Last Call. Remembering my Dad, as part of the Philly Fringe, continuing our commitment to one-person productions by local performers and writers. In December 2005 and January 2006, Theatre Exile will remount The Philly Fan, conceived and performed by Tom McCarthy, just in time for Super Bowl fever.

Last Call written by and starring radio and T.V. personality Big Daddy Graham and directed by Theatre Exile Founder and Artistic Director Joe Canuso, is an honest and entertaining memoir about a man trying to remember his long-gone father and making an amazing discovery along the way. Based on the autobiographical book Last call. Remembering my Dad, the piece is a recollection of his childhood with his father, a blue-collar West Philadelphia guy who worked at the Navy Yard and drank too much and died leaving only scattered memories that are few and far between. "The piece is on my short list of crucial stuff such as Phillip Roth's Patrimony, Bruce Springsteen's Independence Day... [and] The Godfather movies. Not to mention all those Sinatra CDs." ~Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Like all Theatre Exile productions (especially new locally written plays), the process of preparing for Last Call is both organic and collaborative as Joe Canuso (Director), Big Daddy Graham (Writer and Performer) and Bruce Graham (Dramaturge) along with the assistance and feedback of other artists in the community work through several drafts of the play gearing up for this year's Fringe Festival. For Theatre Exile founder and Artistic Director Joe Canuso, this collaborative process is nothing new. Last Call will mark the 4th one-man Fringe show directed by Mr. Canuso: Amputation Nation in 2001 and Cryptome in 2003, both created and performed by John Lumia, The Philly Fan in 2004 and now Last Call in 2005. The message and themes of Last Call are particularly important to Mr. Canuso: "This story has much resonance for me and for men whose fathers were from that post-WWII generation. The memories are filled with humor, along with the acknowledgement of the emotional gap in many of those father-son relationships." Last Call can be seen at The Red Room Cabaret in the Society Hill Playhouse during the 2005 Philly Fringe, September 7th through the 17th.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of last year's production of The Philly Fan, Theatre Exile prepares to remount The Philly Fan this winter. In this one-man, tour-de-force, two-time Barrymore Award Winner Tom McCarthy takes audiences on a journey through Philadelphia's sports history of the last fifty years and the frustrations therein. The Philly Fan is an in-your-face, tell-it-like-it-is romp through the eyes of a hard core sports fan, who is accustomed to seeing "sure-thing" victories turn into "oh-my-God-they-blew-it" defeats. According to playwright Bruce Graham, winner of Philadelphia Magazine's 2005 "Best of Philly" Playwright award, The Philly Fan "goes beyond sports to a character study of a blue-collar guy. This isn't a caricature, you really feel you know who he is by the end of it." Philadelphia Inquirer critic Doug Keating says "Those who follow sports, and probably those who don't, will delight in this show, written with humor and insight by Bruce Graham and acted by a bluff, outspokenly funny Tom McCarthy."

"Our last championship in Philadelphia was 21 years ago," says McCarthy. "Just think of it.four pro teams and only six championships in half a century. Wait till next year? Yeah right!" The Philly Fan will run from December 14th, 2005- January 21st, 2006 at the Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe runs from September 2-17, 2005. Tickets prices range from free to $25 (tickets for Last Call are $15), and can be purchased online beginning August 8 at www.livearts-fringe.org or after August 22 by calling 215.413.1318. Fringe guides which include dates, times, and venues for all performances for both festivals, will be available in the Philadelphia City Paper on August 25, 2005 and after this at all festival venues.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe were originally founded in 1997 as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Today, the Live Arts Festival serves as a series of selected cutting-edge, boundary-breaking performing arts events, created by some of the most renowned contemporary artists from our region and around the world. The Fringe serves as a collective home for artists bringing their work to audiences in every conceivable form - in traditional and untraditional venues, using new artistic forms and established ones, breaking rules or refining them.

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