Citizen Paine By Bill Hollenbach World Premier January 16, 17, 23-25 2009 Friday and Saturday 8pm Sunday at 2 Online event registration

Founding Father returns to Philadelphia

The world premier of a new play about Thomas Paine, America’s forgotten founding father, opens January 16 at the Centre Theatre in Norristown. The one man show called “Citizen Paine,” finds the American patriot and radical fighting for his ideals even as political cynicism derails what the American Revolutionaries fought and died for.

The production, performed in the Centre Theatre’s first floor black box will take place on January 16, 17, 23-25 2009, Friday and Saturday performances at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are available at www.ticketleap.com, through the iron age website at www.ironagetheatre.org or by phone at 610-279-1013.

Thomas Paine, most radical of the American Revolutionaries and self proclaimed Citizen of the World, offers some Common Sense to our world today and reinvigorates the promise of America. In this vibrant, compelling play Paine’s vision of freedom, citizenship, and social equality are examined through the lens of his amazing life.

“We wanted to continue to explore the great historic ideas dramatically, as we have in our productions of “Marx in Soho,” “Waiting for the Ship From Delos” (about Socrates), and “The Interrogation of Nathan Hale,” said Director John Doyle. “When I heard historian Harvey Kaye talk about Paine it seemed a perfect fit. Howard Zinn, famed American historian and author of “Marx in Soho,” agreed and suggested Iron Age Theatre take on the challenge and commission the new play.”

The show, by Philadelphia playwright William Hollenbach, has been two years in the making. Commissioned by Iron Age Theatre, one of the area’s most respected and critically acclaimed theatres, “Citizen Paine” continues the company’s mission of examining contemporary issues in a deeply theatrical way. Producer and Director John Doyle and Hollenbach with the support and review of noted Paine historians Harvey Kaye, whose bestseller, “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America” was in the vanguard of the reinvigoration of writing about the American Revolution and Jack Fruchtman, author of “Thomas Paine, Apostle of Freedom,” have breathed life into Paine’s ideas for a modern audience.

Iron Age Artistic Director Randall Wise stated, “This has been an exciting process. The play has developed organically through collaboration with Bob Weick, who plays Marx in Iron Age’s production of “Marx in Soho,” author Hollenbach, and the actor playing Paine, Adam Altman.” Wise said they approached the character of Paine through his ideas and passion for the possible America.

Adam Altman plays Paine. Adam’s previous work with Iron Age includes DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, SHAKESPLOITATION!, WAITING FOR GODOT, and several McDonough plays including A SKULL IN CONNEMARA. Adam holds a B.A. in Theatre Performance from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA and has also studied acting at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. Adam is a direct descendant of founding father and good friend of Thomas Paine - Benjamin Rush. Adam has also worked with Delaware Shakespeare Festival, Montgomery Theater and Ritz Theatre.

Bill Hollenbach has been writing plays since the late 1970’s. Much of his work has a political and social edge. His earliest produced play, The Persecution of Citizen Vasliych, first produced in 1981, examined the relationship of censorship in the Soviet Union and the freedom to report in the United States. Bill returned to social issues in Severed Heads which looked at sixties radicalism through the prism of the French Revolution which was presented at New Freedom Theatre in 2002 and received a Special Opportunity Stipend from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His worked has graced many stages in the Philadelphia region. His recent play, Inside the Gatehouse, returns to the examination of social issues as four affluent people find themselves trapped inside a gated community by the very forces they thought they had escaped.

Iron Age Theatre has been part of the Philadelphia theatre scene for over 15 years. Based at the Center Theatre in Norristown, they brought a multitude of plays to packed houses during previous Fringe Festivals including works ranging from the east coast premiere of the hilarious and irreverent Shakesploitation to Amiri Baraka’s intense Dutchman performed at the African American Museum and featured on the cover of Theatre Journal. Additionally, the Iron Age production of Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho, first performed with The Interrogation of Nathan Hale at the 2004 Fringe festival, has gone on to tour the nation for the past four years in over 150 venues and is currently being made into a film with Bob Weick as Karl Marx.

Iron Age Theatre has received Barrymore nominations for Outstanding Ensemble in Terra Nova and Best Lead Actor in The Elephant Man. As City Paper’s Mark Cofta put it so eloquently: “Iron Age Theatre keeps defying the odds, producing quality plays with loving care.” Toby Zinman of The Philadelphia Inquirer said about the company’s last foray into dramatic history: “ Iron Age Theatre has found a perfect venue for this intellectually satisfying play. The issues are relevant enough: freedom of thought and civic responsibility. What a pleasure to see a Fringe show that takes serious ideas seriously.”

In 1994, Iron Age helped open the historic Eastern State Penitentiary with the original play Tunnel which chronicled the infamous 1945 escape. During the next two years, Iron Age created site specific pieces to help raise funds for the crumbling old penitentiary and their “Haunted Cellblocks” were the precursor to the fabulously successful “Terror Behind the Walls” Halloween fright fest. They also produced the original “Bastille Day Spectacle” there, re-creating the events leading up to and including the storming of the Bastille and the tossing of Twinkies from the parapet.