ARTS . Arts Picks

Anonymous Theatre

Mon., July 7, 8 p.m., $15-$20, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. 215-546-7824, pdc1.org.


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Published: Jul 1, 2008

theater

Live theater is unpredictable. Actors drop lines and miss cues. Set pieces fall; props break. All the while, there's an audience eagerly awaiting a reaction. Anonymous Theatre Co. embraces these big unknowns with its innovative theatrical experiment: A play is cast in secret, and the identity of actors is revealed only to fellow castmates and to the audience the night of the performance.

Philadelphia Dramatists Center brings the company and the chaos to Philadelphia for the second year in a row — this time with the production of the five-act comedy Won at Last by Steele MacKaye. After being cast, the director rehearses individually with the actors, who don't meet or know who else is in the show until opening night.

This year's director, Rowen Haigh, says Anonymous Theatre is not for the faint of heart. "You set up this seemingly impossible situation and ... you don't know what's going to happen," she says. "It could crash and burn or it could be stunningly spectacular. Either way, the audience is going to be entertained, and that's what we're here for."

Mon., July 7, 8 p.m., $15-$20, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. 215-546-7824, pdc1.org.