INTERACT THEATRE & MURAL ARTS PROGRAM HOST FREE PANEL DISCUSSION ON CRIME IN PHILADELPHIA; FEATURING MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER

WHAT: City Of Numbers: CITIZENS IN ACTION

WHEN: Monday, February 15, 2010 @ 7:00 p.m.

PRICE: Free and Open to the Public

WHERE: On the Mainstage of The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia

INFO / RESERVATIONS: InterAct Theatre Company Box Office

Phone: 215.568.8079

Info also online: www.InterActTheatre.org

Philadelphia, PA – On Monday, February 15, at 7:00 p.m., InterAct Theatre Company and the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program will host City of Numbers: CITIZENS IN ACTION, a free panel discussion examining the issue of crime in Philadelphia. Sitting on the panel will be Mayor Michael Nutter, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, Executive Director of the Mural Arts Program Jane Golden, Chief Defender for the City of Philadelphia's Defender Association Ellen T. Greenlee, and newly elected Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. The discussion will be moderated by Dave Davies, senior reporter for WHYY. Featuring multiple perspectives from top-level officials working in the fields of criminal justice and crime prevention, Citizens In Action will offer an in-depth look at the issues of crime and the various factors feeding into criminal behavior, law enforcement and the judicial system, and correctional agencies and rehabilitation efforts. Held on the Mainstage of The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, the discussion will be free and open to the public. Reservations are requested and can be made by calling InterAct’s box office at 215.568.8079.

City of Numbers: CITIZENS IN ACTION is being held in conjunction with the run of CITY OF NUMBERS: mixtape of a city…, a new play commissioned by the Mural Arts Program (with a grant from the Violette de Mazia Foundation) that is currently receving its World Premiere by InterAct Theatre through February 21, 2010. CITY OF NUMBERS was created by playwright Sean Christopher Lewis in an effort to document the lasting impact of Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice

program, an initiative designed to help combat and prevent crime by teaching men and women at correctional facilities in the Philadelphia area the transformative power of art. Using interviews with lifetime inmates at Graterford Prison who work as mural artists as a starting point, Lewis has developed CITY OF NUMBERS into a dynamic, one actor, docu-drama that interweaves the stories of over two dozen Philadelphians – from convicted murderers to victims' relatives to physicians to artists to community leaders to Mayor Michael Nutter – as they struggle to come to terms with their city’s escalating violence. Written with tremendous honesty, humor, and humanity, CITY OF NUMBERS combines the personal journey of the playwright with those of the many people he came to know during the writing process, culminating into a sobering and moving portrait of a city gripped by crime.