For the fifth time, Dallas-based Uptown Players will host its Pride Performing Arts Festival, which once again takes place during Dallas Pride in September. This year, though, includes something new: world premieres from the company’s first-ever Pride Write DFW Playwrighting Competition.
The eight-day festival, which takes place Sept. 16–24, will features five place, a staged reading and cabaret acts. It will be made possible thanks to a grant from the Greg Grosh Charitable Fund.
The new local finalist of the competition — Boomer Tyro Coming Home by Bruce R. Coleman and Stigmatic by Ness Everett — will get their premieres, with audience members voting on which play will receive the Audience Favorite cash prize. A third play from the competition, Carol Young’s Mom’s Guitar, will also be presented as a staged reading by Echo Theater.
The festival also includes the world premiere of Marty Martin’s The Necessary Luxury Company, to be presented by One Thirty Productions, and the world premiere of James Hindman’s The Drama Department, and the regional premiere of Say You Love Satan by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, both presented by Uptown Players. These six productions will be presented in the intimate upstairs Franks Place venue and next door at Bryant Hall.
Cabaret favorites Amy Armstrong and Freddy Allen, pictured — last here in 2013 — return to the mainstage of the Kalita to open the festival. Former Dallasite William Blake will come back from New York City to close out the festivities.
General admission tickets for events in Franks Place and Bryant Hall are $10-$15. Reserved seats for the concerts by Amy Armstrong and Freddy Allen and by William Blake are $20–$30. Festival passes allow you to see all six productions in for $65, and can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at 214-219-2718.
Uptown Players announces lineup for Pride Performing Arts Fest
