BLACKOUT03 Tackles Gentrification in Greenpoint as Part of DUTF Tonight

BLACKOUT03, a new play by Greenpoint resident Kate Bell, will premiere at Manhattan's HERE Arts Center for one night only tonight, May 14th, 2015 as part of the legendary Downtown Urban Theater Festival.

BLACKOUT03 takes place on a Greenpoint rooftop during the historic blackout of August 2003. Four friends meet to enjoy the magical evening, but instead, their own experiences around race and class bubble ferociously to the surface. Bell's writing fearlessly challenges audiences to understand the impact of gentrification, and hear a passionate complexity of experiences around race and class. The play is part of her four-part series of Blackout Plays, which track a history of race and class relations in Brooklyn from 1965 through the future.

"Blackout 03 takes a very real look at how difficult it can be to talk about race and class with people who are different from you," says Bell. "And even though those conversations can be hard, we're at a place as a city and a country where, if we don't come together and start having more productive communication across these lines of race and class, across these differences, then our ability to survive the challenges of the coming century is very much at risk. When the lights go out, shit gets real. Let's talk about it."

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival and Kate Bell present BLACKOUT03 by Kate Bell, directed by Sara Lyons. Featuring Chinaza Uche*, Latonia Phipps*, Alex Major*, and Lindsey Austen. With sound design by Ian Wehrle, stage managed by Keri Taylor. One performance only: Thursday, May 14th, 2015 at 8:30pm at HERE Arts Center Mainstage Theater. Tickets ($18) available at www.dutfnyc.com/#!schedule/cwzt.

For more about the show, go to www.blackout03.com or www.katebell.info.

*denotes member of Actors' Equity Association