Flashpoint Presents 'The Fat Cat Killers' 10/26-11/19

Flashpoint Theatre Company presents Adam Szymkowicz's The Fat Cat Killers, October 26 - November 19, 2011. All performances will be held at Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, in Philadelphia. Ticket prices range from $5 to $20 (depending on the performance). To order tickets or for more information, please call 215-665-9720 or visit Flashpoint's website at www.flashpointtheatre.org.

In this vicious comedy, Steve and Michael become the hapless victims of corporate cutbacks. Their former boss soon discovers just how dead-end their jobs really were. This timely play by Adam Szymkowicz (Nerve) shows that even the Recession can be a riot.

Director Noah Herman says, "While The Fat Cat Killers might, on the surface, seem like a bumbling criminal comedy, what I love about the play is that it is so much deeper than that. Adam Szymkowicz cleverly uses a comedic premise to explore the very timely issues of corporate downsizing and cutting corners in today's economy. These characters all find themselves in very real and very desperate situations and they respond in the most extreme way possible - and desperation and extremity can both be very funny."

Adam Szymkowicz's plays have been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. His work has been presented or developed at such places as MCC Theater, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons, LAByrinth Theater Company, Primary Stages, The New Group, Southern Rep, Rising Phoenix, The Lark, Kitchen Dog, Theatre of Note, Naked Stage, Azuka Theater and Studio Dante among others. Plays include Deflowering Waldo, Open Minds, Anne, The Art Machine, Pretty Theft, Food For Fish, Hearts Like Fists, My Base and Scurvy Heart, Herbie, Incendiary, Old Fashioned Cold Fusion, Bee Eater, Temporary Everything, Susan Gets Some Play, Clown Bar, Fat Cat Killers, The Why Overhead, Elsewhere, Where You Can't Follow, The Artist and Nerve. He received a Playwright's Diploma from The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and an MFA from Columbia University where he was the Dean's Fellow. Szymkowicz is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writer's Guild of America,

Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group, the MCC Playwright's Coalition and was a founding member of the Ars Nova Play Group. He served as Playwright in Residence at the William Inge Center, received a grant from the CT Commission on Culture & Tourism, and was commissioned by South Coast Rep. He is the premiere Resident Playwright at The Chance Theater in Anaheim, CA and the first playwright to participate in Bloomington Playwrights Projects' Square One Series.

This show stars Sean Lally, Robert Daponte, and Damon Bonetti. Daponte, last scene on the Flashpoint stage in The House of Yes, was seen last season in This Lime Tree Bowler (Brat Productions), Lydia (Amaryllis Theatre), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Theatre Exile), and Macbeth (The Wilma Theatre). Lally is making his Flashpoint debut and was recently seen on Philadelphia stages in Hell (EgoPo Theatre), A Moon for the Misbegotten, Threepenny Opera, and Romeo and Juliet (Arden Theatre Company). Also making his debut, Bonetti is a theater, film and television actor as well as co-founder and co-artistic director of the Philadelphia Artists' Collective (PAC). Recent credits include The Glass Menagerie (Walnut Theater) and The Duchess of Malfi (PAC).

Director Noah Herman is the Audience Services Manager of Flashpoint Theatre Company. Directing credits for Flashpoint include boom and The Santaland Diaries (2010). Other recent directing credits include Recent Tragic Events (Players Club of Swarthmore), Lost in Yonkers (Broadway Theatre of Pitman), and serving as Assistant Director for Laughter on the 23rd Floor and Our Show of Shows (1812 Productions).

The production team includes Flashpoint favorites Melanie Leeds, Stage Manager; Katherine Fritz, Costumes; Avista Custom Theatrical Service, Properties; and Flashpoint Artistic Director Thom Weaver, Set Designer. Making their Flashpoint debuts are Mark Valenzuela, Sound Design/Composer; and Mike Hollinshead, Lighting Design.

Flashpoint Theatre Company produces socially provocative and emotionally resonant works of new and Contemporary Theatre in the greater Philadelphia area, while giving voice to a diverse group of emerging artists. Founded in 2003 by five graduates of Drew University, Flashpoint's first six seasons have included fifteen Philadelphia premieres and one world premiere, several
readings of new plays as part of the High Voltage Workshop Series, and numerous
outreach events including artist talkbacks, benefit performances of Eve Ensler's The
Vagina Monologues, and special matinees for local high school students.

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