Flashpoint Theatre Company Announces 7th Season

With new Artistic Director Thom Weaver taking the reigns, Flashpoint Theatre Company is thrilled to announce its seventh season, featuring a premiere by one of America's hottest young playwrights, a Philadelphia premiere by a Philadelphia native and two one man shows including Philadelphia's favorite holiday adventure.

The season will kick of with the premiere of Run, Mourner, Run by Tarell Alvin McCraney, running October 27-November 21, 2010, with acclaimed Philadelphia director Matt Pfeiffer making his Flashpoint directing debut. Run, Mourner, Run tells the story of Dean Williams, a young man who finds himself caught between the two richest men in a rural Carolina town. The choice he makes will destroy lives - maybe even his own.

McCraney who was born and raised in Liberty City, an inner-city area of Miami, Florida. Academic credits include the New World School of the Arts High School, the Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago, the British American Drama Academy (BADA) Mid-Summer at Oxford, and the Yale School of Drama, where he received the Cole Porter Award upon graduating. He is a member of New Dramatists and Teo Castellanos/D-Projects in Miami.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Flashpoint season if we weren't bringing you Derick Loafmann in The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, running December 1-19, 2010. Look for a new view of Crumpet's holiday story as staff member Noah Herman works his magic on Philadelphia's favorite holiday show.

Next up is Adam Rapp's award-winning Nocturne, running February 2-26, 2011, and directed by Flashpoint founder MeghAnn Williams. Fifteen years ago, a teenage boy accidentally killed his sister. Now an adult, he shares his story of how grief can unravel a family. From the gut-wrenching first sentence to the bittersweet and hopeful closing moments, Adam Rapp's beautiful and intricate writing is showcased in this haunting one man show.

Rapp has been the recipient of the 1997 Herbert and Patricia Brodkin Scholarship, two Lincoln Center Lecompte du Nouy Awards, a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, the 1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwrighting, a 2000 Suite Residency with Mabou Mines, a 2000 Roger L Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, Other productions include Red Light Winter, Ghosts in the Cottonwoods and Blackbird. A graduate of Clarke College in Dubuque, IA, Rapp also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard.

Flashpoint concludes the mainstage season with the Philadelphia premiere of 26 Miles by Philadelphia native Quiara Alegría Hudes, running May 4-28, 2011 and directed by Flashpoint newcomer Kathryn MacMillan. After a crazy night, 16-year-old Olivia and her estranged mother embark on a spontaneous road trip from Philadelphia to Yellowstone. This touching, hilarious play examines the joy and heartache of finding your place in the world, and reveals just how close to home that place may be.

Quiara Alegría Hudes is an award-winning author of plays, musicals, screenplays and other literary works. Her work for musical theater includes the Tony Award-winning Best Musical In the Heights (Tony Nomination for her book, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award). Her plays include Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue (Pulitzer Prize finalist), and Yemaya's Belly (The Clauder Prize). Hudes was born and raised in Philadelphia, where she recently returned to receive a Resolution from the City of Philadelphia. Much of her writing comes out of family stories and is set in Philadelphia, at the intersection of its many ethnic and historic communities. Her first play was produced in the tenth grade by Philadelphia Young Playwrights, where she now serves as a board member and mentor to other young writers. Hudes received a B.A. in music composition from Yale and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Brown.

Season subscriptions run between $45 and $55 and single tickets run between $5 and $20. For more information or to purchase subscriptions and tickets visit Flashpoint's website at www.flashpointtheatre.org or call our box office at 215-665-9720.

Flashpoint Theatre Company is dedicated to promoting cultural arts awareness in the Greater Philadelphia area through the production of socially provocative and emotionally resonant works of theatre, through the development of educational programming within the community, and through collaboration with new and emerging artists from all artistic disciplines. Founded in 2003 by five graduates of Drew University, Flashpoint's first six seasons have included sixteen Philadelphia premieres, two world premieres 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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