DALLAS, August 5, 2011 – Uptown Players, a professional theater group located in the Uptown area of Dallas, has announced its 2012 season, which will feature the regional premieres of The Divine Sister, Hello Again, and The Producers, plus the baseball drama, Take Me Out at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Uptown Players will also present its annual fundraising performance – Broadway Our Way, which will be held in March this year. In addition, Uptown Players will present the regional premiere of Silence of the Clams, in April at the Rose Room Theater inside the Station 4 nightclub on Cedar Springs.

2012 SEASON OVERVIEW
Take Me Out: February 3-19, 2012
Uptown Players kicks off its 11th season with the 2003 Tony Award winning play by Richard Greenberg, entitled Take Me Out. The show will run from February 3 – 19, 2012 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. In Take Me Out, Darren Lemming, the star center fielder of the world champion New York Empires, is young, rich, famous, talented and handsome. He is so convinced of his popularity that when he casually announces he’s gay, he assumes the news will be readily accepted by everyone. It isn’t. Friends, fans and teammates react with ambivalence, and when the slipping Empires call up the young phenom Shane Mungitt to close their games, the ambivalence turns to violence. Angry, lonely, guilt-ridden and confused, Darren finds some unlikely solace in the form of friendship with his new business manager, Mason Marzac—a brilliant but repressed guy, who, as everyone around him copes with disenchantment, blooms in the ecstatic discovery of baseball.

Broadway Our Way: March 16-25, 2012

Now in its 10th year, Uptown Players’ fundraiser, Broadway Our Way, light-heartedly pits the men against the women to determine who the true Divas of the Dallas stage really are. The evening features selections from your favorite Broadway shows both past and present, done with an Uptown Players twist! It is sure to be a hot ticket for its seven performances in March 2012. The show’s dates are March 16-25, 2012.

Silence of the Clams: April 27-May 20, 2012

Uptown Players 2012 bonus show at the Rose Room Theater is another parody from Jamie Morris, the creator of the smash hits The Facts Of Life and Mommie Queerest entitled Silence of the Clams. In this parody of the 1990 Oscar-winning Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins thriller, butch FBI agent Clarice Startling is assigned to help find Nancy Pelosi’s missing daughter and save her from “Beaver Bob,” a serial killer who skins his victims “down there.” Clarice attempts to gain better insight into the mind of the killer by interviewing Dr. Hannibal Lichter, a convicted psychopath who “eats” his female victims before he kills them. The twisted relationship forces Clarice not only to confront her own psychological demons, but leads her face-to-face with a demented killer so evil that even she may not have the courage – or strength – to stop him! The show will run from April 27 – May 20, 2012 at the Rose Room Theatre inside the S4 nightclub on Cedar Springs.

The Divine Sister: July 13-29, 2012

Uptown Players returns to the Kalita Humphreys Theater in July for the regional premiere of the holy outrageous off-broadway hit, The Divine Sister, by Charles Busch. Running from July 13 – 29, 2012, The Divine Sister is a comic celebration of such Hollywood films as The Song of Bernadette, The Bells of St. Mary’s and The Singing Nun! St. Veronica’s indomitable Mother Superior, played by drag diva Coy Covington, leads us on this madcap trip through Tinseltown’s religiosity…it’s miraculous, zany fun!

The Producers: August 24-September 16, 2012

Uptown Players presents the regional premiere of the musical comedy, The Producers from August 24 – September 16, 2012. With a truly hysterical book co-written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Mr. Brooks, The Producers won a record 12 Tony Awards in 2001. In The Producers, a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and his mild-mannered accountant come up with a scheme to produce the most notorious flop in history thereby bilking their backers (all “little old ladies”) out of millions of dollars. Only one thing goes awry: the show is a smash hit! The antics of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom as they maneuver their way fecklessly through finding a show, hiring a director, raising the money and finally going to prison for their misdeeds is a lesson in broad comic construction. At the core of the insanely funny adventure is a poignant emotional journey of two very different men who become friends.

Hello Again: October 5-21, 2012

Uptown Players will close its 2012 season with the regional premiere of the musical Hello Again. The joys of sex are here for the asking in this adult musical fantasy suggested by Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde. As though seen through the lens of a combination time machine and bawdy, old-time kinescope, Hello Again crisscrosses beds and jumps from decade to decade, intimately examining the painful secrets that drive characters into each other’s arms and towards the bruising effects of reckless passion. With a score that saturates the mind, Hello Again has an unforgettable, dreamlike quality—and all the luxuriance of an insistent seduction. With music, lyrics and book by Michael John LaChuisa, Hello Again will run October 5 – 21, 2012 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Ticket prices for all shows, except Silence of the Clams range from $25 to $50. Performances at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd at Blackburn, will run at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday evenings and 2 p.m. on Sundays with an added Thursday performance at 8 p.m. during the run of each show. Tickets for The Silence of the Clams at the Rose Room Theater at S4, located at 3911 Cedar Springs Road, are $20-25 with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Four, five or six show season ticket flex packages are also available and include great discounts on premium seating. Individual and season tickets can be purchased online at http://www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at 214-219-2718.

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Now beginning its eleventh season, Uptown Players has gathered a dedicated following with an annual audience base of over 15,000 patrons, including nearly 1000 season subscribers. The response from the community and critics has been remarkable, including over 25 Leon Rabin Awards from the Dallas Theatre League, several hundred “The Column” Awards and 23 Theater Critics Forum Awards in its first ten seasons. Uptown Players has also been named the best theatre company by the Dallas Voice Readers and by the Dallas Observer in 2004, 2005, and 2009. Uptown Players was also featured in D Magazine in 2009 and on the WFAA A-list of theaters.

Uptown Players is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, presenting plays and musicals that challenge audiences artistically, build cultural bridges, and strive to create greater positive public awareness and acceptance through the performing arts. There is no other theater group with this unique mission in the Dallas area.

Uptown Players 2012 Season:

Media Contact: Nina Koch
nina@coopermsithagency.com, (214) 329-9191