DALLAS, February 11, 2013 – Uptown Players opens its 2013 season with the southwest premiere of Yellow, written and directed by Del Shores (The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Southern Baptist Sissies, Sordid Lives). Yellow runs February 22 through March 10, 2013, at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

The play was one of the most awarded Los Angeles plays of 2010, winning Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Production and Best World Premiere Play.  Yellow, the latest play by award-winning playwright Del Shores, chronicles a year in the life of what seems to be the perfect family in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Bobby Westmoreland (Jeff Plunk) is a high school football coach, and his wife Kate (Kristen McCullough) is a respected therapist.  They have two ambitious children in high school; their son Dayne (Justin Duncan) is the golden child and football star while their daughter Gracie (Zoe Kerr) is an aspiring actress who feels misunderstood at all times.  Gracie’s best friend is a young gay boy, Kendall (Grant Bower), who shares her affinity for the theatre which puts him at odds with his abusive, fundamentalist mother, Sister Timothea (Deborah Jones).

As the play opens, all seems right in the Westmoreland household.  Dayne prepares for the start of football season, and Gracie and Kendall audition to join the cast of the high school production of “Oklahoma.”  Everything quickly begins to fall apart when an unexpected tragedy rocks the solid foundation of the Westmoreland family to the breaking point.  Yellow dives head first into the themes of cowardice, intolerance and the damage caused to families by secrets, rejection and the difficulty of forgiveness.  A departure from the intense comedy of earlier works, Yellow is Shores’ most dramatic play to date.

The production runs February 22 through March 10, 2013, with shows at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays (no performance February 24). Performances take place at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd (at Blackburn), Dallas, TX 75219. Tickets are $25-$35 and can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at (214) 219-2718.

About Uptown Players:

Now in its twelfth season, Uptown Players has gathered a dedicated following with an annual audience base of over 15,000 patrons, including over 900 season subscribers. The response from the community and critics has been remarkable, including over 25 Leon Rabin Awards from the Dallas Theatre League, hundreds of “The Column” Awards and 20 Theatre Critics Forum Awards in its first eleven seasons. In recent years, its productions of Next To Normal and The Producers have made top ten lists in the Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Voice, Theatre Jones, and The Column online. Uptown Players has also been named the best theatre company by the Dallas Voice Readers Awards, and the Dallas Observer, and has appeared on the WFAA-A list and Best of Big D – D Magazine. Uptown Players has been featured on Good Morning Texas and Daybreak on WFAA. 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.

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