Dallas has so much gay stuff going on that we can often take it for granted. Few cities in the country have a theater group like Uptown Players dedicated to bringing season after season filled with queer plays and musicals.
Yet even with a year’s worth of homo-skewing productions, they up the ante further with the Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival, nine days of plays and shows celebrating the LGBT experience.
It all kicks off with music and comedy legends Amy Armstrong in Amy & Freddy, a one-of-a-kind, crowd-pleasing cabaret act direct from RSVP Cruises. Then there’s Made in Heaven, a comedy by Jay Bernzweig about conjoined twins, one of which has a secret. Good Boys and True by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is a suspenseful mystery and love story set in an all-male boarding school.
Meanwhile, Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood finds a group of “widows” in 1956 and Communists threatening their idyllic town. Paul J. Williams takes on six different characters in Dishing It Out, a partially improvisational comedy that he wrote, which also brings the audience in on the action.
The Timekeepers, written by Dan Clancy, takes a serious but sometimes humorous look at a friendship that develops at a concentration camp in WWII Germany. Rounding out the bunch is Cock, a staged reading of a play by Mike Bartlett about a strange love triangle between a man, his boyfriend and the woman of his dreams.
It all starts this Thursday and each regular production is a mere $10-$15. Or get a festival pass for $55 and see them all, except Amy & Freddy ($20-$60), which is a special presentation.
That’s a whole lot of sitting, but don’t worry. You’ll get plenty of exercise with all the inevitable standing ovations.
Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival
September 5-14
$10-$60 at www.seatadvisor.com
Frank’s Place at the Kalita Humphreys Theater
3636 Turtle Creek Boulevard, Dallas
www.uptownplayers.org
