UPTOWN PLAYERS PRESENTS BENT

DALLAS - April 7, 2008 - Uptown Players continues its 2008 season with Bent, held

April 18 – May 11, 2008, at the KD Studio Theatre. Twenty-eight years after Richard Gere brought Martin Sherman's revolutionary piece of playwriting to Broadway, the devastating story of how Nazis killed gays in the Dachau camp retains a timeless ability to deliver a jolt as lethal as one from an electric fence.

During Berlin's infamous Night of the Long Knives in 1934, Nazi secret police murdered homosexual commander Ernst Rohm and his associates and launched Hitler's reign of terror, targeting not only Jews, gypsies and political opponents, but also gays. This is the context for Martin Sherman's play, which describes both gay persecution and the struggle for gay pride. This story of a gay man, experiencing love in the face of persecution and terror is defiantly inspirational. With its message about tolerance, love and human dignity, the play was nominated for both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 1980.

The cast includes Heath Billups, Stan Graner, Josh Hepola, Kevin Moore, Andrew Phifer, David Plunkett, Paul Taylor, Ted Wold, Andrew Worley and Clayton Younkin. This production is under the direction of Bruce Coleman.

The production runs April 18 through May 11, 2008, with shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, with no performance April 20. All shows take place at the KD Studio Theatre located at 2600 Stemmons Freeway. Tickets are $22-25 and can be purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at 214-219-2718.

About Uptown Players

Now entering its seventh season, Uptown Players has gathered a dedicated following with an annual audience base of nearly 10,000 patrons, including more than 750 season subscribers. The response from the community and critics has been remarkable, including more than 25 Leon Rabin Awards from the Dallas Theatre League, several hundred “The Column” Awards and 14 Theatre Critics Forum Awards in its first six seasons. Uptown Players has also been named the best theatre company by the Dallas Voice Readers in 2006 and 2007 and by the Dallas Observer in 2004 and 2005. Uptown Players is a 501 © 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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