'HANDS UP', LULU'S GOLDEN SHOES and More Set for Flashpoint Theatre's Summer 2015 Season

Flashpoint Theatre Company is ready to announce its 11th season. After moving to the summer last year, the company is back with a strong season of timely plays that showcase two diverse looks at life in America today.

The season kicks of the World Premiere of Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments, a new piece commissioned by The New Black Fest. The season then concludes with the Philadelphia premiere of Lulu's Golden Shoes, a rarely produced work by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Every show this season will be performed at Caplan Studio Theater, at University of the Arts, Terra Hall, 16th Floor 211 South Broad Street. Tickets and more information are available at www.flashpointtheatre.org.

The Season begins with Hands Up. This exciting new work explores our world through a different lens. Audiences will see life through the eyes of six emerging playwrights commissioned by The New Black Fest, who bring to life their feelings on the dangers of being black men in this 'modern, evolved society,' where police violence is commonplace. Flashpoint showcases these stories in all of their honesty, anger, confusion, and hope. Directed by the head Ira Brind School of Theatre Arts at University of the Arts and noted director Joanna Settle, this powerful World Premiere explores the emotional havoc that centuries of systemic abuse, marginalization, and murder can wreak on an entire culture.

Hands Up is set to run June 10-June 28. Opening Night is Saturday, June 13 at 8 p.m.

The Season continues with Lulu's Golden Shoes. From the brilliant mind of Philly's own Tony and Pulitzer-prize winning Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful) comes a hilariously dark, comic book inspired satire, Lulu's Golden Shoes. This coming-of-age story centers around a North Philly barrio girl named Ana who finds her feminine power through a blurred line of fantasy and mimicry of her neighbor, Rosie Lulu. What follows is wild, naughty, satire about sex, alchemy, and onions. Brenna Geffers directs an ensemble cast in this rarely produced and riotous gem from one of America's most exciting writers.

Lulu's Golden Shoes runs July 15-August 2. Opening Night is Saturday, July 18 at 8 p.m.

"Flashpoint has long enjoyed being the company that does what no one else would do, and this season is no exception. Hands Up and Lulu's Golden Shoes represent the very best examples of our mission to produce socially provocative and emotionally resonant work. Like our productions of Miz Martha..., slip/shot and Run, Mourner, Run, Flashpoint has been engaging in an ongoing conversation about the indignities and suffering that the marginalized in this country endure," said Flashpoint Artistic Director Thom Weaver.He adds, "Hands Up is a powerful and moving testimony about the ongoing tension between law enforcement and black men. Lulu's Golden Shoes hilariously treats us to the vivid landscape of the North Philly barrio, and the myriad of economic and violent struggles Latinos face every day. This may truly be our strongest and most provocative summer yet."

Founded in 2004, Flashpoint is a not-for-profit Theatre Company focused on giving voice to a diverse group of new and emerging artists throughout the Philadelphia region. Now in its 11th season, Flashpoint produces socially provocative works of theater. Their recent world premiere of The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington was nominated for six Barrymore awards, and in 2013 they won the prestigious Brown Martin Award for Slip/Shot, a drama about race, fear, and the way that impressions alter our perception of truth. Flashpoint has produced thirteen Philadelphia premieres and five world premieres, including The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, Run Mourner Run, The Fat Cat Killers, and Slip/Shot, which also won the Barrymore Award for best new play. For more information, visit Flashpoint's website at www.flashpointtheatre.org.