Downtown Urban Theater Festival 2012 Celebrates 10th Anniversary Season

Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) returns for a 10th Anniversary season at its inaugural stage at HERE in SoHo, Manhattan, NYC. The season showcases 15 theatrical works over three weeks beginning March 14, 2012. Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated writer of Broadway’s 1996 hit musical Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, is back as the festival’s Artistic Director and Adrienne Kennedy, recipient of Lifetime Achievement awards from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and OBIE Awards, will be honored with the DUTF Playwright Master’s Award.

FULL LENGTHS -
Asylum
by Cheril N. Clarke (New Jersey)
Based on the true story of young lesbian who fled Uganda to escape death at the hands of her own family, Asylum is a dramatic recount of one woman’s journey through tender moments of exploration and self-definition to a horrific series of consequential events.

Death Boogie
by Darian Dauchan (New York)
Death Boogie is a Hip Hop poetry musical that follows the fictional story of Victor Spartan, a blue collar worker who lives a comatose lifestyle by day and at night, hears the poetic sounds of revolution.

Draw the Circle
by Deen (New York)
As Deen struggles to come to terms with being a transgender man, those who love him most find themselves struggling as well. Laid bare is one family's struggle with a child who continuously defies their most basic expectations of what it means to have a daughter and one woman's commitment to unconditional love.

Flozetta
by Nadine Graham (New York)
Flozetta examines the tumultuous mother/daughter relationship of Henrietta, an unstable blues singer with a tragic past, and her daughter Flo, who deals with the legacy of pain her mother unwittingly hands down to her.

Kings
by Anna Governali (New York)
As graffiti artist Israel Flores sets out to become king, he finds his mother and himself.

Sammy Gets Mugged!
by Dan Heching (New York)
Sammy Gets Mugged! chronicles the antagonistic exchange between two strangers, the possibilities that follo, and how we choose to remember the more unsavory moments in our lives.

Secrets; Love
by Summer Dawn Hortillosa (New Jersey)
A young woman and her next-door neighbor try putting the pieces together when her mother disappears and her father is suspected of murder. As they solve the puzzle, they discover the lengths some would go to for love.

Ser: L.A. vs. B.A.
by Karen Anzoategui (California)
A transnational queer tale of choosing between Buenos Aires: the soccer mecca burning in her heart, and Los Angeles: the land of peace and plenty. In the middle of it all she fights her way out of dresses and into soccer gear and faces yet another question: Who will be the object of her affection, the boys on the field or the girls in the stands?

Sh*thole
by Camilo Almonacid (New York)
Toribio quits his job in Staten Island and heads to the city for new hopes. But sometimes you can get your ass kicked just for walking.

Undertow
by Mel Nieves (New York)
An estrange couple are reunited at a family wake, finding themselves reminiscing on a rooftop, reigniting a long lost flicker, that at least for one of them brings the hope of a possible heart saving flame.

SHORTS –
Co-op
by Barbara Kahn (New York)
Martha, a victim of gentrification, faces her new life on the streets with humor, optimism and a will to survive. Returning to the sidewalk in front of her former home, she tries to sell enough of her meager belongings to passersby to get along for the day.

Jane Takes It In
by Susannah Nolan (New York)
The normal chaos of a late-to-school/late-to-work morning turns not normal at all when Jane catches Luke looking at internet porn instead of last night's sports scores. In the time it takes to get dressed and out of the house with their daughter, Jane must reevaluate her life-choices, her marriage and just how much she can swallow.

Reservations For 4
by Sam Sommer (New York)
Four gay friends meet at a new restaurant for a casual dinner. The conversation quickly bubbles over in a spicy melange of humor, innuendo and a smattering of bitchy repartee; but the main focus is one of enduring friendships. Reservations For 4 is a humorous look at the meaning of friendship (warts and all), and what it is that binds us together.

Standing At …
by Chandra Thomas (New York)
Set in a South Bronx beauty salon, Standing At . . . is a glimpse into the lives of Chantrese and Lanise, two friends struggling with their own definitions of love as one woman is surviving HIV and the other surviving her complex relationships.

Suicide Notes
by Adam Esquenazi Douglas (New York)
A once-in-an-end-of-a-lifetime experience, Suicide Notes is a one-performer show exploring the reasons why so many of us engage in one of the world’s oldest activities: suicide. A titillating, heart-and-neck-breaking theatrical journey as incendiary as it is intimate.

ALTERNATES –
Kingdom Come by Matt Webster (FULL) and Shadow Play by Barbara Blatner (SHORT)

SPECIAL DUTF PRODUCTION
A Train
by DUTF and directed by Reg E. Gaines
A Train is an original coming-of-age story about a group of urban teenagers growing up in modern day NYC.

In 2001, DUTF was founded with the purpose to build a repertoire of new American theatre that echoes the true spirit of urban life and speaks to a whole new generation whose lives defy categorizing along conventional lines. That purpose has been realized many times over, as 100 writers have created and refined their work for the stage and thousands of inspired audience members have applauded their performances. DUTF inaugurated the festival in 2002 at HERE in SoHo to help revitalize the NYC downtown arts scene, which, at the time, was experiencing a severe downturn due to the WTC disaster.

Tickets for DUTF 2012 go on sale early February at www.dutfnyc.com and www.HERE.org. The festival runs from March 14 to March 31, 2012 at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan (www.HERE.org).