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UNLEASHED is a non-season series featuring readings and other theatrical presentations off-site from our MATCH home base.  

NOW PLAYING!

WRITTEN BY Gwen Flager

DIRECTED BY Bonnie Hewett

IN ASSOCIATION WITH
SWEET DARLIN' PRODUCTIONS
presents

AUG 1220, 2022

MATCH | Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston

THIS EVENT HAS PASSED

RUNTIME: 2 hrs (one, 15-minute intermission)

UNLEASHED is a non-season series centered on development of new works, staged readings, and other theatrical productions that further the mission of Dirt Dogs Theatre Co.

They once ran naked across golf courses, ate plates of greasy fried chicken, and survived whispered sorority scandals. Twenty years later, while organizing the first LGBTQ prom for the local high school, these non-traditional women are spun to the brink when their successful sorority sister returns to town determined to romance the woman she has loved all of her life.

The Story

The Reason

MALINDA L. BECKHAM, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The mission of Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. is threefold: entertain audiences, inspire artists, and honor playwrights. Our mainstage season honors playwrights whose works have been published and have oftentimes been produced multiple times before. Dirt Dogs UNLEASHED was created as a complementary series to our mainstage season to allow us the opportunity to help develop new works and bring forth readings of lesser-produced plays. It is a space to workshop, collaborate, and explore projects that are not yet published or well-known.  

Working with playwright Gwen Flager on Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo is exactly what UNLEASHED is designed to do!  We collaborated closely with Gwen during the rehearsal process. She was in the room for the majority of the rehearsals providing her unique insight into particular aspects of the play and characters. We have laughed together, cried together, broke bread together, and now present this play together.  

Gwen’s story is one that is not seen much on the stage. A girl-meets-girl story—much less a girl-gets-girl story—is still underrepresented.  A play that shows these seven lesbian women as just women, as friends, as confidants, as lovers, as people.

Sit back and enjoy these WOMEN as women.

VIEW PROGRAM

PHOTOS BY: Brian Tafelmeyer

Listen to 15-minute interview with the playwright, Gwen Flager on Queer Voices radio.

The Reviews

quote-block-black

READ THE HOUSTON PRESS REVIEW

“...it's both exciting and wonderfully gap-filling to see that Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. is using its Unleashed program of workshopping/staging new plays to produce Gwen Flager’s unabashedly lesbian tale, Shakin’ The Blue Flamingo.”

“Wow. Be prepared for just WOW.”

“...an unexpectantly thought-provoking show.”

“WOW! Thought provoking, funny, mind blowing! I enjoyed the hell out of it! Everyone was fantastic!”

The Reaction

“These stories reveal the courage of these non-traditional women to love one another, to claim happiness, to defy hatred..."

Read Jenny Block‘s article in Outsmart Magazine.

The Promotion

BEHIND THE SCENES: WITH PLAYWRIGHT GWEN FLAGER & DIRECTOR BONNIE HEWETT

MEET THE CAST VIDEOS (Click for Facebook Post)

MEET THE CAST FACEBOOK POSTS

Shakin‘ the Blue Flamingo Team

CAST

Adina Owen

CREATIVE TEAM

Kris Phelps

Lighting Design

Malinda L. Beckham

Costume Design & Scenic Decoration

Mark Lewis

Scenic Design

Gwen Flager

Brian Tafelmeyer

Playwright

Photography

Katherine Rinaldi

Christina Taylor Wood

Anne

Taylor

CREW

Barbara Alicea-Aponte

Production Stage Manager

John Baker

Production Manager

Meredith Ann Gaines

Billie

Alex Vaughn

Rosemary

Trevor B. Cone

Bonnie Hewett

Sound Design

Director

Malinda L. Beckham

Mac

Melissa J. Marek

Wendye

Cory

Previous UNLEASHED Events