For Immediate Release: November 6, 2006
Media Contact: Erin Lucas, Flashpoint Theatre Company, 215.514.8965

The Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family
by David Sedaris
adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello
directed by Meghann Williams
December 6-22, 2006
2nd Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street
Tickets: $18, $15 (Students & Seniors)
Box Office: 215-563-4330 or www.flashpointtheatre.org

It just wouldn't be Christmas without Flashpoint’s popular holiday production! Audiences will cringe at the story of the Dunbar family's tumultuous holiday season, before joining Crumpet on a twisted tour through Santa's maze of misery. Flashpoint's own Derick Loafmann returns as Crumpet and Tanesha Ford reprises the role of prim and proper Mrs. Dunbar in this delightfully dreadful holiday treat.

David Sedaris’ sardonic humor and incisive social critique have made him one of NPR’s most popular and humorous commentators and a bestselling author in the United States and abroad. A master of satire, David Sedaris is the author of the best sellers Barrel Fever, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim, and a collection of Christmas-related stories, Holidays on Ice. David and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated as The Talent Family to write several plays, including Stump the Host, Stitches, the obie award-winning One Woman Shoe, Incident at Cobbler’s Knob and The Book of Liz. Their plays have been produced at La Mama and at Lincoln Center in New York City. David is a regular contributor to Esquire magazine and his essays have also appeared in The New Yorker, Allure and Travel and Leisure. Sedaris’ original radio pieces can often be heard on public radio’s This American Life.

Meghann Williams directed The Santaland Diaries for Flashpoint’s inaugural season and re-imagined the show in 2005 to include Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family. Williams, a founding member of Flashpoint Theatre Company, recently directed Wendy MacLeod’s The House of Yes and Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues for the company.

Crumpet the Disgruntled Elf will once again be portrayed by Derick Loafmann. Derick is also a founding member of Flashpoint, as well as a writer/actor with the local sketch comedy group SkitSoid, and he recently appeared in The Ballad of Joe Hill at the 2006 Philly Fringe and in Twelfth Night with Shakespeare in Clark Park. For Flashpoint, Derick appeared as The Bradley in Schoolgirl Figure and as Marty in The House of Yes.

Tanesha Ford, returning as the elegant but beleaguered Mrs. Dunbar, is a member of the improv comedy troupe ComedySportz and also appeared in Twelfth Night with Shakespeare in Clark Park this past summer. She performed her one-woman show, All of Me, in the 2005 Philly Fringe Festival.

Flashpoint Theatre Company is dedicated to expanding cultural arts awareness in the greater Philadelphia area through the production of socially provocative and emotionally resonant works of theatre, through the development of educational programming within the community, and through collaboration with new and emerging voices from all artistic disciplines. Founded in 2003, Flashpoint’s first two seasons have included four Philadelphia premieres and one world premiere, and several readings of new plays as part of the High Voltage workshop series. Flashpoint is also an active participant in the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia’s SPARK program and has presented work in both the 2005 and 2006 10-for-10 Festivals. Flashpoint’s 2006-2007 season is sponsored by Philadelphia City Paper and Philly Car Share.

Photos available upon request – erin@flashpointtheatre.org, 215-514-8965

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